【Reading】なんかんあげまきずし

【English Name】Nankanage maki sushi

Nankan-age maki-zushi is a regional sushi handed down in Nankan Town, Tamana District, Kumamoto Prefecture. While ordinary rolled sushi uses nori as the outer wrapper, its major characteristic is that the vinegared rice and ingredients are wrapped in the local specialty "Nankan-age."

Nankan-age is a dried type of fried tofu (aburaage) made by applying about one ton of pressure to thinly sliced tofu to remove the moisture, then deep-frying it twice. Each piece is large, about 20 cm square, and because these dimensions closely match a full sheet of nori (21 cm by 19 cm), it is easy to repurpose as a wrapper for rolled sushi.

When cooking, the dried Nankan-age is first parboiled to remove the oil, then simmered in dashi to thoroughly absorb the flavor before moving on to the rolling process. By having the dashi-soaked fried tofu enclose the vinegared rice, a distinctive flavor is created that differs even from inari-zushi.

The dish is said to have been created in the Showa 40s (the 1960s), when a local group engaged in researching and passing down regional cuisine in Nankan Town devised a way to use Nankan-age as a substitute for nori. It is now also included in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Uchi no Kyodo Ryori" (Our Local Cuisine) collection.