#amami oshima

[shoku-and-awe]

Let me just share my other breakfasts from the amazing inn in Amami Oshima! Both main dishes are variations on 鶏飯 keihan, a local chicken and rice dish. In the top photo, it's a gratin version: rice arranged with chicken and aromatics, then smothered with melted cheese. The bottom photo is keihan toppings over soumen noodles!

I was shocked at the volume of food every day (and how good it all was!) but especially on my last day, when in addition to the enormous breakfast, there were two spam and egg onigiri on my tray! Turns out the okāsan made them special for my flight back to Tokyo 🥺 She didn't want me to get hungry......

[royalxclass]

namikomori

[life-globe-blog]

A Filipino crew member believed to be onboard Gulf Livestock 1, a cargo ship carrying livestock and dozens of crew members that went missing after issuing a distress signal due to Typhoon Maysak, is rescued by a Japan Coast Guard boat during their search and rescue operation at the East China Sea, to the west of Amami Oshima island in southwestern Japan Credit: Japan Coast Guard/via REUTERS 

[cumberfoil]

Amami Oshima is striving to become a UNESCO World Nature Heritage. It's not difficult to see why. There's so much untouched nature on that island. There aren't even hiking paths.

[nippon-com]

It’s getting cold, so here are Amami Ōshima’s Tomori Beach, Honohoshi Beach, and Yadorihama Beach to warm you up.

[undine66770]

Watch out for Jebi... it’s a monster. Stay safe, everyone in Japan. Thoughts and prayers go out to you.

[shoku-and-awe]

Big izakaya dinner in Amami Oshima this time last year! I can't remember exactly what everything was but I enjoyed the new sea vegetable I tried in the first picture and also the moment when they said "野菜になります" (yasai ni narimasu / "Here's your vegetables") and put down a platter of boiled pigs trotters, kelp, and fishcakes. I was like ".......vegetables?" and my dining companions said, "Yeah, that's what they call side dishes here." Whatever, everything was delicious.

[shoku-and-awe]

Delicious (and enormous) breakfast of local specialties in Amami Ōshima last winter. I was incredibly lucky to wind up at this inn, obviously, but doubly so as the owner just competed in the Tanita Gohan Local Food Contest as a representative of her prefecture!

Let's just cover some highlights because, wow, lots. The rice dish is called 鶏飯 keihan, or chicken and rice. You eat a bit of rice plain if you like, then add your own proportions of chicken, shredded omelet, pickled ginger, mushrooms, and aromatics, then pour chicken broth over it and mix!

You might recognize 魚みそ sakana-miso (shredded white fish with a sweet miso coating) and pickled 島らっきょう shima-rakkyō (island shallots) from the post linked above. And the greenish-black stuff in the rolled omelet and in the clear dish in the bottom left picture is モズク mozuku, a type of seaweed from Kyushu and Okinawa. It's usually served in a sweetened vinegar that I love, and this mozuku was extra delicious because it was harvested fresh by the owner and her husband. Man, what did I even come back to Tokyo for?