Okinawa

[_john]

I just discovered an Okinawan restaurant two blocks from my house! I love goya, as you can see here, and I tried their goya camploo. It was really good, although I think they skimped on the goya, next time I will tell them that I love goya. I saw a few long simmered pork dishes that looked really good, I will definitely be going back, and taking my camera. What dishes should I try?

[torakris]

I just discovered an Okinawan restaurant two blocks from my house! I love goya, as you can see here, and I tried their goya camploo. It was really good, although I think they skimped on the goya, next time I will tell them that I love goya. I saw a few long simmered pork dishes that looked really good, I will definitely be going back, and taking my camera. What dishes should I try?

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I wish the Okinawa restaurant close to me was better... they used way too much oil in everything.

Definitely try the slow simmered pork belly called rafuti.

Okinawan soba is also really good, my favorite is soki soba with long simmered bone in pork as a garnish.

soki soba

[_john]

I went back to the okinawan restaurant last night and had a good meal. Dinner and a drink for 1000yen!

This is 豚あんかけ丼 buta ankake-don Pork with thick sauce over rice. And what could that green drink in the background be?何でしょう？ ... It's chuhai made from a famous okinawan item ... That's right ゴーヤチュハイ！　Goya Chuhai! The goya chuhai was really good actually. I asked him how they made it and he showed my pitcher of "goya juice", and their chuhai machine.

It was all really tasty, and cheap too!

note: chuhai is a category of mixed drinks made with Japanese shochu alcohol. They are usually sweet and carbonated and usually fruit flavored. This one was bitter melon flavored.

[torakris]

goya chu-hi?!

cool!

[greenspot]

Kristen, I love the photos of the Okinawan dishes. The goya-champuru looks delicious.

I'm going to Naha next Friday for four days' holiday and can't wait to try out the local food, especially the champuru and soba.

I plan on buying some Okinawan ingredients, tableware or cooking implements, and have got some good tips from this thread. Tofu-yo, seaweed, warabi (bracken) mochi, pineapple tea and awamori are on my list so far.

Any recommendations for food souvenirs or restaurants would be most appreciated!

Edited June 21, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[Hiroyuki]

Kristen, I love the photos of the Okinawan dishes. The goya-champuru looks delicious.

I'm going to Naha next Friday for four days' holiday and can't wait to try out the local food, especially the champuru and soba.

I plan on buying some Okinawan ingredients, tableware or cooking implements, and have got some good tips from this thread. Tofu-yo, seaweed, warabi (bracken) mochi, pineapple tea and awamori are on my list so far.

Any recommendations for food souvenirs or restaurants would be most appreciated!

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Kuro zato (brown sugar), mozuku seaweed (by seaweed, you mean mozuku seaweed?), and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinsuko

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata_andagi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekwasha

[torakris]

Any recommendations for food souvenirs or restaurants would be most appreciated!

←

Kuro zato (brown sugar), mozuku seaweed (by seaweed, you mean mozuku seaweed?), and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinsuko

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata_andagi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekwasha

←

I also recommend kurozato in addition to everything you have already listed. We even have a Kurozato thread!

I would also pick up a couples packs of Okinawan soba, specifically soki soba (soba with soy simmered spare ribs), the soki part is in a retort pack.

Also look for Okinawa only varieties of candies/snacks, shikwasa flavored things like Hi-chu, etc.

[greenspot]

Kristen, Hiroyuki, thanks for your tips and the Wiki links. Yes, I meant mozoku seaweed.

I didn't try any kurozato when I was last in Japan so I'll definitely look out for it in Okinawa, along with soba and sata andagi. I'll post some photos when I get back.

‚ ‚肪‚Æ‚¤I

[greenspot]

I had a great time in Okinawa and really liked the local food.

Thanks again for the recommendations. I managed to try them all except sata andagi and left the island heavily laden with all kinds of ingredients - kurozato, Kurozato Pretz, shima-togarashi (chillies in awamori), aosa and mozuku seaweed, awamori, fresh shikwasa, shikwasa Hi-Chews (the best flavour ever!)...

