Have you ever come across ordering a bowl of sashimi or kaisen seafood don but it comes with some items which are not your favourite? Well you definitely will not have this problem at the Aomori Furukawa Market where the speciality of this market is their Nokke don.
Nokke don is buying a bowl of rice and various of your favourite toppings to go on top of your rice. By doing so, you would have created your unique bowl of rice or donburi which the Japanese call it.
The Furukawa Market, or more popular known as the Aomori fish and vegetable centre is just 5 minutes walk from JR Aomori station.
You can also find English instructions on how to make your own Nokke don at the market.
At the entrance of the market, you will find this information stall where you can purchase your ticket for the Nokke don.
The ticket comes in either JPY500 or JPY1000 with individual JPY100 tear off coupon.
To start off "making" your own Nokke don, you have to purchase a rice bowl first from any of the stores which have the orange flag. These are the stores which sell cooked rice. You can either purchase a small bowl rice for JPY100 or a larger portion for JPY200.
The stores with the blue flag sells raw fish, meat or vegetables for your rice bowl.
The variety of toppings available are huge! As the market is not very big, you can actually tour one round of the market to pinpoint your favourite stalls or toppings before starting to make your own rice bowl.
Besides raw food, there are also a variety of fried foods for your selection.
Our one and only unique bowl of nokke don!
As we still had some coupons left, we bought some fried stuff and also chu-toro.
Don't worry about finding a place to sit in the wet market. They have designated areas with tables and chairs, and even packet soya sauce, wasabi, chopsticks and even hot green tea for you to enjoy your nokke don. And as usual, as this is Japan, the place is kept very clean even though it is located inside the wet market.
Locals also come to buy their daily fresh fish and seafood.
As Aomori is surrounded by both the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, you can get fresh and cheap seafood here. These fresh scallops are huge! They are meant for sashimi use, so you can actually eat it just like this. And a plate of 7-8 scallops only cost you JPY1000 (approx SGD15) which is certainly very cheap!
Fresh abalone is also sold here. Although there is no price tag to it, I believe it should be quite affordable as well.
Furukawa Market Nokke don
青森魚菜センター, 青森市古川1-11-16Aomori Fresh Fish and Vegetable center
1-11-16 Furukawa, Aomori shi, Aomori
Opening hours: 7am-5pm (individual stores may have different operating hours)
Closed on Tuesday
5 mins walk from JR Aomori station
www.aomori-ichiba.com (Japanese only)
The streets of Aomori are very quiet at night. Coupled by cold weather and icy roads with a hungry stomach, we decided on Ootoya (大戸屋) for dinner as we happened to pass by it.
Ootoya is a popular Japanese chain of restaurant which serves simple and cheap Japanese teishoku (set menu), which comes with rice, miso soup and pickles. They currently have more than 250 shops in Japan and more than 60 shops worldwide.
Started with a simple tofu salad (JPY380)
L ordered the Chicken Katsu with grated daikon cooked in a nabe (JPY760). Chicken Katsu is cooked in a sukiyaki based soup, with grated daikon and onions topped with an egg. Good choice for a cold winter night!
I ordered the popular Ootoya dish - Grilled Hokke fish (Mackerel - JPY810). Great for fish lovers like me who loves to eat fish which comes with the bones.
For the teishoku, you have a choice of white rice or 5 grain rice (五穀米). For other types of rice with toppings, you just have to top up a nominal price. And if you are a small eater and ask for less portion of rice, they even give you JPY20 discount!
A special piece of painting hung on the wall which talks about "health". It also expresses the "kodawari" or devotion of Ootoya, providing fresh and healthy food. If you notice, they even indicate the number of calories of each dish on the menu!
Ootoya Aomori
青森県青森市新町1-8-6
Open daily 11am - 10pm
5 minutes walk from JR Aomori station
(p.s. this is the only Ootoya in Aomori shi)
