Noodles
Rokubee
Rokubee — noodles made from sweet potato starch, served in a clear dashi broth
Sweet potato starch bound with grated mountain yam is shaped into thick noodles and served in a clear broth — said to have been devised by a man named Rokubee in Fukae village after the 1792 Mount Mayu collapse triggered a famine, using preserved sweet potato flour.
- Origin: Nagasaki
- About 920 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A noodle made from sweet potato starch bound with grated mountain yam, shaped like udon. It looks like a thick soba noodle but shorter, smooth on the surface and chewy inside, and is said to release a faint sweet potato sweetness as you chew it in clear broth. On Tsushima, a different version is made from a fermented, preserved sweet potato called 'sen,' unlike the Shimabara method.
How it's made
Flour made from sweet potato is kneaded together with grated mountain yam as a binder and shaped into thick noodles. On Tsushima, a fermented, preserved sweet potato called 'sen' is used as the base instead. The boiled noodles are served in a clear broth, often with fish cake and scallion. Once a food of hardship, it's now made with improved sweet potato varieties and dressed up in various ways for flavor.
Why it took this shape
In Shimabara, a 1792 collapse of Mount Mayuyama triggered a tsunami that ruined farmland and brought famine, and people are said to have survived on sweet potatoes, which grow even in poor soil. A man from Fukae village named Rokubei is said to have combined preserved sweet potato flour with mountain yam to form noodles, giving the dish its name. On Tsushima too, the sweet potato that saved islanders from hunger has long been eaten this way, and is still called the 'filial potato' there.
Before you go
- How to read a ticket machineShops that use a ticket machine (shokken-ki) often place their most popular items in a similar spot.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
- What staff say, and how to respondCommon set phrases you'll hear at restaurants, with what they mean and what to do when you hear them. You don't need to memorize them — just recognizing them is enough.
Dishes in the same style
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.