Fukuoka’s local hot pot, Motsunabe
Motsunabe
もつ鍋
“Motsu” (もつ) means animal offal, and “nabe” (鍋) means a hot pot dish, so it is a Japanese-style hot pot similar to Korean gopchang hot pot.
Motsunabe is said to have started in Fukuoka’s coal mining towns, where Koreans who were unfairly conscripted later cleaned and prepared offal that many Japanese people did not eat at the time, then simmered it with garlic chives in a soy sauce-based broth after the war.
Original Nagasaki champon and castella in Nagasaki
1) Nagasaki Champon
長崎ちゃんぽん
Nagasaki champon is one of the few Japanese dishes with a clearly known origin: when, who, and where it was created.
The original shop is Shikairō (四海樓), a Chinese restaurant in Nagasaki.
The restaurant is so well known that it is said to operate an entire five-story building mainly with champon,
and you can find more detailed stories about champon in the “Kyushu Part 2: Nagasaki” section.
2) Castella
カステラ
Castella is a sponge cake introduced to Japan by Portuguese missionaries, and its name comes from “pão de Castela.”
At the time, Nagasaki was a major gateway for trade with Europe, and Western-style baking culture spread quickly there.
The biggest feature of Nagasaki castella is the coarse sugar crystals at the bottom, called “zarame” (粗目).
This began because, due to limits in early baking techniques, sugar and honey did not fully mix and sank to the bottom,
but today, that texture is considered part of castella’s charm.
Even today, in Nagasaki, only castella with zarame is often considered the traditional style.
Below are the locations of the three most famous castella shops in Nagasaki.
A Kumamoto specialty
Basashi
馬刺
In Korea, there is “mungtigi,” raw beef, while in Kumamoto, basashi (馬刺し), raw horse meat, is known as a representative local dish.
There are several theories about the origin of basashi, and one of them says it started when Kato Kiyomasa, the first lord of Kumamoto, faced food shortages while building and holding a Japanese fortress at Ulsan Hakseong after being defeated by the Joseon–Ming allied forces during the Imjin War, and people eventually began eating even horses.
A special fried chicken dish in Oita
Toriten
とり天
Toriten is Oita’s signature fried chicken dish, made by seasoning chicken, coating it with flour and egg batter, and deep-frying it.
It looks similar to karaage, which you often see at izakaya, but there is a key difference: karaage is usually fried with a potato-starch coating, while toriten uses a flour-and-egg batter.
In simple terms, it is like the difference between Korean fried chicken and dakgangjeong: the cooking method and texture are slightly different, and in Oita, it is also enjoyed as an everyday side dish.