Neil Duckett

Every night’s a “dining out” experience for me and this week was no different. I opted to try the local Okinawan restaurant over the road and i was impressed.

The place has a realy cool feel about it and the owners are all up for the introductions when you enter … i guess being a foreigner it`s still a novelty in some places.

とし　と　すすむ　are the lads behind the place .. or Toshi and Susumu may mean a little more to some. 

There`s nothing easy about ordering food in Japan but i knew that when i came here. My weekly Japanese lessons and the day to day study is paying off and i can quite capably order off the menu. It has taken some time though and the Kanji still poses a few problems.

You`d probably be surpirsed at some of the dishes and over the coming months i`ll be sure to sample a heap but for this week i went with the `Taco Rice` which is 3rd up from the bottom on the menu … when i work out how to post it.

Taco Rice (タコライス)　is basically rice, spicy mince, salsa, lettuce, cheese and onions with an egg on top. Pretty hard to pass that up for about $8 and add a few glasses of the local brew and everyones going home happy.

About Okinawa Food

It was only 100 years ago that the kingdom of Okinawa was incorporated into Japan, and the southern islands still maintain their own distinctive culture, language and cuisine. Okinawan cooking tends toward stronger and spicier flavors than Japanese food, and is more heavily influenced by Chinese cooking styles.

Pork is a very important ingredient, and every part of the pig is used, from pig’s feet and pig’s ears to pork tripe. Other ingredients include local seafood and native tropical vegetables and fruits. Black sugar and awamori (an Okinawan brandy-like liquor made from rice) are used in cooking along with soy sauce and miso (fermented soybeans). Kooreegusu is a condiment made from red peppers marinated in awamori.

Stir-frying is a common cooking method, and Okinawan chanpuru is basically a stir-fry using some combination of tofu, leeks and eggs plus other ingredients - Okinawan menus will usually have a number of chanpuru dishes listed. Another typical dish is rafuti, pork stewed in miso, soy sauce, sugar and awamori, which is very similar to a Chinese dish called kakuni. Toofuyoo is a strongly flavored super-concentrated tofu concoction that’s eaten in tiny bites as a snack while drinking - it’s a bit like Velveeta cheese that’s been compressed until it’s reached an incredibly dense state. A popular foreign-influenced dish is taco rice - basically a taco that uses rice instead of a taco shell.

Here are some menu items you might run across. Many menus list the Okinawan term first, followed by a Japanese explanation.

OKINAWAN SAMPLE MENU

Note: Double vowels represent long vowel sounds. (See pronunciation guide below.)

rafuti — chunks of pork stewed in awamori, soy sauce and miso

sooki — pork stewed with bone sookibuni– spareribs, usually flavored with salt, lemon, and/or ginger

minudaru– pork stewed and flavored with sesame

nakami-jiru or nakami no suimono — pork tripe soup

ashi-tibichi — stewed pig’s feet

mimigaa – pig’s ear in vinegar

deekuni – daikon radish and pork stew

kuubuirichi – konbu (seaweed) and pork stew

hiijaa sashimi — raw goat meat

hiijaa-jiru — goat meat in soup

chanpuru — stir-fry with eggs, leeks and/or tofu

goya chanpuru — chanpuru stir-fry with goya (bitter gourd)

maaminaa chanpuru — tofu and bean sprout stir-fry

soomin chanpuru — chanpuru with soomen noodles

nakami irichi — pork tripe and miso stir-fry

hira yaachii — Okinawan-style okonomiyaki

jiimamii-dofu — peanut tofu

toofuyoo – concentrated Okinawan tofu

sunui – pickled kombu (seaweed)

iriko – tiny dried fish, roasted

yaeyama kamaboko — Okinawan-style fishcakes

papaya misozuke — papaya pickled in miso (fermented soybeans)

shima rakkyou — pickled shallots

yakisoba (Okinawa-fuu) — thick noodles fried with vegetables

soba (Okinawa-fuu) — soba noodles in soup with vegetables

sooki soba– pork spareribs (with bone) with soba noodles in soup

juushii — rice porridge (zousui)

fuuchibaa juushii– rice porridge with a bitter leaf vegetable (yamogi)

saataa andagi — Okinawan doughnuts

Orion– Okinawan beer

awamori – an Okinawan liquor made from rice

About Okinawan Food; Source http://www.virtualokinawa.com/about_okinawa/food/

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