Regional food and famous sweets of Kumamoto

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Takana meshi mixes warm rice with finely chopped Aso takana pickles stir-fried in oil. Egg, sesame, or nori may be added, and some cooks mix rather...

Kumamoto basashi is thinly sliced horse meat processed and frozen for raw consumption, served with Kyushu sweet soy sauce, ginger or garlic, onion and...

Hitomoji guruguru briefly blanches Kumamoto hitomoji scallions and winds each green leaf around its white stem.

Ikinari dango wraps a roughly one-centimeter raw sweet-potato round and azuki paste in a lightly salted wheat or dumpling-flour skin, then steams the...

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Firm drained tofu is matured in miso or moromi around Itsuki and Gokanosho until dense and creamy.

Myoga manju wraps red-bean paste in a shiratamako-and-wheat dough, then steams it in a myoga leaf in the Uki and Yatsushiro areas.

Kumamoto ramen combines cloudy pork-bone broth, often blended with chicken stock, medium straight noodles and roasted or fried garlic chips or black...

Nankan-age is a large, crisp fried tofu from Nankan, Kumamoto, made by pressing sliced tofu and frying it twice at changing temperatures to remove...

Chosen ame is Sonodaya's soft Kumamoto confection made from glutinous rice, starch syrup and sugar. Powdered, milky-white rectangular pieces bend and...

Taipien is a Kumamoto Chinese soup of mung-bean glass noodles, cabbage and other vegetables, pork, shrimp, squid and wood-ear mushroom, usually...