Eating in Okinawa ~ Part 4 [日本料理]

I didn’t get to try everything that is Ryukyu cuisine, having chanced upon a few Hotto Motto along the way and needing to get my fix of hot bentos from the chain.  It’s a bit hard to break away from Hotto Motto, having relied on it for Sunday dinners when I was living in Yawatajuku many years back.

 Food that I might try on my next trip to Okinawa would be:

·         Yagi: goat meat.  I wonder how differently goat meat is treated in Ryukyu cuisine.  I’ve tried mutton in rendang and Mongolian-styled barbequed mutton, but they were heavily spiced and I still have no idea how mutton actually tastes like.  Just like beef and horse meat, there is the option of goat meat sashimi style which I’m sure I’ll be quite hesitant to try.  It might just be goat meat in soup for me.

·         Other types of chanpuru such as somen chanpuru or mamina chanpuru (beansprouts chanpuru)

·         Hira yachi: Okinawa-style okonomiyaki.  This resembles the Korean savory pancake or a thin-crust pizza.  Probably not a main dish in itself, but for sharing.

·         Tofuyo: highly-concentrated dried tofu fermented in awamori.  While this is on my “to try” list, it would be really low on priority.  The words “fermented” and “awamori” don’t sound friendly to me.  I was initially amused to see warnings pasted on sauce bottles in shokudos “please refrain from driving if you use this chilli as the chillis are soaked in awamori”.  Really?  Is awamori so formidable an alcohol?  There are plenty of awamori shops around but I did not manage to try any.