Iki Island: Home to Many Great Tasting Foods!

The sea urchins of Iki Island grow by eating plenty of high-quality seaweed. Therefore, they have a firm body and are rich in sweetness. Iki Island is where you will find approximately 300 professional female divers called "ama" who catch sea urchins during the fishing season from mid-April to mid-October. You will never forget the rich flavor and melt-in-the-mouth feeling once you have eaten sea urchin here. You can eat sea urchin dishes at restaurants on the island. Bottled sea urchin is popular as a souvenir.

You can enjoy a variety of seafood all year round on Iki Island. The specialty of swordtip squid is characterized by a sweetness that spreads out in your mouth as you eat it. Amberjack with the right amount of fat goes well with Iki shochu. You will also find many other types of fish here. These include firm flounder and turban shell as well as firm and flavorful abalone.

Iki beef, which has been selected as the highest quality and best tasting beef in Japan, is a rare brand of beef. Only 900 head of cattle are shipped a year. It is characterized by moderate fat and tender fleshiness. The sweetness of the fat and the mellow aroma will spread out in your mouth when you eat it. You can savor Iki beef in various dishes (e.g., steak and yakiniku barbecue) in restaurants on the island. There are also restaurants where you can eat it inexpensively in hamburgers and other dishes.

Iki Island is said to be the birthplace of shochu distilled from barley. Brewers here developed a unique shochu made with barley and rice malt in a ratio of 2:1 using shochu making techniques brought to the island from China in the 16th century. This shochu is characterized by a unique taste that combines the aroma of the barley and the sweetness of the rice. It is a Japanese brand that is still loved by those all over the world today. There are seven breweries on the island. You can tour these breweries and sample their shochu.

This hot pot dish is a specialty of Iki Island. The dish is made by adding plenty of vegetables to a chicken bone-based soup and then stewing it. It is a dish that expresses hospitality with a feeling of offering a warm welcome to Iki Island. We hope that you try it together with well-chilled shochu.