Rice dishes
Yafara Juushii
Yafara juushii — a soft, brothy rice porridge for an off day
A softer, wetter cousin of kufa juushii, cooked porridge-style with plenty of broth. Where the firmer version is festival food, this one is gentle enough to eat on an off day, and many households stir in mugwort or sweet-potato leaf.
- Origin: Okinawa
- About 1560 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Rice is cooked down soft with various ingredients into this porridge-style Okinawan dish, also called boroboro juushii. Compared to the firmer kufa juushii, this version uses more liquid, giving it a thick, soothing texture that warms you through. Variations abound, from a mugwort version called fuuchibaa juushii to one made with sweet potato leaves called kandabaa juushii.
How it's made
Rice is rinsed thirty minutes before cooking and drained well. If using leftover rice, it's given a quick rinse in water instead. Dashi is set in a pot with the rinsed rice and whatever ingredients are chosen, and it simmers slowly until soft. These days, some cooks finish it just before serving by stirring in a raw egg and butter, for a rounder, creamier flavor.
Why it took this shape
Among Okinawa's juushii mixed rice dishes, this softer style stands apart from the firmer kufa version and is said to have become a staple of everyday home cooking. It is often made specifically when someone is feeling unwell, said to have settled in as a dish gentle enough on the stomach for that purpose. Some households add pork, carrot, shiitake, and other familiar vegetables to round out its nutrition.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- Station food and ekiben (station bento)Where and when to find ekiben (station bento) before it sells out, etiquette for eating on board, how standing soba and udon stalls work, and where to find souvenirs sold inside the station.
- Soraben and airport diningA guide to what soraben means and how it differs from ekiben, whether to buy before or after security, etiquette for eating on board, airport restaurants, and things to check before buying food souvenirs to take home.
Dishes in the same style
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- Aburi-zushiNigiri with just its surface flash-seared by torch or hot iron. Unlike Edomae's shigoto curing for keeping, the searing here is done purely for the change in aroma and fat it brings — a relatively recent way of eating sushi.
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.