Regional Specialties

Nagasaki Champon is a regional noodle soup from Nagasaki Japan. One of the most plausible theory suggests that the dish was created based on a Chinese dish at a Chinese restaurant in the city in order to serve Chinese students with cheap and nutritious meals. Now the dish is enjoyed nation-wide. Champon is similar to ramen but it is topped with loads of vegetables and seafood simmered in its broth and the noodles are twice as thick as those of ramen's and have a softer texture. Champon's cloudy broth is typically made by boiling chicken and pork bones for hours but this recipe uses milk to make a cloudy broth, which is a good substitute for the cloudy broth. The dish is ideal when you want to have an easy and balanced yet satisfying meal.

This is the version 2 of my Goya-Champuru recipe. The notable difference between the first one and this is that I used pork belly instead of spam so that you can taste more umami from pork, and the use of Kokuto (brown sugar) from Okinawa, which is a secret technique that non-Okinawa people rarely know. The brown sugar does not only help tone down the bitterness of Goya but adds profoundness to the dish as well. Enjoy!

Mizutaki is a type of hot pot originated in Hakata, Kyushu. Although the dish was born in Japan, you can call it a fusion of Chinese, western and Japanese cuisines. This is because Heizaburo Hayashida, who is said to be the inventor of the dish and lived in Hong Kong learning to become a chef, got inspired by Consommé a Chinese chicken stew, and created Mizutaki when he came back to Kyushu.