Noodles ── Ramen
Makurazaki Katsuo Ramen
Makurazaki Bonito Ramen — a katsuobushi town's take on ramen
A ramen from Makurazaki, Kagoshima Prefecture, a town known for producing katsuobushi. Developed, it's said, through a 2008 regional-resource project, built on a light broth centered on locally made hon-karebushi bonito flakes with bonito-based toppings.
- Origin: Kagoshima Makurazaki
- Shio — salt
- About 1010 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A light broth centered on locally made hon-karebushi bonito flakes is the base, layered with additional stock from kelp, vegetables, and simmered bonito heads. Some shops use noodles enriched with DHA, and toppings — marinated bonito, deep-fried bonito, bonito tempura — are chosen to showcase the fish prepared several different ways. A clear, clean profile sets it apart from the region's pork-bone bowls.
How it's made
Several layers of bonito-based stock, hon-karebushi among them, build the broth, while bonito itself appears as toppings in multiple forms — marinated, fried, or in tempura. One account holds that the dish was developed through a 2008 regional-resource project run by Japan's Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, with the Makurazaki Chamber of Commerce commissioning trial versions from local businesses and refining them under the guidance of a chef from the town. As of 2017, three shops in the city are said to have carried it.
Why it took this shape
Makurazaki has long been known as a major katsuobushi-producing town, and within a Kyushu ramen landscape dominated by pork bone, how to put the local bonito to use is said to have been the real question. A light bonito-stock broth paired with bonito served several different ways is said to have been chosen as a ramen fitting for a katsuobushi town.
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
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.