I took loads of photos and will try to post them in the next week or two.

Let's start with goya...

People in Hong Kong eat bitter gourd (fu gua) in the summer to cool down the body, but I've never been a big fan of it. But in Okinawa I ended up trying all kinds of goya concoctions - champuru, kara-age, ice-cream, tea, juice, candies...

My first taste of Okinawan goya was champuru. I was expecting it to be really bitter but was pleasantly surprised at how mild it tasted. I wonder whether it's something to do with the use of mirin and sugar to balance the bitter taste.

The only goya I had with a slightly stronger bitter taste was at Kiraku, a Taiwanese-run restaurant in the Makishi market in Naha - the goya was stir-fried with black beans and garlic.

Goya kara-age

Edited July 20, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[greenspot]

Goya tea - I drank this in the hotel to ward off the awamori hangover... The sign at the bottom recommends ukon (turmeric) tea for hangovers - I also drank that too. Both of them tasted pretty rough.

Goya curry

And Goya Man!

Has anyone tried Miki (drink on the right-hand side)? I read that it's a rice drink derived from the fermentation process of sake. Ingredients include white rice, sugar, glutinous mochi rice, wheat and lactic acid. Does it taste good?

Edited July 20, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[greenspot]

Blue Seal Ice-cream - beni-imo, passionfruit, goya (yummy but tastes nothing like it) and shikwasa

Autumn and spring ukon (turmeric, known locally as ucchin). Ukon is said to improve liver function and you can buy ukon hangover pills in the market.

Coffee and ukon awamori

[greenspot]

Mozuku and Aosa (Okinawan: asa) seaweed

Fresh mozuku - it is slightly salty from the seawater and tastes much better than the salted version in the packet

When I got back to Tokyo, I made a mozuku salad with the katsuo-flavoured sauce and fresh shikwasa juice. I wish I'd bought more mozuku, it was delicious.

Edited July 20, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[greenspot]

Ume-budou (sea grapes) - another kind of seaweed. I like their crunchy texture.

[greenspot]

Besides goya champuru (my favourite), I also tried a version with chikina (leaf mustard)

Mamina champuru (beansprouts with corned beef)

Edited July 20, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

Oh Greenspot, that bean sprouts with corned beef looks good. Do you happen to have the recipe for that?

[greenspot]

Hi Domestic Goddess, I ate the moyashi champuru in an izakaya in Okinawa. It contained moyashi beansprouts, nira (chives), corned beef, onions and lots of garlic.

I picked up an Orange Pages cookbook on Okinawa when I was in Japan and there's a similar recipe for the dish. (I hope it's OK to post a picture and translation from the book.)

Here's a rough translation of the recipe:

Tofu, Corned Beef and Vegetable Champuru

Ingredients (serves 4)

Coarse-texture "cotton" tofu - 1 block (300g (before water extraction))

Corned beef - 1 can (100g)

Moyashi beansprouts (small size) - 1 packet (200g)

Cabbage leaves - 2-3 pieces (100g)

Nira (chives) - 1/2 bunch (50g)

Oil, salt, black pepper

Preparation of tofu

First, extract the water from the tofu. Place the tofu on a heat-resistant dish, gently rub salt all over it. Use 1/3 tsp of salt for one block (300g) of tofu. Cover the dish with clingfilm, and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes. Leave for about 20 minutes and add to the frying pan while it is still warm. After the water is extracted, the block of tofu will weigh around 250g.

Preparation of champuru

1. Break up the tofu into big chunks with your hand. Cut the corned beef into 2cm pieces. Wash the moyashi and drain. Cut the cabbage into 4-5cm squares and the nira into 4cm-long pieces.

