Okinawa Feature

Okinawa's famously long-lived and hearty population has made the "Okinawa Diet" a buzzword among Slow-Food enthusiasts and others interested in healthful eating. Islanders aren't sure where the secret of their longevity lies, but do your best to try it all: is it in the knobbly, green bitter goya (bitter melon); delicious tofu-like fu; salty mozuku seaweed; abundant tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, and papaya; conscientious consumption of every single part of the pig; champlu stir-fry dishes; alien-looking fish and crustaceans, sometimes still wriggling; delicious white soki-soba noodles, tastiest in a hot pork-stock soup with soft soki rib meat lining the bowl; Thai rice or the blindingly potent awamori liquor it's distilled into; aromatic, koregusu hot sauce, made from red chilies pickled in awamori; cloying kokuto black sugar; savory umi-budo sea grapes; purple beni-imo potatoes; or a mix of it all?