Onna regional street market has been very successful with marketing local people and tourists. The parking area is always crowded in mid-day. In the corner of the market is Marui Coffee, a booth of organic coffee beans. There’s the man. He’s the roaster. He’s only here in weekends. He imports organic coffee beans and roasts with local wood charcoal. He likes to roasts to French and Italian. It’s really difficult to roast with charcoals, not with gas, to the edge, close to just burning the beans. But he says the coffee tastes totally different. It brings up more flavor and sweet aroma. He says gas roast makes the taste edgy, […]
Miyabi Chaya is an old house cafe. Feels like grandma’s home. Ohagi is a sweet rice ball. Very traditional sweets for celebration and sacred events. It’s steamed glutinous rice, the kind of rice you make mochi with. And the rice is coated by sweet Azuki bean paste. Purple one is a plain Ohagi. Pale Ohagi is coated with dried soybean powder. Here’s Masami-san, the cafe owner. She opened this place to provide the kind of Ohagi that her grandma used to make and that she loved so much. When you bite, you can tell that someone really made it for you with love. Gentleness, humbleness, gratitude, and all the […]
Ramen Hachi Ren opened in 2008, just about the time we moved to Okinawa. And we fell in love with their Ramen. For the first 2 years we came almost every week. We’ve seen their history. It’s not an objective judgement, but it’s our pure love to say “They are the best Ramen on the island!!!” Now they became so popular. Most time and day, there’s a waiting line. You write down your name, buy tickets for your orders , and wait to be called. She ordered the signature Ramen. Tonkotsu base from local Okinawa pork with medium heavy noodle. Very rich, creamy and tasty. We just loved the balance of all the tastes […]
This coffee was a wonderful surprise for me. I know a few coffee places in Okinawa I like. But basically I’ve given up to just bump into a good coffee in Okinawa. There is a guy in Onna village who I always buy my coffee beans from. He roasts with firewoods organic coffee beans. I think his coffee is the best I can get on the island so I always carry around my coffee, and I don’t expect much from outside coffee. So when I bumped into this place today, it was a big WOW! Located in one of the most popular shopping malls in Okinawa, American Village in Chatan. […]
Sans Souci is definitely one of the most successful cafe in Okinawa. It’s 11:30 am, Wednesday. Already crowded and 5 parties were waiting when we got there. It’s a restaurant in an American style house. Hybrid food and sweets of Kyoto traditions and Okinawa goodies. Wanna have spicy rich Udon? Light traditional Udon? Wanna have some Donburi (rice bowl) too… Can’t decide. She decided to go light. Japanese traditional broth Udon with Kujo Negi (Kyoto green onions), plum, and local chicken. JPY850 Very refreshing. This is the way to taste the high quality Japanese broth here. I had spicy curry Udon with egg. JPY900 This is something […]
We had a new restaurant opened this spring in the beautiful Maeda cape. Pezzeria da Enzo is a fancy restaurant which serves Napoli pizza and other Italian cuisine. We happened to have some friends working there and it was great to visit for our first time. Very spacious and stylish room with full bar. A nice open deck area which looks out the beautiful Maeda Cape. It is a very popular diving spot for “Blue Cave”. A serious Italian pizza stove, an Italian chef, in somewhat Japanese attitude. A very nice guy. Not just pizza, they have some Italian dishes with local goodies too. They use Okinawa brand pork “Agu” with […]
Maru Tama opened in 2014 in the port area of Naha. It’s run by a lovely family. Very nice people. Okinawa has its own style of deep-fried finger food. It’s called Tenpura here, but Okinawa Tenpura is pretty different from Japanese traditional tenpura. It’s really like a fritter. And it has established its popularity for local people as afternoon snack. Now they are taking on the challenge to provide their fish ‘n’ chips that they learned in New Zealand. They report where every ingredients come from. They are some other fries too. Oysters, JPY300. Camembert, JPY900. Avocade, JPY300. Goya (Bitter gourd), JPY200. Okura, JPY200. Loofah and cheese, JPY250. Fish […]
Awase 3rd St. Ramen is a very simple, yet, very unique Ramen restaurant. Located in the coast line of Awase, Okinawa-shi. They are playing Jazz. Try shio (salt) Ramen here. JPY650. The clear soup is from pork bones, chicken bones, and vegetables. It’s light, but the body is solid and filled with flavors and umami. Very heart-warming sips. The noodle is light and curled, a good match with the soup. Chashu is lightly seasoned, but it’s very juicy and tasty. It’s topped with “A-sa”, okinawa local seaweed. It’s very unique to have this seaweed on Ramen. Some people like it and some don’t. We like the oceanic scent that it […]
In the middle of sugar cane field of Ginoza village is a little cozy sweets shop. As we live in this rural village, Kino Store is a precious relief for our craving for sweets. All the ingredients are carefully selected and prepared. It’s just one of those foods that you feel the tender loving care of someone who makes them. They are mostly baked cakes and cookies. Nothing fancy. But they have solid fans. They usually sell out in the late afternoon. Today’s target was their famous Lemon Cake. JPY150. Restaurant Info kino store