Tatehana Wharf Morning Market, Aomori (Aug, 2018)

One of my favourite Japanese markets to date would be the Tatehana Wharf Morning Market (aka Tatehana Ganpeki Asaichi). The people were so friendly, the coffee was smooth, the fried chicken was fresh, and the plums we bought came direct from the farms (they were also only 200 yen for a bag of 15 or so...you can barely get one in Tokyo for that price!).

It opens from sunrise and shuts down completely around 9:00am, with most vendors just closing up when they run out of goods. We got there at 7:50am (drove from past Lake Towada) and the crowds were mostly gone.

Who wouldn't make a beeline for the legendary fried chicken? This place had a massive line, and the chicken was soooo good.

We bought everything and ate in the car because it was slightly sprinkling and super windy...but the lines were still going!

This dumpling joint run by these two boss women had a massive line the entire time we were there. People just kept coming and coming...they did xiao long bao style fried soup dumplings (DELICIOUS) and nikuman buns (steamed and fried meat buns).

We weren't sure what this was, and we had a 7-hour drive ahead of us so didn't want to risk it in case it was cheese (lol) but they were killing it.

Tatehana Wharf is also famous for their drip coffee! Not a coffee enthusiast, but this was delicious. Very smooth, not bitter at all.

These guys were killing it...but their deep fryer was the size of the ones you have in your home kitchen! The buns just kept disappearing the moment they were fished out. Invest in a bigger deep fryer people! They had two types of buns: one was fried mash potato (I think) which was oishi! and the other was...we're not sure. It looked like a mix of beef and something, but it wasn't as good as the potato one.

HOW GOOD DO THEY LOOK?

The look you have when doughtnuts are disappointing. Never again, dry doughnuts!