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Butaae
Butaae — octopus and eggplant stir-fried in sweet miso, named for the pork it once stood in for
Boiled octopus and eggplant are stir-fried in a sweet, spicy barley miso — an Amakusa home dish said to have begun as a stand-in for pork, once hard to come by, using the local octopus instead while keeping the old name, "pork mix."
- Origin: Kumamoto Amakusa
- About 950 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Boiled octopus and eggplant stir-fried together in a miso seasoned with sugar and dried chili. Despite the name meaning 'pork toss,' no pork is used at all — the spicy-sweet miso is said to bring out the flavor of the octopus and the sweetness of the vegetables instead. Made with the springy octopus caught in Amakusa Bay, it's a dish said to suit both a bowl of rice and a glass of shochu.
How it's made
Octopus is boiled and cut into bite-sized pieces. Eggplant is the base vegetable, though some households add bitter melon, green pepper, carrot or pumpkin. These are stir-fried together in a barley miso seasoned with dried chili and sugar, and the dish is said to suit both a bowl of rice and a glass of shochu. Because it tastes good cold too, it's also said to be a handy addition to a packed lunch.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to be modeled on Okinawa's goya chanpuru, and in the Amakusa region, octopus caught in Amakusa Bay is said to have stood in for pork, which was precious and hard to come by at the time. Eggplant and bitter melon being in season at the same time as the octopus catch is thought to be why it took hold as a summer stir-fry, and the name 'pork toss' is said to have simply carried over even after pork stopped being used at all. Amakusa is made up of roughly 120 islands large and small, a region said to be blessed with abundant seafood.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Food for Obon and the harvest moon (tsukimi)A guide to the meat-free shojin ryori and somen served at Obon, and the tsukimi dango offered on the night of the harvest moon.
- What to know if you have dietary restrictionsHow allergen labeling works, where fish-based dashi, pork, and alcohol turn up, and phrases for checking with staff.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Kumamoto
- Amakusa DaioA large-bodied meat fowl once kept in Amakusa in the Meiji and Taisho eras, said to have died out in the early Showa period before Kumamoto prefecture spent roughly a decade recreating it; reportedly among the biggest jidori breeds, shipped at 120–150 days.
- Gane-ageSweet potato cut into batons is coated in a ginger-sweetened batter and deep-fried. "Gane" is Amakusa dialect for crab, said to describe the shape of the fried strands, and the dish also serves as a vegetarian offering at Buddhist services.
- Tai SomenSomen noodles are simmered in the broth of sea bream head and bones cooked down whole — a celebratory dish said to reflect the influence of nearby Shimabara's somen tradition. In Yamato's Mamihara, a version called "taimen" simmers the whole fish instead.
- Baniku SobaFrom the Aso area of Kumamoto: hot soba topped with horse meat simmered sweet and salty. It's said to carry the history of a region where horse meat took root as a restorative food for the injured and ill.
- DagojiruWheat-flour dough is torn by hand into dumplings and simmered with seasonal root vegetables in a miso or soy broth. "Dago" is Kumamoto dialect for dumpling, and the dish is said to have long fed farmers between fieldwork.