Eat your way through Okinawa with chef Tetsuya Wakuda

Good things must share

Of late, Wakuda has cast his net beyond the mainland of Japan to Okinawa – the sunny southern island prefecture better known for spam and egg onigiri, A&W and more healthy old people than Singapore, than for ingredients worthy of fine dining. 

But therein lies the rub. Image-wise, Okinawa may lag behind its more fashionable cousins across the water, but it has its own cachet. Namely, some 160 islands with a unique history, subtropical climate and varied topography, and its undisputed reputation as the healthiest place on the planet. It’s not for nothing that the Okinawan diet is cited as the gold standard of physical well-being. This diet isn’t about what the islanders don’t eat, but what they do. And over the centuries, these hardy people descended from the ancient Ryukyu kingdom have tilled their land and harvested their seas to produce some of the most nutritious foods Mother Nature can offer. 

As they say, good things must share, and the world is steadily discovering Okinawa’s mind-boggling bounty from the familiar purple sweet potato to the enigmatic acerola cherry - so fragile it can’t survive an overseas trip in its fresh fruit form, but packs 30 times more vitamin C than a lemon, and tastes fantastic in a slushie. 

“Okinawa’s tropical climate with mineral-rich soil and warmer waters yield a different variety of produce and seafood, which are quite underrated compared to the rest of Japan,” says Wakuda during a whirlwind tour organised by the prefectural government in October. “A lot of produce from Okinawa is of supreme quality, and more restaurants and diners should have a chance to taste it. In Wakuda, we’ve been using its ingredients since our opening in April, so we’re here to discover more of what they have to offer.”

The eye of the tuna – and colourful fish tales

Lying on a giant cutting board in Takaesu Fresh Fish – a seafood supplier in Itoman City on the southern tip of Okinawa Island – a rotund, 25 kg mebachi-maguro gleams in the fluorescent light as it waits to be carved into slabs of rich, jewel-hued slabs of sashimi. Known in English as big-eye tuna, this modest-sized critter was swimming in the waters off Okinawa barely a week ago before it was line-caught, killed by the traditional shinkei-jime method and hauled into Tomari Fishing Port for auction.

Okinawa is tuna central, with warmer waters that attract all kinds from bluefin to albacore to spawn, making fishing one of its biggest industries. 

While sashimi lovers the world over favour bluefin for its different levels of fat, the big-eye is prized by the locals for its all-lean akami flesh which is high in protein and low in fat. 

SEE ALSO

Return to Japan - a taste of Tokyo now

The key to quality big-eye tuna is in the texture and colour of its meat, explains Wakuda’s supplier Kaoru Takaesu, at his namesake seafood shop where the tuna cutting takes place. The benchmark would be its suppleness, and a sticky, mochi-like texture. And of course smooth, clean purity of flavour. 

Each day before dawn breaks at 4.30 am, Tomari Fishing Port buzzes with activity as the auction kicks into gear. Rubber-booted traders do a look-or-press mochi test on the rows of tuna, slashed at the base of their tails to reveal the colour and condition of the flesh within. A bell rings and within minutes, each fish goes home with its new owner. The same scenario is played out at a different section, where fish in unreal blue, green and purple colours join other homegrown varieties on their journey to the local fish market.

A lot of them end up at Itoman Fishing Co-operative Fish Centre – Okinawa’s answer to Tsukiji Market – where locals and tourists alike get to shop and sample sashimi and cooked seafood at supposedly wholesale prices. While the quality varies (not everything is from around Okinawa) the choice is mind-boggling. Best bets are the local budai (the sapphire-coloured fish yields pristine white-flesh sashimi that’s super fresh and tasty) and giant squid sodeika – sold pre-sliced as sashimi with an addictive resilient, crisp-chewy bite. 

To taste the tuna from Takaesu’s fish shop, head to the second floor to its jointly run izakaya Tarajisabira, which serves seafood at amazing prices. Think sashimi platters at 2,500 yen (S$25) for nine varieties, tuna portions for 500 yen and 15 pieces of sushi for 2,300 yen. But even better to our mind than the tuna is raw tiger shrimp, sweet and succulent from head to tail. And Okinawan through and through. 

If we said seaweed reverses grey hair, would you eat it more?

Not everything from the sea that’s good for you swims or is housed in a shell. Sea greens such as mozuku and umibudo are the squiggly and squishy stars of the Okinawan diet. The first looks like a bad hair day for a hermit crab – straggly strings of jelly-like brown algae with a slippery texture that is eaten raw in a sweet vinegar dressing. Not the prettiest, but mozuku elbows kombu and wakame aside for its levels of fucoidan, found only in brown seaweed. Fucoidan has been cited in studies as having antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer properties, while unofficially it’s said to be good for hair growth or even slowing the greying process. 

While mozuku and umibudo are ubiquitous in the tourist areas of Naha City, it’s clear that Wakuda doesn’t get his supply from a souvenir shop on Kokusaidori. His purveyors would ensure a shorter route from the shallow coastal waters of Okinawa, particularly the umibudo or fragile sea grapes that look just like their name. Also known as green caviar, the tiny little pearls pop in your mouth in crunchy bursts of ocean flavour, fuelling your body with iron, calcium, magnesium and especially hyaluronic acid – a vital ingredient in anti-ageing beauty products. The grapes are not harvested directly from the ocean but grown in “‘greenhouses which are equipped with large tanks filled with seawater piped directly from the ocean”, says Wakuda of the “eye-opening” experience at the facility run by Kumejima Kaiyoshinsosui, from Kume island. The specimens here are so lush and plump, they beat the limp store versions hands down. They’re tricky to transport, so look forward to Wakuda serving it at his Singapore restaurant, transformed into his signature Japanese classics.

