Cooking Okinawan

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AL: What are some common and healthful Okinawan power foods everyone should have in their kitchen? 

Murata: Extra-firm tofu and a lot of vegetables like bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, chives and bitter melon. Okinawans are always able to come up with some stir-fry dish with these ingredients. There’s no “right” combination of vegetables. Just put in whatever you have available and flavor it with pork, shoyu, salt and broth made from dried bonito flakes and water. And keep in mind that it’s always better to undercook vegetables so that they’re still crispy to retain nutrients.

Daikon is also versatile. You can add it to stews or miso soup. Buy it with the leaves on and soak them in salted water for a few hours to pickle, then stir-fry the pickled leaves with tofu, pork and any other vegetables you have around.

Okinawans also drink a lot of yomogi, or mugwort, so stock some of that the pantry. You can drink it as a tea, but in Okinawa, people usually chill it and drink it cold. For them, it’s a miracle drink and cure-all for just about everything.

AL: What is an easy and healthful dish for beginners to try?

Murata: Imo (Okinawan sweet potato) is terrific. Wash, steam and then slice it, and add a dash of salt and serve. You can also steam it, remove the skin, mash it and a touch of sugar and serve it as a side. In the old days, people often ate imo in place of rice.

Another popular Okinawan main dish is goya champuru, or bitter melon stir-fry. First cut the bitter melon in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and slice thinly. Heat just a little canola oil in a non-stick skillet and add tofu cut into small blocks. Brown the tofu, then add a few slivers of pork. Once the pork is browned, add the bitter melon, salt, and a splash of bonito broth to season it. Sauté over medium heat until the bitter melon is cooked to your liking.

Just before finishing, add a dash of shoyu for flavoring. Okinawans also add an egg at the very end to pick up whatever flavors might have been left behind. Because Okinawa was such a poor place, nothing was wasted, not even a little sauce.

Okinawans also make a really easy vegetable stew called umbusa. It’s made with daikon leaves that are a few days old and a little tough, and any other kinds of veggies you like. Just throw that all in a pot with bonito broth and add a little salt, a little hondashi (bonito soup stock powder) and shoyu. Cover and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are soft.

AL: Pork is a common ingredient used in Okinawan cooking, but it isn’t a lean source of protein. How do Okinawans prepare it to make it less fatty?

Murata: Well, in the old days when people were very poor, they would actually use the pork fat for cooking. Nothing was wasted. But the difference is that they would eat a lot of vegetables and farm their land all day.

Okinawans still eat some pork belly, which is fatty, but it’s used to accent vegetables rather than dominate a meal. Here, it’s the opposite. People eat more pork and fewer vegetables, cook with a lot of sugar, and sit in their offices all day.

I learned to prepare pork by running it under cold water and massaging it to get the blood out. Then you let the pork dry. Okinawans add a liquor called awamori and soak it for about an hour to tenderize it.

After that, parboil the pork to get rid of the fat before using it in cooking. Adding just a tablespoon of vinegar also helps remove fat from the meat. Of course, you can always substitute lean chicken for a healthier dish.

AL: Goya, or bitter melon, is revered in Okinawa for its health benefits. In the West, scientists are finding that it may play a role in cancer prevention and possibly lowering blood sugar in diabetics. The problem is that it’s, well, bitter. How can we make it more palatable?

Murata: Okinawans like it bitter, but if you don’t, you can soak it in salt water for a little while. Adding salt or an egg to a stir-fry helps offset some of the bitterness of the goya. Also, the lighter green in color it is, the less bitter it will be.

Just remember, if you buy bitter melon and aren’t going to use it right away, make sure to cut it in half lengthwise and remove all the seeds and membranes. Then wrap it in wet paper towels and refrigerate. If you don’t, the seeds will turn the goya yellow and cause it to spoil sooner. You don’t want to eat it if it turns yellow.

AL: It seems the reason Okinawan cuisine is so healthy is the simplicity of its ingredients and the heavy reliance on a variety of vegetables.

Murata: Yes. Okinawans are able to appreciate the intricate taste of each vegetable because they aren’t swimming in heavy sauces. When you go to a fine dining restaurant, a lot of times the true taste of the food is masked with ingredients like butter and cream. In Okinawa, part of the secret to staying healthy is the ability to appreciate eating simply.

AL: If there is a weak spot in the otherwise healthy Okinawan diet, it might be the large amount of white rice eaten.

Murata: Yes. But traditionally, Okinawans would add millet, pressed oats, other whole grains and azuki beans to the white rice to stretch it. If you want to make sure you are eating healthy carbs, there’s a terrific lightly polished brown rice called Gen-Ji-Mai that you can find here. A little of the healthy bran layer is removed so that it’s easier to cook and eat, but it still contains much more fiber and nutrients than plain white rice.

AL: What are some other things you learned while in Okinawa that contribute to overall health and longevity?

Murata: By nature, Okinawans like to talk a lot and are very jovial. For a lot of older people, life is about talking to your friends and neighbors, farming the land, getting together to share recipes, and walking a lot. Okinawa isn’t a place where everyone has a car. Most people either catch the bus or walk because it’s more convenient, so the physical exercise they get really helps.

Okinawans are also very active in their communities and various organizations. It’s a very close-knit community and everyone has something that they’re into. Farmers, businessmen, fishermen and restaurant owners all have their own organization. And when they retire, they have the retired businessmen’s association, the retired farmer’s association, and so forth, so they always have a place they look forward to going to.

Okinawa is also a place where World War II was fought and one out of every four Okinawans lost their life as a result. For that reason, Okinawans have a saying, “My life is my treasure.” In other words, just being alive, I feel happy. Just being alive, I feel lucky.