All of our food is tasty, like Goya Chanpuru and such.
I had steak. Wow that was good.
Not from frozen! Never from Frozen!
Always fresh.
The sweet potato cheese tart.
HAISAI!
- This is Cathy Cat - This is Haruna from Okinawa
Let's enjoy Okinawa!
What is your favourite food that we have here in Okinawa?
Okinawa Soba is the best thing I think.
What is so good about it?
I like the meat on top of the noodles.
The meat is very tasty.
All our food is tasty, like Goya Chanpuru (bittermelon stirfry)
Have you made it yourself?
- I sometimes do. - really?!
Have you had some food from Okinawa? - Yes we did.
We had Souki Soba.
And we had Blue Seal Ice Cream.
Yes, you're wearing their bads. I got really addicted to it too.
That ice cream so tasty!
Have you had fish here too? - Yes we did!
Sashimi here is really good.
Compared to the taste of fish in Tokyo?
It was really tasty and also really cheap.
What place did you to to?
??
It had so many types of fish and was really reasonably priced.
Local fish from Okinawa? - Yes like that?
You said reasonable, how reasonable?
For 980 Yen...
We got a big bowl of sashimi, something fried and a dessert
and some little nibbles on the side.
I am jealous and very hungry now.
You can go to Okinawan restaurants all across the country.
But here it tastes really fresh.
It had a really fresh taste.
What did you hav?
We had the must-try ones like Umibudou
the Shimarakkyo (type of onion)
and hand made tofu.
We had those things mainly.
We also had Soba, that was good right?
That's right.
And we had meat. - Meat yes, the steak.
We had steak and it was so good.
I am originally from Hiroshima. One of my friends there comes from here
he recommended me the steak here so we went...
It has a taste we won't get in Hiroshima. It has an American spin to it.
Can you tell me the name of the restaurant?
It's called Sam's
??
We got a good tip here. We should go and try it out too.
It was so good.
Where do you live as family now?
- Gifu prefecture
Comparing Gifu and Okinawa, do you eat different foods and such?
We come here to eat Okinawan food like Goya Chanpuru...
and Souki Soba. It's super tasty.
Bone broth soup is good.
So a soup made out of bones?
You eat the meat around the bones, and then have the soup.
Did you also have some fish here?
Raw Sashimi fish here is super tasty.
What makes it special?
If you go to the ocean, the tuna is really good.
And other things fished in our region like squid and octopus are really delicious.
Do they taste different?
Sweet. I think they taste sweeter.
Lobster, grilled Lobster is incredibly good here.
That carries a very expensive scent. Isn't that very pricey?
It's cheaper than in other areas of Japan. Cheaper but tastier.
Did you have a try of tasty Okinawan food?
Not yet. Our journey starts from here.
What are you looking forward to trying then?
- Souki Soba (meat noodles) - Goya chanpuru (bittermelon mix)
- Shaved ice. - Shaved ice.
Souki Soba!
What flavor shaved ice?
Would have to be Mango or such. Famous here.
You wanna try the tropical fruits here. I see.
Anything else? How about the fish?
I wanna try Umibudou (Sea Grapes)
Umibudou seems popular.
- Meat. - You wanna eat meat, I see.
What food do you recommend in Okinawa?
Well... personally...
When it's about fruits, I like Mango best.
Mango, nice choice.
Okinawa's Mangoes are incredibly rich in flavor and very sweet.
Apart from that...
I also like the Beniimo sweet potatoes we have.
They are popular with the girls.
Why?
Even though they are potatoes they are very sweet.
They're really popular, and the Beniimo Tarts too.
Since you work at a restaurant, what is your food recommendation?
What do you like best?
In summery Okinawa, Goya (bitter melon) is a must try food
So I like Goya chanpuru (bittermelon stir fry).
What do you like about it?
It has a bitter side taste
since the vegetable is quite bitter. You match that with tofu
and other vegetables.
You mix everything in the chanpuru well.
- It's a taste you will never get bored of. - Oh right.
What are the major differences between Okinawan food and Japanese food?
Well, the taste is a lot stronger.
Many people also seem to think we use more oils.
But in our restaurant we use less fat, to match it to normal tastes.
So that's one of our food secrets.
All of our dishes are good :)
Okinawa Soba is super famous.
And Souki Souba, we just had is really famous. We ate lots. It was tasty.
Really tasty.
What else was good?
Blue Seal Ice Cream!
Yeah we had that too.
This is the second time we had it already.
Today is the last day and she said she wanted to eat it again.
So we had some again over there.
- I wanted more too. - Their ice cream is super popular.
