Adding just a small handful of dried bonito flakes makes the taste of miso soup richer and more delicious. These flakes are a specialty of Katsurazaki, Kagoshima, Japan.

I drink miso soup with every meal. I don’t have breakfast, but I cook lunch and dinner for myself, so I enjoy miso soup twice a day.
When I make miso soup, I sometimes use mushrooms like shimeji, nameko, or kikurage. Other times, I add dried ingredients such as freeze-dried tofu, dried strips of daikon radish, and dried wakame seaweed. I always include a handful of dried bonito flakes, which give the soup a deep umami flavor. The presence of dried bonito flakes significantly enhances the quality of miso soup.

Dried bonito flakes are a unique seasoning from Japan, and I recently discovered that their history goes back further than I imagined—to the Jomon period! Today, 50% of Japan's dried bonito flakes are produced in Katsurazaki, Kagoshima.

Photos by Tsukubu

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