Fukuoka is a place where ingredients from the ocean and the land are incorporated into a harmony of tasty local cuisine. In this article, Ms. Chika Kozuma (fourth year student at the School of Commerce) introduces gameni, one of Fukuoka's most famous dishes.

Ingredients (Serves 3 to 4)
1 chicken breast
5 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 burdock root (gobo)
1 carrot
150 grams lotus root (renkon)
150 grams taro root (sato-imo)
7 or 8 snow peas
1 block konjac (konnyaku)

Seasonings (all amounts are approximate - please season to your own taste)
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
3-5 tablespoons soy sauce

Recipe:
1. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water (save the soaking water to use later).

2. Chop the chicken breast, dried shiitake, burdock root, carrot, lotus root, and taro root into bite-size pieces.

3. Saute the pieces of chicken breast. Season with soy sauce and sugar for a salty-sweet taste. Once the chicken is cooked through, add the rest of the chopped ingredients from Step 2 and saute. Tear the konjac into pieces by hand and add it to the pan.

4. After the ingredients added in Step 3 are partially cooked and have been reduced in size, add the shiitake soaking water. Drizzle soy sauce and mirin (going once around the pan for each). Adjust seasonings if desired. The simmering liquid should be approximately 2/3 of the total amount of ingredients (add water if necessary).

5. Simmer with a drop lid (otoshi-buta) in place until the simmering liquid is reduced to 1/3. To finish, arrange boiled snow peas on top.

Story:
At my house, my mother always makes plenty of gameni for the New Year. And since my whole family loves it, we also eat gameni as a regular dish during the rest of the year. When I came to Tokyo, I asked my mother how to make it, but she said "I don't really have a recipe, I just kind of wing it" (laughs).

The gameni that my grandmother and my mother make taste entirely different, and it tastes different when I make it, too...I definitely think that the reason the gameni my grandmother and mother make is so delicious is because they have many years of experience.

The name "gameni" comes from the word "gamekuri-komu," which means "to include all sorts of ingredients." In other words, you throw in anything and everything. I think that's part of the secret behind why the character and taste of these dishes tend to vary between each region and household. Fukuoka is a lively place with lots of character - it has both the ocean and the mountains, as well as lots of delicious food, and is close to Korea. I have lots of pride in my home city of Fukuoka!