Noodles ── Yakisoba
Abura Zomen
Abura zomen — somen fried with pork and a splash of broth until the oil turns silky
Pork 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.
- Origin: Kagoshima
- About 1260 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Thin strips of pork and cooked somen noodles are stir-fried together with a splash of dashi in this Amami dish. The frying oil and dashi emulsify and cling to the noodles, giving the dish a smooth, easy-to-slurp texture, and a finishing handful of chives sharpens the pork's own savoriness, giving it a stronger dashi-forward flavor than Okinawa's similar somen chanpuru.
How it's made
Thin-sliced pork is stir-fried in oil, then cooked somen and dried sardines go in, followed by a pour of dashi. Once the oil and dashi have emulsified, chives are added and the dish is seasoned with soy sauce. Cooks aim to leave a little broth in the pan, and some households use chicken stock or dashi from silver-stripe round herring instead, while some restaurants leave the broth generous for a soupier, niyumen-style dish.
Why it took this shape
How somen took root in Amami, an area that has never grown wheat itself, is not entirely settled, though one account holds that dried noodles arrived during the era of Satsuma domain rule and spread because they kept well in storage. The dish is also said to have become a fixture at gatherings such as the hachigatsu odori dance festival, prized as something that could be piled onto a large plate and shared easily among a crowd. It spread into ordinary households from the Meiji era onward, and is now popular with visitors from outside the prefecture too.
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.
- Tanabata and festival food stallsA guide to the somen said to be eaten on Tanabata, and to festival-stall staples like yakisoba, takoyaki, candy apples, and shaved ice.
Dishes in the same style
- Aizu Curry YakisobaA dish from Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima: sauce yakisoba topped with curry roux. It's said to trace to a diner called Tommy Food, which began ladling curry over its yakisoba, catching on especially among young diners for its low price and filling size.
- Fujinomiya YakisobaIt grew up as a postwar snack at Fujinomiya's candy shops and okonomiyaki stalls. Its identity rests on three local staples: chewy steamed noodles, pork-lard cracklings called nikukasu, and a sardine-powder topping called dashiko.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- Soomin TashaaBoiled somen is stir-fried fast over high heat and seasoned simply with salt and soy sauce. Since it contains no tofu, calling it 'somen champuru' is technically a misnomer — and stocked-up dry somen made this a reliable meal on days when a typhoon kept everyone indoors.
- Hechima JiruYoung loofah is simmered in a barley-miso broth and ladled over boiled somen — a Kagoshima summer dish. Its silky texture and natural sweetness echo the miso's own sweetness, and the bowl also has a place in the vegetarian dishes served at Obon.
Also from Kagoshima
- 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.
- ChamitonPigs raised on feed mixed with green tea powder and sweet potato, centered in Kagoshima. The antioxidant effect of catechin and vitamin E is said to help the meat stay fresh with less of the usual pork odor.