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Minudaru
Minudaru — pork loin steamed in a black sesame paste until nearly black
Pork loin is steeped in a black-sesame paste and steamed until the color turns almost black, earning it the nickname 'black meat.' Steaming renders out the fat for a lighter taste than it looks, and it keeps well cold, making it a fixture among the assorted appetizers of formal Ryukyu banquets.
- Origin: Okinawa
- About 1560 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Thin-sliced pork loin, coated in a black sesame sauce, is steamed for this dish, nicknamed "black meat" for its dark finish. Steaming lets excess fat render away, leaving a flavor lighter than its appearance suggests, with the toasted sesame coming through clearly. Some versions add squid ink to the sauce for extra depth and darker color.
How it's made
Pork loin has its fat trimmed away. Toasted black sesame is ground, then sugar, soy sauce, and mirin are worked in to make a sauce. The meat, patted dry, is marinated in the sauce and steamed over rising steam. Squid ink is sometimes worked into the sauce as well. Because the flavor holds up even cold, the dish also reheats well by steaming, a practical advantage of its own.
Why it took this shape
The dish is said to have long appeared as one course on the touudaabun, an elaborate platter of appetizers dating to the Ryukyu court, valued as part of stacked festive-box meals and celebratory spreads. Among the seven to nine painstaking dishes typically arranged on that platter, this one, which demands so much sesame, is said to have been reserved for especially formal occasions.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Okinawa
- Ashi TibichiPig's trotters are simmered for hours with kelp and daikon until the bone slides free on its own. Rooted in the belief that eating a body part heals the same part in the eater, it's traditionally favored by older people, anyone with trouble in the legs, or those minding their skin.
- AwamoriA distilled spirit from Okinawa made only from Thai rice and black koji, with every grain of rice turned into koji in a method called zen-koji-jikomi. Citric acid from the black koji is said to keep the mash from spoiling even in hot, humid conditions, and it's classified alongside shochu as a single-distillation spirit.
- Chii IrichiiPork blood is worked with pork meat, carrot, and wood-ear mushroom into a distinctive stir-simmered dish. Rooted in the same eat-what-ails-you logic as ashi tibichi, it was thought to guard against anemia, and it's traditionally offered before Lunar New Year and at memorial services.
- Chimu ShinjiPork liver and a native yellow carrot are simmered down almost like a medicinal decoction, meant for days the body needs support. It follows the kusuimun idea that food itself can be medicine, and is traditionally made for anemia or when someone's caught a cold.
- Gooyaa ChanpuruuBitter goya is stir-fried together with Okinawa's firm tofu and egg. A dish only earns the name champuru once tofu is in it, and this one has long served double duty — coaxing back a summer-flagged appetite while delivering vitamin C, now eaten year-round.
- HanazakeA distilled spirit made only on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island, at around 60 percent alcohol. Its raw materials and method are the same as awamori, but because its proof exceeds awamori's legal ceiling, it's classified as 'spirits' rather than awamori under the liquor tax law.