🍱 Dagojiru

Dako-jiru" is a soup made by kneading wheat flour (rice flour) with water, letting it sit for a while, then spreading it by hand and filling it with dumplings, and adding seasonal vegetables such as taro and burdock root, and eating it with miso or soy sauce. It is easy to make, nutritious, and filling, so it has long been eaten between farm chores. Dago" means "dango" in the Kumamoto dialect and is also called dango soup. It is eaten throughout Kyushu, but in Kumamoto, sweet potatoes are used for dango in many areas. There is "Ikinari Dago Jiru" (Kumamoto City), which contains dango wrapped with raw sweet potatoes, "Ohimesan Dango Jiru" (Kanomoto-Kikuchi area), which is sweetened by kneading sweet potatoes and has a smooth, soft texture, and "Anmochi Dago Jiru" (Koshi City), which contains sweet bean paste made from sweet potatoes and brown sugar mixed with sweet potatoes and wrapped in a dough filled with sweet potato ), and others. In some cases, instead of dumplings, the dough is stretched and cut into pieces like udon noodles. The variety of ingredients and methods of making dagojiru differ from region to region and from household to household, and the variety is part of its appeal. Many restaurants also serve dagojiru, and the stretch of National Route 57 lined with restaurants offering dagojiru is known as "dagojiru highway.