Aside from embracing rice as a staple, Okinawan food is completely different from Japanese food. Okinawan taste of home recipes tends toward thicker and spicier flavors than Japanese food recipes. It is more heavily influenced by Chinese culinary ways and techniques from China since The Ryukyu Kingdom in fourteenth century.

Pork is the cornerstone in Okinawa cuisine, such as beef is with Americans. Okinawans apply each part of pig, from pig’s ear, pig’s tripe to pig’s feet in their daily cooking. Rafute is a melting tender and succulent braised pork belly. This great Okinawa taste of home recipe is well recognized by the western palate. The pork is broiled, cooled and then slowly cooked to achieve tenderness and to eliminate fat. It is slowly simmered in a detachable combination of brown sugar, sake, soy sauce until it is melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Okinawan Taste Of  Home Recipe – Rafute:

Ingredient: (4 servings):

- 1kg pork belly
- 100g fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thick slices
- 2 cups dashi
- 3/4 cups sake
- 1/4 cup mirin
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

Preparations:

- Cut the pork belly into bite-sized cubes. Blanch the pork cubes with boiling water in a large pot to remove any excess oil. Drain and set aside.

- Mix ginger, dashi, sake mirin, brown sugar, soy sauce in a heavy based saucepan, stir over high heat until the sugar is dissolved.

- Add the pork and return to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, turning occasionally for one hour or until the pork cubes are tender. When the sauce reduced to slightly syrupy glaze, stop the heat.

- Arrange the pork cubes in serving dish. Pour over the remaining sauce and serve with little mustard on the side, if you like.

And here is the result as you can see..Yummy, with this mount-water look roasted pork!!

Ingredients:
1.5kg pork (belly pork)
1/2 tsp salt

(A):
2 tbsp vinegar
1 litre water

(B):
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 pieces of red fermented bean-curd (tau chu or nam yee), well mashed
1 tsp Chinese Shao Xing cooking wine
1 tsp thai fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar

Method
Combine water and vinegar and bring to a boil. Scald the skin of the pork with the hot vinegar mixture. Set pork aside, then rub just enough salt on the skin. Rub meat with combined marinade (B) and leave aside for one to two hours to dry.

Place pork with the meat side up on a rack and roast in a turbo broiler at 200ºC for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove meat. Prick the skin with a sharp metal skewer several times. Put meat back on the rack with the skin side up and roast at 200ºC for 25 to 30 minutes or until skin turns crispy.

Note
After roasting, the chunk of meat will shrink to less than half its original size.

Source

Shabu shabu is one of the Japanese hot pot dishes and most enjoyable winter dishes. The array of ingredients is prepared in advance. Ingredients such as thinly sliced meat, vegetables and other ingredients are cooked in a skillet on the table making it possible for hosts to relax and enjoy a convivial meal with theiï½’ guest.

Japanese beef with Shabu-shabu:

Ingredients: (Makes 4 servings)

700g sirloin beef, thinly sliced
15 spring onions (scallions), diagonally and thinly sliced
3 carrots, cut into thin round slices
400g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 Chinese cabbage, chopped to bite-sized
1 block cotton tofu, cut into bite-sized cubes
2 litres chicken stock
Japanese short-grain rice, cooked
ready made shabu shabu sauce

Preparations:

Arrange the prepared vegetables, tofu and meat in separate piles on a serving platter. Cover with kitchen wrap and refrigerate before cooking. Position the serving platter and electric wok so they are within easy reach of each diner. Pour the stock into the electric wok, cover and bring to a simmer. Each diner then picks up an ingredient or two with thier chopsticks and places it in the simmering stock for about 1 minute or until cooked. Do not overcook, the vegetables should be just tender and the beef still pink in the centre.Skim off any foam and repeat cooking. The food is then dipped into the sauce and eaten with the rice. The remaining stock can be served as soup at the end of meal.

Buta no Shogayaki(豚の生姜焼き） is a famous Japanese food dish served in restaurant throughout Japan. It goes well with rice mostly prepared in set for lunch or dinner. Shoga or ginger, is the main ingredient for the dish. With some cornstarch to thicken the sauce, when it combined with the pork slices it makes the dish more delicious. And when you eat together with rice, it provide you with plenty of energy and boost you appetite during summer. Prefect!!

Ingredients: (4 servings):

300g thinly sliced pork
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp grated garlic
2 tbsp salad oil
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sake
1 tbsp cornstarch
shedded  cabbage

Preparations:

Mix grated ginger, garlic and sugar in a small bowl. Pour cornstarch in the surface of thinly sliced pork. Marinate pork for 10 minutes. Heat salad oil in a frying pan. Stir-fry both side of pork slices on medium heat. Turn to low heat, pour in sake and soy sauce. Served ginger pork with cabbage.

Japanese Sweet and Sour Pork Recipe

Wafu-Chuka, as the cuisine is known in Japan, is characterized by an elegance and style that heightens both Japanese and Chinese cooking traditions. Popular wafu-chuka dishes include mabo-tofu, hiayashi chuka, gyoza, subuta and so on. Subuta（酢豚） a sweet and sour pork dish which is one of the very popular wafu-chuka dish in Japan. The sauce is the main point of the dish. So, with a good combination among vinegar, sugar, ketcup and starch, it will determine how delicious the subuta is? Alternatively, you may replace kurosu (黒酢、black vinegar) for the dish which will increase your appetite.

Ingredients:

200 g pork tenderloin cut into bite size
1 onion cut into bite size
1/2 carrot cut into bite size
1/2 green pepper cut into bite size
1 clove garlic, minced
3 shiitake mushroom
2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup soup stock
3 tbsp soysauce
3 tbsps rice wine vinegar
4 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp ketchup
3 tbsps water
3 tbsps potato starch / corn starch
2 tsp oyster sauce (if you have)

Preparations:
Add in sugar, ketchup, soysauce, and rice wine vinegar to the pork in a bowl and let stand 30minutes.
Heat oil to 350F and deep-fry pork until golden/cooked. Drain oil and cook onion, garlic, carrot, green pepper, shiitake mushrooms and fried pork over high heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add mixture of water, soup stock and starch in the pan and stir quickly over medium heat.
Put in a plate and serve with plain rice.