FUKUOKA -- First-time visitors to this sunny city are often told with a certain friendly belligerence that Fukuoka's seafood is the best in Japan. Usually, just a glimpse of its sparkling harbor and rugged natural coastline is enough to whet their appetite to test this claim.
Year-round generous catches are netted here of fish that follow the warm Tsushima current northward, feeding on rich plankton fields near the Tsushima, Iki and Goto islands.
Fukuoka's specialties -- squid, shrimp and aomono (blue-skinned mackerel, sea bream and the like) -- are caught within 200 nautical miles of the coast. They're unloaded as fresh fish, never frozen, which is why, explains Shigenori Matsuo at the Fukuoka Fish Market's management division, simple dishes like sashimi or grilled fish taste so good here.