Green, sweet and sour – the harvests of Okinawa islands, plus an odd pig or two

For just an inkling of what grows in the many, many islands of Okinawa, a visit to Itoman Umanchu Farmers’ Market is in order. And convenient, since it’s a hop and skip away from the Fish Centre, all within one huge complex that includes a garden centre selling face-sized phalaenopsis orchids at a fraction of Singapore’s prices. 

Sponge gourds, local bananas, mangoes and pineapples (the bananas have a delicate creaminess to them), every kind of green vegetable, and Okinawan turmeric – paler than ours, and an elixir to hard-drinking locals trying to fortify their livers – is on show.

But what fascinates Wakuda is the story behind all the produce you see in the market. “The passion of the local farmers is inspiring – many of them are family-run businesses, and they take great pride in delivering high quality produce.”

Every island specialises in crops according to its unique terroir, and around Itoman City you’ll find farms growing sweet potatoes, corn, beans and gourds, as well as smooth, ridgeless okra that look like ladies’ fingers taking a naked selfie. The regular, furry versions are tougher with a strong vegetal taste so it’s not really nice eaten raw. But the farmer who grows the hairless ones snaps them off their stalks and invites you to bite straight into them. They’re crisp and mild, with no raw sappiness. So they’re great eaten raw – and healthy – in salads or paired with mozuku for double whammy nutrition.

The area is also good for farming mushrooms, particularly black abalone and eryngii. They’re cultivated in very neat facilities, with ceiling-high shelves of plastic canisters stuffed with a special mash of corn cobs, brown rice husks and other secret ingredients to nourish the fat, fleshy fungi.

Shikuwasa Heading north of Okinawa Island to Motobu Town near Yonabaru is where you’ll find the prefecture’s star performer – shikuwasa limes, which we would nominate over yuzu anytime for its distinctive, richer citrus taste. They look like calamansi but are a hybrid of mandarin orange and kumquat. Truly indigenous to Okinawa, they were growing wild before people got wind of just how nutrient-packed the little sour bombs were, and turned them into one of the prefecture’s major crops after mangoes and pineapples.

The fruit has the highest levels of biotin among all citrus fruits in addition to vitamin C, with supposed fat-burning powers too. They’re sold as they are, but you find them conveniently in concentrated juice form, or vinegar, which when diluted makes a sweet sour drink that cuts through lactic acid and helps with sleep or workout exertion. But the real clincher? Add sugar syrup, soda water and a shot of shochu – and welcome to the world of shikuwasa sours. You won’t go back to yuzu after this.

Acerola cherry After shikuwasa comes the acerola cherry – an enticing bright red but super-sour fruit that thrives in Motobu Town. Not exactly native to Okinawa, acerola was brought over from Hawaii after World War II when the former Ryukyu islands were under US control (until 1972 when it was returned to the Japanese government). 

As the government tried to introduce more ways for locals to earn a living, it encouraged acerola farming; and 35 years ago, Acerola Fresh started growing it on its farm as an alternative to sugar cane. Its bubbly owner Tetsuko Namisato also has a fruit shop on the farm premises selling acerola ice blends, juices and purees. The fruit itself has just a three-day shelf life so only the locals get to enjoy the fresh picked flavours. Like everything else grown in Okinawa, the high concentration of vitamin C and antioxidants add up to a lot of good stuff in one tiny package.

Kokuto For those familiar with the fluffy steamed brown sugar buns at Okinawa food fairs in Singapore’s Japanese supermarkets, kokuto is the only sugar you can eat on its own without feeling guilty about it. The rough nuggets of solidified syrup boiled down from sugar cane juice is compared with molasses (or even gula melaka) but its taste profile is more complicated, rich and intense. And it’s even more complex when you consider that sugar cane is grown on many different islands in Okinawa and each will yield a different taste profile.

What each variety has in common is the potassium, calcium and iron present in the sugar that makes it so nutritious. For the sugar snob, remember these names: Iheya, Kohama, Ie, Aguni and Yonaguni. They are just five of many kokuto producing areas (70 per cent of Okinawa grows sugar cane). Do a taste test and pick out the slightly bitter tones of Iheya, a salty tang and milkiness of Ie, the robustness of Kohama that’s good for cooking or to amp up a chai latte, and more. It can even lift the richness of a ramen broth, says Wakuda, who also adds it to butter when cooking for that sweet-salty accent.

Agu pork and Motobu beef Getting a taste of Okinawan meat is not likely to happen in Singapore, but if there’s ever a chance, take it. Pigs and cattle reared on the islands have their own natural sweetness and even layering of fat that sets it apart. Agu pork is one level above beni buta – a more common pig raised on sweet potatoes. The fat is lower in cholesterol than other breeds, which gives the locals an excuse to make it their meat of choice. But Motobu beef is nothing to sniff at either, and if you get to a yakiniku that serves both, you’re a winner. Still, if you want gold standard stuff, you’ll have to fly to Ishigaki island, where the beef is their equivalent of Kobe.

Bringing Okinawa to Singapore, bite by bite

While Wakuda is by no means the first to use Okinawan produce, his endorsement helps raise the visibility of a prefecture that deserves a bigger spotlight in the gourmet department. Besides big-eye tuna, umibudo, giant squid and swordfish, he has added shikuwasa and kokuto to accentuate small plates, cocktails and desserts. And if he sparks your interest, there’s a whole food journey awaiting on Okinawa’s sunny isles.

The writer’s trip was hosted by the Okinawa prefectural government.