Fermented & preserved ── Tsukemono (pickles)
Tsubo-zuke
Tsubo-zuke — sun-dried daikon pickled sweet, a Kagoshima side to curry rice
Sun-dried daikon pickled with a sweet edge — a Kagoshima specialty often served alongside curry rice. As a daikon-based pickle it's sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Tokyo's bettara-zuke and Akita's iburigakko.
- Origin: Kagoshima
- About 970 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Sun-dried daikon is pickled in a sweetened marinade, keeping the crunchy bite dried daikon is known for. Daikon-based pickles turn up all over Japan, and tsubo-zuke is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as Tokyo's bettara-zuke or Akita's iburigakko. In Kagoshima it's equally at home as an everyday side dish or a souvenir.
How it's made
Dried daikon is steeped in a sweetened seasoning liquid and given time to take on its flavor. The result balances sweetness against the daikon's crisp texture, eaten plain alongside rice or, in a pairing well known in Kagoshima, served next to curry rice. Because the daikon is sun-dried first, its texture differs from pickles made with fresh daikon.
Why it took this shape
Kagoshima is a region where pickles built around daikon and sweet potato took hold, from barley-miso pickles to lees-pickled Sakurajima daikon, and tsubo-zuke, sweetened dried daikon, is counted among them. Daikon-based pickling shows up across Japan, but the seasoning is said to vary region by region to match local climate and taste, and a pronounced sweetness is said to be what settled in around Kagoshima.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- 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.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
Dishes in the same style
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Fukujin-zukeSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
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.