Kyushu 2 Sake and food

Like all Japanese the residents of Kyushu are justly proud of their regional food and drink. Everywhere you go someone will claim that their area has the best sake. In the case of Kyushu it is probably true.

We went to see a very old brewery where the family have been making sake in the same building for four hundred years.



Upstairs was an attic full of  ancient wooden brewing equipment each one a work of art.

 Making sake is more like winemaking than beer brewing.

There is only one harvest a year and fresh rice is used so it is not a year round process like beer. Also like wine, there are special varieties of rice that are only used for sake making and are not eaten.
Use of different yeasts, temperatures and aging techniques gives rise to a huge number of different styles and tastes.

Like beer however the quality of the water is of utmost importance. So ususally the best sakes are from the areas with the highest quality water.

One of the other great joys of the place was the quality of the inns and the food . We stayed in two separate onsens one large one small, both with rockpools of hot bubbling clean water. In the smaller one we had our own outdoor bath attached to the room in a little garden, a lovely way to start the day.

The assortment or starter  dishes for dinner.

The great thing about onsens is not just the hot water but the food. Included in the room price is dinner, usually with about 15 different dishes and breakfast with about 8 different tasty things.

 

Breakfast

One of the specialties of the region is  mentaiko, chili pickled cod roe. It's great on rice and makes excellent spaghetti as well.

Another local speciality is tonkotsu ramen. Soup noodles made with pork bone soup and thin noodles. It has a milky colour and a very gentle taste, not at all porky or fatty. The thin noodles are my favourite sort as they don't feel as heavy when you eat them and you don't get the feeling of chewing your way through a whole bag of wheat.

Squid in many shapes and sizes in a major Kyushu  obsession.  Stuffed, grilled, dried, raw, big and small it really ought to appear on the prefectural flag.