Napolitan: The Ketchup Spaghetti Italy Never Knew, Born in Yokohama

A fixture of Japanese coffee shops and Western-style diners, Napolitan is a Japanese spaghetti dish you will not find in Naples despite its name. Here is the story of its beginnings in an occupied Yokohama hotel kitchen and a Noge diner, the competing theories about its name and how to enjoy it the Japanese way.

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A "Napolitan" That Naples Has Never Seen

Napolitan is boiled spaghetti stir-fried with onion, green pepper, ham or bacon, sausage and mushrooms, then flavored with tomato ketchup. It is a classic of yoshoku, Western cooking adapted to Japanese tastes, and you can find it everywhere from old-fashioned coffee shops (kissaten) and Western-style diners to school lunches and bento. The noodles are what set it apart. Rather than al dente, the usual method is to boil the spaghetti ahead, let it rest overnight and stir-fry it again with ketchup and fillings when ordered, so the noodles are soft and not very springy. Its prototype is thought to be "ketchup pasta," which appeared around 1955, the so-called first year of pasta, when domestic spaghetti went on general sale, and that soft texture is loved as the true Napolitan taste.

Occupied Yokohama and a Hotel Chef's Idea

The best-known origin story is set in a classic hotel facing Yamashita Park in Yokohama. The hotel was requisitioned by the Allied occupation headquarters (GHQ) for about seven years after the war, and its fourth head chef has said that Napolitan was devised after the war by its second head chef. The second head chef reportedly saw American soldiers eating boiled spaghetti tossed only with ketchup, found it lacking and created a proper dish using a sauce made from fresh tomatoes and tomato paste. In other words, the original was a tomato sauce version, not a ketchup one. There is also a record that the hotel's 1934 menu already listed "Spaghetti Napolitaine."

Noge, Home of Ketchup Napolitan

So where did the ketchup Napolitan we know today come from? There is a record that a Western-style restaurant that opened in 1946 in Noge, a down-to-earth drinking district near Sakuragicho Station in Yokohama, used ketchup for its Napolitan from the day it opened, and some regard it as the birthplace of "ketchup Napolitan." Its founder had trained at another Yokohama hotel and was friendly with the second head chef mentioned above, reportedly receiving his advice even after opening. It is intriguing that both branches, the hotel's tomato sauce Napolitan and Noge's ketchup Napolitan, trace back to Yokohama. In the end it was the cheap, easy-to-make ketchup version that spread to coffee shops and homes across Japan.

Why "Naples"? Conflicting Theories

The name's origin is not settled either. The hotel's fourth head chef explained that the idea came from street stalls in medieval Naples. Critics point out, however, that tomatoes are thought to have reached Naples only around 1554, so medieval Naples is unlikely to have had tomato-sauce spaghetti. Food culture writer Yuko Shibukawa has suggested the name comes from the French dish "spaghetti napolitaine," and others argue its roots lie in American spaghetti and meatballs brought by the occupation forces. Either way, the name may sound Italian, but the flavor grew up entirely in Japan. With several theories in play, it is fair to say accounts differ.

Enjoying Napolitan the Japanese Way

You can eat Napolitan anywhere in Yokohama, but why not enjoy it near where the story took place? The Kannai area, with Yamashita Park and its waterfront promenade, and the Noge district west of Sakuragicho Station have plenty of old coffee shops and Western-style diners where you can try Napolitan in a retro atmosphere. In Japan people often sprinkle powdered cheese and Tabasco over the finished dish, and "teppan Napolitan," served sizzling on an iron plate over a layer of egg, is known as part of Nagoya's coffee shop culture. Rather than comparing it with Italian pasta, enjoy the sweet-tangy ketchup flavor and soft noodles as a nostalgic Japanese comfort food.

#Napolitan#Yoshoku#Yokohama#Noge#Japanese pasta