Day 11 I Love Okinawa Soba!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
I left Saboten Smile in the morning to go back to Hana-chan family’s home in Ginowan. I have diving lessons scheduled for the next few days. The weather forecast said it was going to rain. Oh, I hope I can go as far as possible before it starts raining.
Well, about an hour after I left Nago, it started raining. And then it started pouring. I kept cycling with my rain clothes, but after a while I couldn’t see very well any more. My sunglasses were getting too much rain drops I wished I had windshield wipers on them.
So I stopped at an Okinawa soba restaurant. When you say soba in Okinawa, it’s completely different from the buckwheat noodle soba that you’d get in the mainland Japan. The Okinawa soba noodles are white and much fatter, and it’s topped with big chunks of tender, slow cooked pork. This dish has become my favorite in Okinawa. It’s warm, hearty, cheap, full-filling, and just plain delicious!!!
While I was eating, the rain stopped and I was able to dry off. So I just kept pushing, hoping to get to Hana-chan’s house soon, as it looked like it could start raining any minute again. The road back from Nago to Ginowan is a bit more uphill than the other way. As I tried to cycle faster for a couple hours so I wouldn’t get rained on, I was starting to get hungry again. It’s amazing how fast you can burn your fuel in the body. Just when I was thinking about how warm and muggy it was getting, I saw an ice cream sign from afar. I got excited as soon as I saw the colorful sign like a kid. I got closer to it with the cold ice cream in my mind, but there was no ice cream.
What? Where is my ice creeeam? (I couldn’t help screaming ice cream in my mind) My little ice cream dream was deflated like a balloon with a needle. (or is that a burst?)
Then I saw a blue and white umbrella and an ice cream girl under it. YESSS!! I realized that earlier sign was a notice that the ice cream was getting close. I didn’t know that rule in Okinawa.
Besides me, there were a few more happy customers after a baseball practice.
This is shekwasha ice cream. Shekwasha is an Okinawan citrus fruit with a very refreshing, summery flavor like lime, but milder.
I sat by the ice cream girl, finished eating the ice cream with a big smile, and pedaled to get to Hana-chan’s home.
About the Author: Sachi
3 Responses to Day 11 I Love Okinawa Soba!
Comments! Yay!
« Day 9-10 My Wheel Doesn’t Turn Day 12-13 Diving Dream in Okinawa »
I SCREEEEEEEAAM for ICE-CREAM!!! Yummmmmo, citrus! Please send some back to Cali.
We all scream for ice cream!!!
Hallo Khaikun!
That ice cream was so good! I have so many more yummo stories to tell, I have to catch up with my posts! More to come very soon!
“So I stopped at an Okinawa soba restaurant. When you say soba in Okinawa, it’s completely different from the buckwheat noodle soba that you’d get in the mainland Japan. The Okinawa soba noodles are white and much fatter, and it’s topped with big chunks of tender, slow cooked pork.”
This is where East meets East in a mixing of cultures. This little gem of a dish actually has a Chinese origin and varations have fanned out all over East and Southeast-Asia like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It practically is a long lost cousin of Vietnamese Pho and Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Before Okinawa became Japanese it was a trade hub between China and Japan and happily for your stomach in due course there was an exchange of food, knowledge and culture.