Tokushima Food Guide: Tokushima Ramen, Awa Odori Chicken & Sudachi

Tokushima has many highly individual flavours, including its rich Tokushima ramen, the sobagome zosui handed down in the Iya district, and the Naruto sea bream raised by the Naruto Strait. Blessed with abundant nature and the sea at Naruto, famous for its whirlpools, Tokushima has nurtured a food culture all its own. If you visit Tokushima, known for the Awa Odori dance, these local specialities are well worth trying. The rustic, robust flavours of Awa are one of the great pleasures of a trip here.

Tokushima Ramen: A Rich, Deep Flavour

Tokushima ramen is a style unique to Tokushima, characterised by sweet-savoury seasoned pork belly and a rich pork-bone soy sauce broth. The standard is a dark brown soup topped with pork simmered sukiyaki-style, finished with a raw egg. Cracking the egg in and mixing it into the soup adds mellowness, giving a strong flavour that goes well with rice. Many people eat it together with a bowl of plain white rice — a style peculiar to Tokushima ramen. There are many well-known shops in Tokushima City, so you can enjoy tasting and comparing.

Sobagome Zosui, a Mountain-Village Local Dish

"Sobagome zosui" is a local dish handed down in the Iya district in the west of the prefecture, also called "sobagome-jiru." Buckwheat groats are boiled in salted water, hulled and dried to make "sobagome," which is then simmered in dashi with vegetables and meat to make a soup. It carries into the present the history of a steep mountain area where rice grows poorly and buckwheat, with its short growing period and easy cultivation, was the staple food. Its appeal lies in the distinctive granular texture and the fragrance of buckwheat, and it has been loved as a winter dish that warms the body. Note that buckwheat is a "specified raw material" for food allergy labelling. Anyone with a buckwheat allergy should avoid eating it.

Iya Soba and "Dekomawashi"

Another buckwheat dish representing the same Iya area is "Iya soba." It is said to have begun when the Taira clan, defeated in the Genpei War, fled to Iya and started cultivating buckwheat; made with 100 per cent local buckwheat flour, it is the soul food of Iya. Because no binding flour is added, the noodles break easily and end up thick and short, which is why they are also called "sobakiri." In the Iya district the seed is sown in a "summer sowing" around August and harvested two months later, around October. The grain is sun-dried for about a month, then threshed and milled to finish. It was once served at celebrations and as a dish of hospitality when people gathered.

Indispensable to any account of the Iya table is "dekomawashi." Bite-sized potatoes, soba dumplings, iwa-dofu (rock tofu) and round konnyaku are threaded onto skewers, coated with miso sauce and grilled; the skewers are stood by the hearth and turned round and round so that everything cooks evenly. The name is said to come from the resemblance of this action to the way the "deku" puppets of Awa ningyo joruri puppet theatre turn their heads. Even the ingredients are local: the potatoes are the small "goshu-imo" grown in Iya, and the tofu is "iwa-dofu," so called because it is as hard as rock. Now that fewer homes have a hearth, it can be enjoyed at events, restaurants and souvenir shops in the Oboke and Iya areas.

Naruto Sea Bream, Raised by the Naruto Strait

"Naruto-dai," sea bream toughened by the fierce tidal currents of the Naruto Strait, is a branded fish Tokushima is proud of. Having built up their bodies in the swift currents that create some of Japan's greatest whirlpools, the fish have firm flesh, refined umami and a springy bite. Their flavour can be enjoyed in a variety of dishes such as sashimi, tai-meshi and salt-grilled. "Naruto wakame," seaweed grown in the swift currents of the Naruto Strait, is another speciality, thick-leaved with a pleasant bite. These are flavours unique to Tokushima, so richly blessed by the sea.

