{"id":804,"date":"2008-04-27T22:33:56","date_gmt":"2008-04-27T13:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-04-27\/804"},"modified":"2008-04-27T22:33:56","modified_gmt":"2008-04-27T13:33:56","slug":"tasty-keihan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-04-27\/804","title":{"rendered":"Tasty Keihan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55mm f\/2.8 @ 30 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 1000 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nKeihan as Served<\/span>\nLocal Amami-Ooshima Specialty\n<\/div>\n\n

Fumie's grandmother<\/a>\nwas born and raised on Amami Ooshima, an island far in the south of Japan,\npart of a long<\/span> drawn-out chain of islands that delimits the boarder between the\nEast China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The island's main local specialty\nmean is keihan<\/i>, a shredded<\/span>-chicken rice\/soup dish.<\/p>\n\n

Fumie's grandmother lived in the Kyoto area for 50+ years after WWII,\nbut she kept her Amami roots and continued to prepare keihan<\/i> for her\nfamily when she had one. Her daughter, then, having grown up with the dish,\ncontinued to prepare it for her own family when she had one. And thus,\nher<\/i> daughter – my wife, Fumie – grew up with it.<\/p>\n\n

As such, when our first\ntrip to Amami<\/a> was being planned, trying lots of authentic keihan<\/i>\nwas definitely on the itinerary. In fact, once we landed, we had it even\nbefore checking into the hotel.<\/p>\n\n

(These pictures are from the next day's keihan<\/i>, because the\npictures came out better in the 2nd day's more photogenic setting)<\/p>\n\n

Keihan<\/i> is a soup,<\/span> but it is served in its component parts. If you look<\/span> like a tourist<\/span> (and I think<\/span> my camera pretty much made that clear),\nthey'll ask whether you need instructions for how to eat it.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/1.4, ISO 500 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nToppings<\/span>\n\nshredded chicken ·\nscallions ·\nshredded egg ·\ndried seaweed ·\nshiitake<\/a> ·\nmikan powder<\/a> ·\netc.\n<\/div>\n\n

You start with regular Japanese sticky white rice in a bowl,<\/span> then add\nthe toppings in whatever proportion you like. Then add soup...<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/2, ISO 640 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nAdd soup<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 85mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/2.5, ISO 800 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nReady to Enjoy<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

There is ample variation in the toppings among restaurants, but the real\ndifference is in the soup. Sometimes it's great, and sometimes it's\ngreat<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n

In most of Japan, and especially in the Kyoto\/Osaka area where I live,<\/span>\nthe most common word pronounced “keihan<\/i>” is \u4eac\u962a<\/span><\/b>,\nmeaning “Kyoto and Osaka” in general, and more specifically, it often\nrefers to the Keihan Railway Company<\/a>, one of the train companies that\nprovides service between the two cities.<\/p>\n\n

This was the only meaning for keihan<\/i> that I knew<\/span> until I became<\/span>\nacquainted with Amami. Amami's keihan<\/i> is \u9d8f\u98ef<\/span><\/b>, literally\nmeaning chicken\nmeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Enjoying the chicken meal is such a big<\/span> part of our visits there\n(including one last meal at the airport restaurant, where the keihan<\/i>\nis surprisingly good for being, well, in an airport) that it takes a bit<\/span> of\ngetting used to all the “Keihan” signs (in English letters) everywhere here\nthat have nothing to do with food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fumie's grandmother was born and raised on Amami Ooshima, an island far in the south of Japan, part of a long drawn-out chain of islands that delimits the boarder between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The island's main local specialty mean is keihan, a shredded-chicken rice\/soup dish.<\/p>

Fumie's grandmother lived in the Kyoto area for 50+ years after WWII, but she kept her Amami roots and continued to prepare keihan for her family when she had one. Her daughter, then, having grown up with the dish, continued to prepare it for her own family when she had [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}