Noodles ── Ramen
Kushikino Maguro Ramen
Kushikino Tuna Ramen — a port town's answer built on raw tuna
A ramen named for Kushikino port in Kagoshima, once a base for offshore tuna fishing. Said to have been developed around 2000 by local restaurateurs and a food trade group as a town-promotion dish, topped with marinated raw tuna in place of chashu.
- Origin: Kagoshima Ichikikushikino
- Shoyu — soy sauce
- About 980 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Stock from tuna heads simmered with garlic and ginger meets a bonito-and-kelp white dashi in a soy-based broth. Medium-thin curly noodles carry it, but the defining touch is marinated raw tuna in place of chashu — part of the appeal is watching its color and texture shift as it meets the hot broth. Some diners stir in a touch of wasabi to shift the flavor further.
How it's made
Stock from tuna heads, garlic, and ginger is blended with a bonito-and-kelp white dashi to build a soy broth. One account holds that as Kushikino's offshore tuna fishing declined, local restaurant owners, food companies, and a trade association came together around 2000 to develop the dish as a way to promote the town. As of 2013, six shops in the city are said to have been serving their own versions of it.
Why it took this shape
Kushikino was once a port that thrived on tuna landings, and after fishing declined, a specialty that kept that memory alive was wanted. Using the tuna still close at hand as a marinated topping in place of chashu is said to have shaped this port town's particular bowl.
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.
- Cash-only shops are commonEspecially at ramen shops, it's common to find places that only accept cash — often through a ticket machine.
- 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.
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu RamenFlat, thick hand-made noodles in a clear soy broth. Said to trace back to a Aizuwakamatsu diner owner bringing home a taste learned in Yokohama — a second soy ramen lineage that grew up apart from Kitakata's, in the same Aizu region.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Kagoshima
- 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.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.