Handa Somen and Bouze no Sugatazushi

"Handa somen," made in the Handa district of Tsurugi Town in the west of the prefecture, is slightly thicker than ordinary somen with a firm bite, giving it real substance. There are various accounts of its beginnings, but it is said that around the middle of the Edo period boatmen brought somen into Handa via Miwa in Nara, Awaji and Naruto, and that production flourished because Handa's environment and climate suited noodle-making. There are many noodle makers in the Handa district, and because the flavour differs slightly according to altitude, the type and blend of wheat used, and the salt, each maker has its own devoted fans. As well as chilled somen and nyumen, there are many variations unique to the production area, such as sudachi somen, and "fushi-jiru," made using the "fushi" ends of the noodles, is also popular.

Indispensable at autumn festival time is "bouze no sugatazushi." "Bouze" is the Tokushima dialect name for a white-fleshed fish also called ibodai, uboze or shizu, caught from summer into autumn. Sugatazushi, in which the fish is split down the back and wrapped around sushi rice, is a way of eating it unique to Tokushima, where fresh bouze is easy to come by. Fragrant ingredients such as sudachi or yuzu are sometimes used in the sushi rice, bringing out a refreshing flavour. In recent years, however, catches of bouze themselves have been declining, and it is increasingly made with mackerel or saury. If you visit in autumn, looking for sugatazushi on supermarket shelves is one of the pleasures of the trip.

Awa-odori Chicken

Tokushima's native jidori chicken breed — slightly firm with clean, concentrated flavour.

Sudachi Cuisine

Tokushima grows 98% of Japan's sudachi citrus. This tart little citrus is squeezed over sashimi, noodles, drinks and dressings.

Best Season and Access

Tokushima's food can be enjoyed all year round, but Naruto sea bream is said to be especially good in spring, before the spawning season. For access, the best-known Tokushima ramen shops are clustered around JR Tokushima Station, and Naruto seafood can be enjoyed around Naruto City. From the Kobe direction you can drive across the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Onaruto Bridge on the E28 Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway. Combining the distinctive flavours of Awa with sightseeing at Naruto, famous for its whirlpools, or with the Awa Odori, is recommended. Do try Tokushima's rustic yet profound food where it belongs.

Practical Information

• Naruto sea bream season: March to April. Before spawning in spring it is called "sakura-dai," and is said to be especially good, with plenty of fat. It is caught by chum fishing (makie-zuri) and with sea bream set nets, and landed at fishing ports in Naruto City
• Naruto wakame harvest season: January to March. It is gathered in the cold season when the north-westerly seasonal wind blows. Tokushima Prefecture ranks third in Japan for production, and the prefecture operates a "Naruto Wakame Certification System"
• Main areas where these are served: the leading Tokushima ramen shops are clustered around JR Tokushima Station; Naruto sea bream and Naruto wakame around Naruto City; sobagome zosui in the mountainous west of the prefecture, such as Iya in Miyoshi City
• Access: from the Kobe direction, take the E28 Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway via the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Onaruto Bridge. Inside the girder of the Onaruto Bridge there is a walkway called "Uzu no Michi" from which you can look down on the whirlpools from directly above
• Note on allergies: sobagome zosui uses buckwheat. Buckwheat is a specified raw material for food allergy labelling and can cause severe symptoms. Anyone with a buckwheat allergy should avoid eating it
• Note on raw egg: the raw egg served with Tokushima ramen is not cooked. Check the labelling for raw consumption and the use-by date; small children, the elderly, pregnant women and others with weakened resistance should choose a cooked version
• Note on raw fish: marine fish such as sea bream can be infested with Anisakis. In addition to removal by visual inspection, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare indicates as preventive measures heating to 70°C or above at the centre (or 60°C for one minute or more), or freezing at −20°C for 24 hours or more. The amounts of vinegar, salt curing, soy sauce or wasabi used in ordinary cooking will not kill them

*Opening hours and prices at individual shops vary from establishment to establishment.*

*(Sources: Pride Fish (JF Zengyoren), "Naruto-dai" and "Naruto wakame"; Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, "Our Local Cuisine," Tokushima Prefecture; Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company Limited (JB Honshi Kosoku) official website; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Let's Prevent Food Poisoning Caused by Anisakis")*