Food in Kyushu (essay)

Kyushu, Japan's south-western island, consists of eight prefectures, including Kumamoto and Fukuoka. Each prefecture has its own special foods and drinks. In addition, Kyushu food as a whole has special characteristics: the food tends to have a comparatively rich taste, and to emphasize sweetness over saltiness.

The first food I'd like to focus on is karashi-renkon, one of the most famous dishes in Kumamoto Prefecture. It is made by stuffing a paste containing mustard into a lotus root and then deep frying the root after coating it in a batter.

The next food I'd like to mention is yaki-ramen. Probably every prefecture in Japan has its own twist on ramen, noodles in a big bowl of soup. The ramen in Kyushu tends to have a rich, oily taste, being based on boiled pork bones. Yaki-ramen has almost no soup, and has an especially rich, buttery taste.

Finally, let's consider beer in Kyushu. While beer is generally best in the north of Japan, Miyazaki and Kagoshima both have very good micro-breweries. Those in Kagoshima tend to feature a kind of purple sweet potato, while those in Miyazaki are sometimes lambics featuring hyuuga-natsu or other local citrus fruits.

The above are just a few of the foods and drinks that you can find in Kyushu. As mentioned earlier, each prefecture has its own specialities, and a tour of Kyushu will yield many unexpected delights.

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