Kochi "Hirome Market" Night Food Hall (Crispy Moray Eel & Yatai Gyoza), Tokushima "Awaodori Chicken" & "Sudachi" Citrus

Right at the foot of Kochi Castle stands **Hirome Market** (*Hirome Ichiba*), a bustling indoor food hall named after the enlightened Meiji-era Tosa Domain chief retainer Hirome Fukao and celebrated as "Kochi's Communal Kitchen." Inside this lively marketplace, over 60 food stalls, fishmongers, and sake bars surround open communal tables where travelers and friendly locals share elbows and clink glasses in the beloved Tosa hospitality tradition known as **"Okyaku"** (communal feasting). Beyond flame-seared bonito, the signature delicacies to seek out at Hirome Market and Kochi's nighttime street stalls (*Yatai*) are **Utsubo no Karaage**—Pacific moray eel, whose fierce appearance conceals snow-white, delicately sweet flesh rich in natural collagen between the skin and meat that fries up irresistibly crisp—and **Kochi Yatai Gyoza** (epitomized by the famous stall *Yasubei*), bite-sized dumplings wrapped in paper-thin skins and pan-fried in generous oil until shatteringly crunchy. Heading east into Tokushima Prefecture, the pride of the region's mountain pastures—and a clever pun on Tokushima's famous dance festival—is **Awaodori Chicken** (*Awa-Odori Heritage Chicken*). Bred over ten years by the Tokushima Livestock Research Institute by crossing native *Akasasa Shamo* gamecocks with select hens and raised in spacious highland coops for over 80 days, Awaodori became the very first poultry breed in Japan certified under the strict *Japanese Agricultural Standard (JAS)* for heritage *Jidori* chicken, and today ranks #1 in national *Jidori* production for its lean, ruby-tinged meat packed with umami-rich glutamic acid. No plate of charcoal-grilled Awaodori chicken, broiled fish, or bowl of noodles in Tokushima is complete without a squeeze of **Tokushima Sudachi**—an emerald-green, golf-ball-sized citrus fruit of which **Tokushima Prefecture produces roughly 98 percent of Japan's entire supply** (centered in Kamiyama and Sanagochi). Harvested while its rind is still vibrant green to capture its peak zesty essential oils and healthful *Sudachitin* polyphenols, Sudachi stars in Tokushima's photogenic summer specialty **Sudachi Soba / Sudachi Udon**, where thin emerald wheels of fresh Sudachi completely blanket the surface of ice-cold dashi broth.