Sweets
Shirokuma
Shirokuma — shaved ice under condensed milk, ringed with fruit and red bean
Shaved ice under condensed milk, ringed with cherries, mandarin, and red bean in bright color. The name is said to come from how the toppings look, seen from above, like a polar bear's face — and it's become a summer emblem of Kagoshima.
- Origin: Kagoshima City, Kagoshima
- About 970 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Shaved ice topped with condensed milk and a bright scatter of cherries, raisins, mandarin, pineapple, sweet red beans, and agar jelly, this frozen treat is a Kagoshima favorite. The condensed milk's sweetness mellows against the ice, and the fruit and beans add bursts of texture, so each spoonful tastes a little different from the last. Seen from above, its round shape is part of what gives the dessert its charm.
How it's made
Ice is shaved into a bowl and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, then topped with bite-sized fruit and red beans arranged for color. Variations abound from shop to shop and household to household, with some adding chocolate, custard pudding, or matcha syrup on top. Half the fun lies in how the toppings are arranged, since it can change the dessert's whole look.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have started from a plain shaved ice topped with white and red syrup; inspired by how well strawberries and milk paired together, the maker tried condensed milk instead, and after further tweaking arrived at today's light, milky syrup. Toppings like angelica, cherries, and raisins arranged around the edge reportedly made the dessert look like a white bear from above, giving the dish its name.
Before you go
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- At kissaten, cafes, and kanmi-dokoroThe difference between jun-kissa and chain cafes, the morning-set custom, and kanmi-dokoro staples like anmitsu and zenzai.
Dishes in the same style
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
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.