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🍱 Champon

This noodle dish is known throughout Japan as a Nagasaki specialty. It is said to have originated in 1899 when Chin Heijun, the owner of the Chinese restaurant Shikairo, needed a cheap and nutritious meal to feed to Chinese exchange students. He stir-fried scraps of vegetables and meat in a pan, added Chinese noodles, and simmered these with a thick soup stock for a hearty, filling meal. There are various theories as to where the name champon comes from. It may originate from a mispronunciation of shanpon, a Chinese word for simple cooked rice, or from a mispronunciation of a Portuguese word for mixing or stirring.