#soki soba

[shoku-and-awe]

Sharing some hot noods of recent memory

[ryuucafe]

ソーキそば 沖縄の名物だそう！ 沖縄ウィークに学食で食べてみたが、好みではなかった。確か学食なので、安くてさ（が、他のウィークの料理と比べて、値段がちょっと上がった）

[ppaegopa]

Soki Soba, Okinawa

[eataku]

Octopus Garden, Okinawa

Okinawa amazed us!

For a number of reasons.

We knew going in that there’d be beautiful beaches, we just didn’t realize how secluded and empty they would be. It’s the complete opposite of Hawaii or the Caribbean where you need to get to any beach or pool at the crack of dawn to secure a good location, but are soon surrounded by thousands of other sun-loving tourists. However, any beach we went to here, no matter the size or location, had only a couple dozen other people on it, if that many. Ever. And it was peak season! Like Aharen beach on Tokashiki Island...

Tokashiki is about an hour ferry ride from Naha, Okinawa’s main city. And once you land on this off-shoot island, you need to take a public bus (there are no taxis) to Aharen Beach, about a 15 minute drive over the mountains on the other side of the island...

There's another big difference between Aharen and other beaches we’ve been too... the food served in the beachside restaurants here was homemade and cheap! There are maybe only four restaurants near Aharen and we chose Octopus Garden, as I liked the name and the vibe...

We started with large mugs of Okinawa’s Orion lager for 500 yen (about five bucks) each...

Shima rakkyo, an island “onion” (but more like a scallion IMO,) is a local favorite and was the first dish to hit the table...

Next up was another Okinawan staple, freshly-made “jimami tofu”, or peanut tofu, which doesn’t taste anything like peanuts and has the consistency of burrata cheese...

Soba is to Okinawa what meatballs are to Sweden or tacos are to Mexico; it’s the food the islands are most noted for. And it’s everywhere.

There are two main kinds of Okinawan soba, one version topped with pork belly, the other topped with pork ribs. We went for “soki soba”, the version with braised ribs...

The thing is, while they says “ribs”, there are no bones in this bowl. They’ve actually been removed and you can eat all the meat at the tendon that’s served on top of the noodles...

These lovely, toothsome, chewy soba noodles...

We also ordered up a plate of chicken karaage, because how can you not order friend chicken if it’s on the menu? It was good, but the weakest item served at this lunch...

If you do go to Octopus Garden, be sure to score a seat on their upstairs rooftop deck, but only after you order and pay downstairs first...

If you’re lucky to get one of the stools at the front bar there, you can have lunch with a partial view of that blue, blue ocean...

I’ll see if I can google up an address for you, but Octopus Garden is easy to find; once you get off the bus at Aharen Beach, it will be right in front of you!

[shoku-and-awe]

Yakisoba with Okinawan flavors! Made to resemble a bowl of soki soba, instead of a sweet sauce, this uses a simple salt-based sauce instead of the traditional, thick, sweet yakisoba sauce. I also liked the addition of shrimp!

[ileftmyheartintokyo]

Delicious Okinawa Soki Soba with homemade noodle by Ippei & Janine Naoi Via Flickr: At Katosoba