Okinawa Cuisine: A Perfect Recipe for a Wholesome Life

Depending on your culinary leanings, a stroll along Kokusai-dori (International Street) in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa, is either a gastronomic banquet or a nutritionist's nightmare. It is lined with pizza joints, gelato parlors, griddle steak houses, burger, gumbo and fried chicken restaurants, beer stands, and doughnut stores. 

One of the island's most popular souvenirs sold here is chinsuko, a biscuit made from sugar, wheat flour, and lard. Behind Okinawa's tsunami of carbohydrates and saturated fats, its fall from grace as Japan's top-ranking longevity prefecture, however, is an older, leaner, and more benign model.

Medicinal Cuisine

In contrast to other dietary regimes aimed at cleansing the body, traditional yakuzen cuisine is both healthy and tasty. (Yakuzen translates as "medicinal foods.") 

The embodiment of simple, nutritional Okinawan cuisine, yakuzen dishes are enjoying attention for their beneficial properties. They are the result of a mix of fashion, food awareness, and fear of an early grave. 

If younger Okinawans lapse into poor eating habits, such good models for a healthy diet persist in the lifestyles and dietary habits of their elders. And also in the ancient culinary practices found in traditional cookbooks. 

Replacing pharmaceutically manufactured longevity supplements are the kitchen gardens of older Okinawans. These are fertile plots for the growing of mugwort, soybeans, goya (bitter melon), turmeric, and Okinawan sweet potatoes. This latter item, rich in slow-burning carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamin C is "one of the healthiest foods on the planet" according to leading dietary critic Dan Buettner. Bitter melon, another cornerstone of Okinawan cuisine, is a known and effective anti-diabetic. 

Individually, these supercharged organic vegetables and herbs, fresh and tasty ingredients in traditional yakuzen dishes, also address health issues. Bursting with flavonoids, saponins and carotenoids, they help to combat high levels of blood estrogen, cleanse the stomach lining, regulate metabolism, and maintain low blood pressure. 

Off the Beaten Path

Despite the onslaught of beef-based fast food chains, pork is the preferred meat among the islanders. Rich in saturated fat, pork that is consumed in large quantities can lead to heart disease. 

Older Okinawans circumvent this risk by stewing the pork for hours, then skimming off the fat. What they end up eating is high-protein collagen. It's a wonder everyone in Okinawa is not converting to a food regime like this. 

Okinawa's astonishing culinary diversity came as a revelation. In the few days spent there, I sampled a smorgasbord of indigenous dishes. They ranged from squid-ink soup, a rice gruel infused with mugwort, collagen-rich pig's trotters and the refinements of court cuisine, to Irabu umihebi, a wicked sea snake broth. 

For many visitors, though, Okinawan dishes are synonymous with Okinawa soba, rafute, pork belly simmered in soy sauce and sugar, and goya champuru, a stir-fried mix of sliced bitter melon, tofu, bean sprouts, and either pork shreds or slices of Spam, a low-grade pork luncheon meat high in salt and oil. 

Though perfectly good food staples for tourists, Okinawa offers infinitely more choices for those prepared to seek out more authentic dishes. But, what exactly is Okinawan cuisine? To get a firsthand experience of Okinawan fare, I selected four restaurants for special attention. 

1. Makabe China Soba

Makabe China Soba in Itoman City serves simple fare in a traditional 115-year-old Okinawan house. Or you can sit at a table in its semi-tropical garden. Masako Kinjo, the owner of the restaurant, cites the spaciousness of the south-facing structure. She affirms, "The house, its coral stone foundations, and walls embody the wisdom of our ancestors and how they lived." 

The simplicity of its menu is a good introduction to wholesome family cuisine. Dishes come with staples like wheat flour soba and jushi, an Okinawan form of pilaf, with steamed black rice. Hirayachi is an Okinawan-style pancake with tuna and basil. Sunshi is a dish of seasoned bamboo shoots, braised pork, shitake mushrooms, and sea tangle. 

All the dishes at Makabe China Soba are laced with herbs picked from the restaurant's rear garden, a natural pharmacopeia that is a wonder to stroll in. 

