Kagoshima eats differently from the rest of Japan. The Satsuma diet was shaped by a sweet-potato peasantry, a coastal fishery and the only domain in feudal Japan where pigs were openly raised; the result is a local table dominated by kurobuta (Berkshire pork), satsuma-age fish cakes, and the strong sweet-potato shochu that locals drink with every meal.
The two unmissable dishes are kurobuta tonkatsu — a thicker, fattier cutlet than you will get in Tokyo — and kibinago, tiny banded herring served sashimi-style in chrysanthemum patterns with miso. End any meal with shirokuma, the local shaved-ice mountain topped with fruit and condensed milk. Most of the good places to eat are in Tenmonkan; for ramen, look for Kagoshima ramen, made with a paler, less fatty tonkotsu broth than Hakata's, often with a hint of chicken.