april 2023

as usual, the final post about okinawa is about the food! and the coffee. we had far too little time in okinawa and there was so much more we wanted to eat and drink.

coffee

tamagusuku coffee roasters

2-19-39 matsuo, naha

we found a couple small, very good coffee roasters in town, which had several roasts we could choose from for our drinks.. our first stop was tamagusuku. it was a hot afternoon and our second coffee of the day, so we got an espresso tonic and pourover instead of our usual flat whites.

rokkan coffee creators

1-29-9 higawa, naha

since okinawa is known for it’s pottery, we shouldn’t have been surprised to be served our excellent flat whites at rokkan in such beautiful cups.

lunch & snacks

doka doka

243-1 maeganeku, onna

speaking of ceramics, we stopped at a restaurant/ceramics shop called doka doka on our way up to orion happy park. their lunch set came with a choice of entree and a beverage. we both got coffee and they came in the adorable-list mugs. for our entrees, we got one of their pizzas and a taco rice (more on that later!).

the dining room extends to a balcony with a gorgeous view of the coast.

okinawa soba eibun

1-5-14 tsuboya, naha

i knew i had to try okinawa soba at some point, so we waited for an hour for a table at eibun. okinawa soba is different from the thin buckwheat noodles from the main islands of japan. it is a wheat noodle, no buckwheat at all. it was delicious, and we got to pick not only our toppings, but different noodle options as well. worth the wait.

chou chou

1-2-1 makishi, naha

probably my favorite food discovery coming out of okinawa is the pork tamago onigiri or the okinawan version of the spam musubi. it is served with egg, and in more of a taco or folded bun shape than the traditional ball/triangle. this little stand on the main drag in naha was our first time trying it and we were even able to get a beer - a perfect afternoon snack! seeing the spam did make me think how interesting it was that there are certain cultures that lean into spam (hawaii, korea, and now okinawa) and i realized they all, for better or worse, have deep connections to the u.s. military.

i love that the konbini in okinawa even sell this style of onigiri next to the ones you’re used to seeing throughout the rest of japan (and much of east asia).

blue seal

1-2-32 makishi, naha

blue seal ice cream was created in okinawa by the us military for soldiers that continued to be stationed in there after wwii. they serve fun okinawan flavors like beni-imo (okinawan sweet potato) and okinawa salt cookies alongside traditional american flavors (like cookies & cream) and everything in between.

king tacos

4244-4 kin, kin

i think i first learned about taco rice on an episode of anthony bourdain’s no reservations. similar to blue seal, its creation has to do with the americans that were craving a taste of home. so, it’s your standard seasoned beef “taco meat” with cheese, lettuce, and tomato over rice. we went to the supposed creator of this dish, king tacos, and their location in kin, which is the town right outside one of the major military bases on the island. the area was… interesting, but the taco rice was delicious. i’ve even made this at home now because that set of ingredients over steamed white rice is pretty incredible.

平良 (taira)

1-12-4 izumizaki, naha

taira is a small izakaya that we found near our hotel simply walking around one evening. there was zero english written or spoken, but they served us a delicious multicourse set meal, and our sweet server even opened up a translate app so we could communicate back and forth.

we weren’t quite able to get much clarification, but the meal felt very local, so we’re hoping it was a very okinawan meal. very close to japanese food but different in some of the ingredients and preparations. it was a wonderful, cozy meal, and we even had to tell them to stop bringing us food because we were just too full to keep going.

kokusai street food village

3-11-17 makishi, naha

our last night in naha, we stopped at the kokusai street food village. it’s very cute with orion paper lanterns, and holds about 20 small food stands serving all sorts of different local and international foods.

i really wanted some yakitori so we put our name in at a busy spot that looked like they specialized in it. we got to sit at the “chef’s table” which is also where all the prepped skewers were sitting.

we kind of just pointed at a few different things ( and luckily the chef spoke a little english too!) and ate whatever he ended up giving us. it was a super tasty and a great way to wrap up our time in okinawa.

naha airport food court

okay, one last note! just like our first meal in okinawa was pork tamago onigiri, it was also our last. the food court in the airport had a spot selling a few varieties of the onigiri, but the classic “potama” was perfect for breakfast before our morning flight.