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Yama Surume no Kinpira
Yama surume no kinpira — sun-dried bamboo shoot strips stir-simmered sweet in soy
Boiled bamboo shoots sun-dried into "yama surume" (mountain dried squid) are rehydrated, cut into strips, and stir-simmered in soy and sugar. The name is said to come from how the dried shoots resemble dried squid, offering a texture unlike fresh bamboo.
- Origin: Kumamoto Kuma
- About 900 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Bamboo shoots, boiled then sun-dried into what's called 'mountain squid,' are shredded and cooked in dashi with wood ear mushroom, seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Its crisp, springy texture, quite different from fresh bamboo shoot, is said to be the appeal. Eaten across Kyushu, it's said to be especially popular in Kumamoto, where bamboo groves are common.
How it's made
Fresh bamboo shoots are cut lengthwise, their nodes removed, then boiled and sun-dried to make 'mountain squid.' It's rehydrated in water or hot water, shredded, cooked in dashi, and seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Shredding and adding wood ear mushroom the same way is said to add even more flavor. Some cooks first stir-fry burdock and shiitake in oil before adding it, and the exact recipe is said to vary slightly from household to household.
Why it took this shape
In Kumamoto, bamboo groves have long been common around hillside villages and homes, and drying the bamboo shoots harvested in spring into a preserved food is said to be a long-standing practice. The name is said to come from the resemblance of the drying, triangular bamboo shoots to dried squid, and the practicality of a preserved food that can be rehydrated and used any time of year is thought to live on in this plain stir-fry. In Kuma town, Kuma district, it's said to have long been eaten as vegetarian fare during the busy farming season and at festivals.
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.
- At teishoku diners, shokudo, and machi-chukaA guide to the teishoku set-meal format, free rice refills, table placement, and paying at a shokudo-style diner.
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.
- Tako MeshiSun-dried octopus is rehydrated, chopped, and either cooked into rice with burdock and carrot or mixed in afterward — a dish that leans on the concentrated flavor of dried octopus, known for the summer sight of octopus hung out to dry in Amakusa's Ariake.
- 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.
- ButaaeBoiled 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."