There are ice cream flavors you can't get in Tokyo, just in Okinawa.
They are really popular and super good.
Which food do you like?
Bittermelon.
Bitter food right.
Goya, right. You like Goya?
Yeah I like Goya. - Alright, okay.
Okinawa Soba. - Yes!
- Is it good. - Yeah it's very good.
Special and unique. I like the kind of soba or ramen in the rest of Japan.
The Taco Rice.
We do eat Tacos but we haven't tried Tacos rice before.
It's very interesting.
Good did you also try some of the Sushi?
Yes it's good.
How was it? What did you get?
We went to a sushi shop...
to have some Sushi. It's very delicious.
Compared to back home, how is the Sushi?
I think here is better.
If you compare the sushi, what is different compared to back home?
A lot fresher.
I think the sushi here is smaller. Hong Kong sushi they usually make a bit bigger.
I think the size and...
and yeah the Sashimi fish is very fresh in Japan.
You mentioned the food, what food did you like?
Okinawa is super famous, since it's a tropical island
for its fruit. So the pineapple here, the Mango, the dragon fruit, the passion fruit.
It's SO GOOD.
All of it is amazing.
What food do you enjoy in Okinawa?
My personal favorite is Okinawa soba.
And Goya Chanpuru.
Yeah, Goya is pretty good.
And super bitter.
It's okay it's not so bad. I've had it a lot worse.
The way that they prepare it here in Okinawa is spot on.
So you can eat goya, can you eat goya?
50-50, sometimes I can eat goya but kyushoku (school lunch) goya is like...
they just chucked it in there. So it's like SUPER bitter and you're just like mmmmh.
Uuuh.
But if it's fried, it's amazing.
Have you tried Mozoku?
What's that?
It's a special type of sea weed that they farm here.
It comes in a vinegary sauce.
It's delicious.
They also do it in tempura.
How is the sushi in Okinawa then? - Fantastic.
You'll actually find some really amazing sushi and tempura in Ojima.
They've got some really famous Tempura shops.
If you have time, you should check that out.
Amazing sushi!
How is it? Is is super fresh or how is it generally here?
It's very fresh. I think it's the best sushi that i've ever had.
I have never had bad sushi here.
It's always super fresh and it melts in your mouth.
They usually catch the fish that morning
and it's on your plate the same day.
I don't think there has ever been day old fish or anything
or fish being kept in a freezer or anything.
Not from frozen, never from frozen.
Always fresh.
What do you think are the good points about Okinawa so far
cause you have been here for a while. How long have you been here?
- One year. - One year.
The food is very good, especially soba.
Okinawa soba is very good.
Goya. I like tempura goya.
It's really good.
What does goya taste like? (at that point she didn't know)
It tastes like uuuuh, it's bitter but it's nice.
It's healthy.
My favorite food is Andakki.
The doughnut thing.
It's sweet and it's delicious.
We make it ourselves.
They said they make it themselves. - Wow!
Andaki.
We had the soba noodles yesterday.
What else did we have... We had okinawa style sushi,
oh and the tart!
- The cheese tart. - The sweet potato cheese tart.
Blue Seal Ice cream is very good.
All really good.
- You mentioned the sushi. - Yes.
What's different from okinawan sushi?
The pieces of meat are bigger
AThe fish is a lot bigger on the rice.
At home it's smaller fish and more rice.
It was really fresh, it was really tasty.
I heard there are colorful fish in Okinawa, do they also get on the sushi plate?
Yeah we had like lots of purples, pinks, it was really nice.
Purples and pinks?!
The tuna had a reddish purple. I don't know.
Very nice. Like a silver one. Very colourful.
Right, colorful sushi.
Fantastic, those were all the questions. Thank you so much.
So food from Okinawa, to be honest, when I came back from Okinawa after we
have been filming in Okinawa...
I actually, for 3 days afterwards went out every evening
and tried to find some Okinawan food because I missed it SO SO MUCH.
It's actually not that hard to get hold of. You can find Okinawan restaurants
it tastes different from being in Okinawa...
I really really miss the food!
Hope that inspired you to maybe try some Okinawan food
when you come to Japan.
This is actually just one video out of a whole special series we've been doing
on Okinawa and I hope that will inspire you to come!
Please be sure to click the playlist so we can take you on a tropical holiday
all the way over to Okinawa, the south of Japan.
Beautiful area, I can definitely recommend you that.
So yeah, join us on a holiday and check out the playlist if you're curious
about the beautiful south of Japan.
I hope you enjoyed this video and I catch you soon on Ask Japanese.