🍜 Taipiien (Glass Noodle Soup)

“Taipiien” is a local dish served at Chinese restaurants and at home. It is a soup made with “harusame”(=glass noodles) and stir-fried vegetables, pork, shrimp, bamboo shoot, kamaboko(=Fish cake), shiitake mushroom and other ingredients. The dish is served with a fried hard-boiled egg on top. This dish was influenced by a soup dish from Fuzhou, Fujian of China, eaten on special occasions such as during the Bon holiday, New Year's, and other celebrations. It is said that the recipe was taught by Chinese people living in Japan who came from Fujian to Nagasaki and later to Kumamoto during the late Meiji period. Instead of using swallow nests, a delicacy of China, people fried hard-boiled eggs to make them look like swallow nests, and instead of using shark fins, glass noodles were used to make “taipiien.” The egg on top is called “taipinon” in Chinese, which is how the dish got the name “taipiien.” It is said that people who eat this egg receive good luck.