‘Attaka Fair’ in Tenmonkan, featuring ginger-based products from Kagoshima Prefecture
Manager Yamazaki welcoming visitors
On January 17, Attaka Fair, featuring ginger products and soups produced in Kagoshima Prefecture, started at Kagoshima Specialty Market Kagoichi in Tenmonkan, Kagoshima City.
The word “attaka” means “warming,” and the fair coincides with Daikan on January 20, the beginning of the coldest days of winter according to the Lunar Calendar. In response to the rising heating costs, the organizer has selected a variety of ginger-based items and soups from a lineup of more than 1,400 products to “help people warm up through their daily meals.” “Ginger-based products do not sell well all year round, but from December to January, the sales are four to five times higher than usual,” says the manager Michio Yamazaki.
Products at the fair include Brown Sugar Ginger Powder (540 yen) and Island Ginger Powder (797 yen), both made from ginger from Yoron Island; Ginger Drink (1,200 yen), using organic ginger from Tokunoshima; and Golden Ginger Cocoa (540 yen), mixed with brown sugar from Amami Island and pure cocoa.
The lineup also includes soups made with ingredients from Kagoshima Prefecture, such as Island Blessing Potage Soup in a pouch, made with potatoes grown on Okinoerabu Island and brown sugar; Instant Chicken Rice in a cup containing dried rice and powdered soup with ingredients; and Tontoko Ebi Soup, featuring the umami of shrimp from the Kinko Bay area.
The best-selling item is SUBSOUP Pack Chabushi (430 yen), an instant soup based on “chabushi,” a local delicacy of the southern Satsuma Peninsula made by pouring tea over freshly shaved dried bonito flakes and barley miso paste. As the soup is made from powdered dried bonito flakes from Ibusuki and Yutaka Midori green tea from Ei, it requires only hot water to prepare.
Yamazaki hopes that people will overcome the cold weather with a cup of something warming.
Opening hours: 10:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Until February 7.
