Champon was first served by Shikairō, a Chinese restaurant founded in Nagasaki in 1899. The restaurant’s founder, Chen Ping Shun, developed the dish for Chinese students and Chinese residents who needed an inexpensive, filling meal.
Champon uses thick noodles cooked directly in a rich broth with a large assortment of ingredients, commonly including pork, seafood, cabbage, bean sprouts, and other vegetables. Its technique and ingredients reflect the close culinary links between Nagasaki and Fujian Province in southeastern China.
The dish is sometimes described simply as a ramen variety, but champon has its own identity: the noodles are typically boiled in the soup rather than added after the broth is prepared, and the topping mixture is especially abundant. Shikairō remains closely associated with the dish’s origin, although debates continue about which Fujian noodle dish most directly inspired it. Nagasaki champon is now one of the city’s signature foods.