2. Put the moyashi and cabbage in a heat-resistant dish, cover with clingfilm and heat in the microwave for 2 minutes.

3. Add 2 tbs of oil to a frying pan. On medium heat, stir-fry the tofu and corned beef until they are coated in the oil. Add the moyashi and cabbage and stir-fry. Add 1/2 tsp salt and a little black pepper, and then mix in the nira.

From "Uchi de tanoshimu Okinawa no genki ryori" (Healthy Okinawan home-cooking), Orange Page Books

Edited July 21, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[greenspot]

My first Taco Rice mmm...

I must try and make it at home sometime. What kind of taco seasoning is used for the minced beef? Is it similar to El Paso?

I also tried a yummy Mexican omurice at the American Village. The rice inside the omelette was stir-fried with taco seasoning, minced beef and onion.

Edited July 23, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[RAHiggins1]

Okinawa the southernmost prefecture of Japan, and once as the Ryukyu Kingdom an insular isalnd nation with closer ties to China then Japan, has a culture far quite different from that on mainland Japan.

Thus it has different foods as well,

any favorites?

Anyone insterested in a brief history of Okinawa can look here:

http://www.niraikanai.wwma.net/pages/base/conc.html

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Konichi Wa!

I lived in okinawa for a year when I was in the military (Cook!)

There were many things I enjoyed. Such as the Taco Rice, Chicken Taco Rice, Beef, Shrimp or Chicken Yakisoba and Yakitori. But these were all "Bar Food" dishes primarily sold to the abundant military personel stationed there.

The local dishes that I truly enjoyed the most was "Okinawa no Soba" made with pork in the dashi and an okinawan variety of buckwheat noodles that are much thicker and white in color. Garnished with chives, the batoinette cut red pickled ginger that I don'y know the name of, a piece of the pork from the stock and half of a boiled egg.

[RAHiggins1]

Taco rice is Okinawan???  Is this something the American GI introduced to Okie?

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Cooks working in restaurants that used to serve Mexican-style meals to American servicemen experimented with taco ingredients in an attempt to create a dish more appealing to local tastes and came up with an idea of spreading minced meat over rice. It is said that the first taco rice meals were served in the Kin Town area outside Camp Hansen.

from this site

they also have a lot of information omn other Okinawan dishes

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I was at Camp Hansen outside of Kin Cho Kin. Taco rice was high on all of the local bars. If you ever go there, go to the bar called "Snack Bogey" and ask for "Mako" then tell her she is divorced.

[RAHiggins1]

Taco rice is Okinawan???  Is this something the American GI introduced to Okie?

←

Cooks working in restaurants that used to serve Mexican-style meals to American servicemen experimented with taco ingredients in an attempt to create a dish more appealing to local tastes and came up with an idea of spreading minced meat over rice. It is said that the first taco rice meals were served in the Kin Town area outside Camp Hansen.

from this site

they also have a lot of information omn other Okinawan dishes

←

I was at Camp Hansen outside of Kin Cho Kin. Taco rice was high on all of the local bars. If you ever go there, go to the bar called "Snack Bogey" and ask for "Mako" then tell her she is divorced.

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On the flip side her family (farmers of that little purple potato and sugar cane) forced me to make southern fried chicken fingers everytime I showed up at their house.

[shinju]

Anyone have any idea when taco rice came about in Okinawa? There used to be a very tasty taco joint at the end of Gate 2 street in Koza called Charley's Taco or something like that, but it was before taco rice introduction.

[Hiroyuki]

Anyone have any idea when taco rice came about in Okinawa?  There used to be a very tasty taco joint at the end of Gate 2 street in Koza called Charley's Taco or something like that, but it was before taco rice introduction.

←

From here

Legend has it that the dish was created in the 1960s by a local chef in Kin, Okinawa, home to one of the United States Marine Corps bases, who combined the Tex-Mex dish, which was very popular among the American Marines, with the staple diet of Okinawa, rice.

[greenspot]

Hi RAHiggins Here's a photo of the "Okinawa no Soba" - I hope it brings back good memories! :-)

Soki soba ƒ\[ƒL‚»‚Î