2. Sui Don Chi

For more elaborate dishes, ones that aspire to the level of culinary art, the visitor should try at least one meal of kyutei-ryori, or court cuisine. Created as a hospitality food to welcome visiting Chinese dignitaries, it combines Chinese and Okinawan food preferences with the presentational beauty of Japanese kaiseki ryori haute cuisine. This cuisine is still available, but at a cost that reflects its time-consuming preparation and the staggering number of dishes. 

Sui Don Chi, a traditional restaurant in the Shuri area of Naha, serves a modified, affordable take on the form. Among the delicacies presented on beautiful plates and dishes, you can expect to sample gurukun fish paste, mixed with an extract of mustard leaves. 

Their stir-fried pork in white miso is wrapped in almost transparent-thin flour skins. And the exquisite minudaru, consisting of thin strips of marinated pork loin, is then steamed in sugar, soy sauce, and black sesame paste. Finally, there is the cheese-like texture of tofu-yo, fermented in awamori, a strong Okinawan liquor. 

3. Garamanjyaku

Driving north of Naha to the outskirts of Kin Town, I'm looking for Garamanjyaku, a restaurant run by Kiyoko Yamashiro, on a personal mission to combat the fast and processed food now so popular in Okinawa. 

Yamashiro has devised a menu that, utilizing many Chinese herbal dishes, seeks to restore the body's energy level and rebalance fluids. A specialty dish, known as a detox set, has a variety of healthy ingredients. These include okra, pumpkin, purple turmeric, wildflowers, yam cooked with rice powder, Malabar spinach, and a range of medicinal herbs. 

4. Emi-no-Mise

For a more pared-down eating experience even closer to the spirit of traditional Okinawan cuisine, I drove to Ogimi-son, a village in the far north of the island. I was in search of a restaurant named Emi-no-Mise. The eatery is run by former nutritionist Emiko Kinjo. She describes her connection to health food as, "a lifetime exploration of gastronomy."

This village of some 3,500 people boasts around 100 residents over the age of 90. Those of advanced age tend to be physically active. Many take part in village events, volunteer activities, and senior citizen's clubs. They also continue working or tending their kitchen gardens until the end of their lives. Interestingly, there is no word in the Okinawan language for "retirement."

Adhering to a diet that is high in nutrition and anti-oxidants, but low in calories, Ogimi's elders appear to suffer a far lower incidence of lifestyle diseases like myocardial infarction and stroke. 

Some ascribe Ogimi's disproportionate longevity figures to the quality of its shikuwasa, a small citrus fruit. Rich in vitamin C, it has a notably higher citric acid, carotene, and mineral content than other citrus fruits. Another important element in the fruit is nobiletin, said to aid in the prevention of cancer. Added to food it can act as a preservative. 

Medicine for Life

For almost thirty years, Emiko Kinjo has been running what appears to be the only organic restaurant in the village. Using the generic term, dento-ryori (traditional cuisine), Emiko has created a menu featuring medicinal herbs based on ancient Chinese methods of food preparation. In it, great heed is paid to the principle of yin and yang, the balancing of opposing but complementary forces in nature. 

The set I sampled, a dish known as choju-zen (longevity dish), had distinct smells, texturing, stickiness, and astringency. Kinjo was eager to point out that there are two interpretations of Okinawan food, both of which she tries to combine in her menu: ujinimun, foods with nutritional value, and kusui-mun, those with medicinal benefits. 

Jotting these food terms down, I realize that, aside from sampling the delights of the Okinawan table, I'm learning some useful food-related nomenclature along the way. 

Another expression, ishoku dogen, for example, means that by eating healthy, fresh food you can obviate visits to the doctor. Happily converted to the spirit of edible health after lunch at Emi-no-Mise, I leave with a departing nuchi gusui naibitan, an expression of gratitude that means, "This food has been medicine for my life."

RELATED:

• Autumn's Rich Flavors and the Pursuit of 'Koku'
• Washoku: Can Japanese Cuisine Be Made Even Healthier for Future Generations?
• Gastronomy Tourism Booms with Rising Demand for Hands-On Experiences
• Fermentation: Japan's Umami Secret Will Make Your Mouth Water

Author and photographer: Stephen Mansfield. (All images ©Stephen Mansfield)

British writer and photographer, Stephen Mansfield’s work has appeared in over 70 magazines, newspapers, and journals worldwide.. He is currently working on his twenty-first book on modern Japanese garden design, for the British publisher Thames & Hudson, and a screenplay called Obdurate Darkness, set exclusively in Tokyo.