Saving Japan's vanishing cuisine
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For 450 years, the little-known Ryukyu Kingdom thrived in what is now Japan. Now, after nearly vanishing, its unique fusion cuisine is being revived.
"You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their tongue," Yukie Miyaguni tells me in the kitchen-classroom of her second-storey apartment in Uruma, a city on the Japanese island of Okinawa. I've taken a few cooking classes over the years, but this is the first time anyone's ever asked to examine my tongue.
With my mouth agape, Miyaguni – a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner and Ryukyuan chef – gives my tongue a long look before drawing its likeness on a whiteboard and offering a prescription: "More cacao at night, honey in the morning and more butter," she concludes, noting it will help improve my blood circulation and dry skin.
I didn't come to Okinawa for a diagnosis per se, but in many ways, it was my taste buds that led me to Miyaguni's kitchen. I had been hoping to learn more about the island's elusive and indigenous Ryukyuan cuisine, which can be traced back to the 12th Century when the Ryukyu Islands began trading with other East Asian states.
