Noodles
Taipiien
Taipiien — a Chinese-style glass noodle soup topped with a deep-fried hard-boiled egg
Glass noodles anchor a Chinese-style soup of stir-fried pork, shrimp, and vegetables, topped with a deep-fried hard-boiled egg. Said to trace back to a festive Fujian dish, brought by Chinese immigrants via Nagasaki in the late Meiji era.
- Origin: Kumamoto City, Kumamoto
- About 890 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A Chinese-style glass noodle soup built around vermicelli, combined with stir-fried pork, shrimp, squid, napa cabbage and carrot, finished with a deep-fried hard-boiled egg on top. The smooth, easy-to-swallow noodles and the light, ingredient-packed broth are said to be the draw. It's said to be a standby at Chinese restaurants and home kitchens alike across Kumamoto.
How it's made
Mung bean vermicelli (or a Japanese-made version) is prepared, and pork, shrimp, squid, napa cabbage, carrot, onion and wood ear mushroom are stir-fried. A chicken-bone or milky white broth is seasoned with salt or soy sauce, and the ingredients and noodles are combined. A hard-boiled egg, deep-fried until its surface wrinkles, is placed on top to finish. It's said to be equally popular for lunch, dinner, or a late-night bite after drinking.
Why it took this shape
The soup is said to trace back to a dish eaten at celebrations in households in Fuzhou, in China's Fujian province, said to have been brought to Nagasaki and Kumamoto by Chinese immigrants in the late Meiji era. Vermicelli is said to have stood in for shark fin, and the deep-fried egg was devised to resemble bird's nest, a prized Chinese ingredient, giving the dish its standing as an auspicious one to this day. In Fuzhou, eating that egg is said to be believed to bring a peaceful life.
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 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."