Okinawan chef cooking up rare feast

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Rafute, slow-cooked pork, is perhaps the best-known Okinawan special-occasion dish. Photos by Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

To support the family, they operated a food cart, which his father pulled through the neighborhood, dispensing his mother's handmade soba noodles, inarizushi ("cone" sushi), oden (an Okinawan vegetable stew), and, when they could get it from the American military, a little whiskey on the side.

They called their business Hatsune-ya, a word that refers to the explosive sound made by firecrackers and bells in celebration of the New Year — the implication being "a new beginning."

Yamada chuckles when he recalls how his breakfast every morning was the hated leftovers. But the memories seem sweet now. And his dislike of leftovers didn't prevent him from becoming a chef: at sushi bars in New York for 25 years, and here for 12 more as part-owner with his wife, Noriko, of Restaurant Kariyushi ("happiness"), the rare Okinawan restaurant in Honolulu.

Now, even as the Yamadas prepare for a special Okinawan food promotion they're doing in concert with the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel, they're preparing to revamp their menu, renovate their Young Street restaurant in Pawa'a to include a new sushi bar and open-plan kitchen, and rename it Hatsune-ya in a tribute to his late parents.

Through interpreter Audrey Kamiya of the Banyan Veranda restaurant at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, Yamada explains that the nine-course menu he designed for the Kariyushi Matsuri (Happiness Festival) at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider next Monday through Sunday is a walk-through of Okinawan cuisine, trendy and traditional.

It also illustrates how closely interwoven diet and health are in the Okinawan mind. As the Yamadas conduct a tasting for Sheraton officials, they outline the health qualities of each dish and note how serving sizes leave you pleasantly satisfied, not overstuffed.

The expansive dinner to be served in the Banyan Veranda begins with a drink very trendy among young Japanese: chilled goya juice — the bright-green extracted nectar of the bitter melon, sweetened with honey, an aperitif to cleanse the palate and stimulate digestion. The juice goes down easily, leaving a not-unpleasant impression of bitterness afterward.

Pickled green papaya is Yamada's variation on the pickled vegetable theme: a tart salad of thin-cut discs of crisp papaya, made with miso paste and tasting somehow of the sea. It would be customary to have a seaweed salad at this point, but as seaweed figures several times in the meal, he decided to depart from tradition.

The dish considered to be the epitome of Okinawan cuisine follows: rafute — pork belly that's been grilled, chilled, marinated in awamori (a distilled rice drink) and simmered oh-so-slowly in sake and brown sugar in a precise choreography that's meant to melt away the fat, leaving only a sweet, meaty flavor and — Okinawans believe — nutrients that are good for your joints and prevent arthritis. Rafute is a special-occasion food most often served now in restaurants.

With it comes kubuirichi, a dish of sautéed kelp, thin-sliced marinated pork and bright pink konyaku (a vegetable gelatin) that's both refreshingly crunchy and slightly rich. Chef Yamada explains that there is no kelp around Okinawa; it grows in the deep waters off Hokkaido island in the north. He said the best-quality kelp is sent to Okinawa, where it is used fresh; the most common use in Japan is for dashi (soup broth), where texture is less important.

The next dish is an eye-opener: peanut tofu, a wonderfully refreshing, pleasantly flavored white custard square, served chilled with a little wasabi and light shoyu. Fresh peanuts are soaked in water overnight, ground and strained, and a coagulant (imokuzu, mountain sweet potato powder) is added before cooking so the mixture forms a thick paste that must be stirred by hand for 40 minutes.

"Even in Okinawa, this is hard to find," said Yamada. Noriko fondly calls the dish "a headache," because they have to get family in Okinawa to send the coagulant; there is no Okinawan grocery store here.

Dishes follow in profusion after: goya champuru (classic Okinawan bitter melon tofu stir-fry), mozuku (chilled Okinawan seaweed, prized for its slimy texture and nutritional value), duru ten (a cake of fried taro and sweet potato favored as a cocktail pupu), togan soup (an impressively rich dashi soup with winter melon, pork and shiitake mushrooms), jyushi (seasoned rice with kelp, carrots, browned onions and shiitake mushrooms, real comfort food) and "Okinawan cheesecake" for dessert (a Japanese-style baked cheesecake that's light and cakey, with Okinawan sweet potato inside).

Two additional dishes — a fried noodle yakisoba and the goya champuru — will be offered in the dinner buffet line at The Beachside Cafe during the promotion, and Okinawan beer and sake will be available. At the Yamada's restaurant, all this would be served with fermented turmeric tea, an enjoyable bittersweet brew.

Okinawa in Hawai'i

Chef Steve Yamada of Restaurant Kariyushi has put together a nine-course spread for the Banyan Veranda at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel: from bitter-melon stir-fry (bottom left) to peanut tofu (center right) with a healthful bitter melon juice aperitif.

21st annual Okinawa Festival, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 30 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 31, with parade 9 a.m. Aug. 30 along Kalakaua Avenue; opening ceremony 11 a.m. Aug. 30 at Kapi'olani Park, bon dance 6 p.m. Music, food, craft sales. 676-5400.

Restaurant Kariyushi, 1436 Young St., 942-1137, dinner Mondays through Saturdays. Closed for renovations for one week in late August or early September — call first.

Kariyushi Matsuri, Sheraton Moana Surfrider, nine-course Okinawan menu ($46.50) in Banyan Veranda, Aug. 25-31; some menu items also offered in Beach Side Cafe. Ryukyu-koku Matsuri Daiko in Hawai'i, Okinawan taiko drum and dance group performance at 5 p.m. Aug. 25 and 31. Reservations: 922-3111.