Why "Okinawa cuisine" is full of "Chinese flavor"?

In recent years, Okinawa has gradually become a popular tourist destination for China people. Because of its subtropical scenery, it is very different from Tokyo and Osaka in Honshu Island. "Okinawa cuisine" is far from traditional Japanese cuisine, but it is easy for China people to feel "deja vu" ...

Similar to the situation in China and Japan, pasta with wheat flour as raw material also plays an important role in Okinawa cuisine. Noodles were invented by China, but they were introduced to Japan long ago.

Buckwheat noodles are called "noodles with the most Japanese characteristics". In Ryukyu, there is also a common "Okinawa buckwheat noodles". In fact, this kind of flour is processed with wheat flour instead of buckwheat. The reason why the Japanese call it "そば" is actually similar to the authentic "Lamian Noodles" experience in China. At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese noodles landed in Japan from Zhonghua Street in Yokohama. Although it contains no buckwheat, it is closer to Japan's slender buckwheat noodles than the round udon noodles in form, so it is called "Nanjing buckwheat noodles" by the Japanese (later it evolved into "ラーメン" or "Lamian Noodles").

The genes of China food.

According to Okinawa scholar Kurashiki's research, noodles appeared in Ryukyu official documents as early as the middle of Ming Dynasty 1534. However, after 100 years, Amin survivor Zhu Shunshui (1600- 1682), who lived in Japan, taught the Japanese to mix wheat flour with buckwheat flour to make it sticky and elastic, and the legend of authentic buckwheat noodles in Japan was born.

Among the cooking methods of Japanese cuisine, steaming, cold salad or boiling are the most common, so Japanese cuisine is also called "water cuisine". The exquisite dishes on the dining table are all fresh and light. In contrast to Chinese food, these cooking techniques are not lacking, but the most distinctive one is "frying". Cooking can be vegetarian or mixed. Regardless of the North and South cuisines, "stir-frying" is the main and varied cooking method.

Why is the "Chinese flavor" in Okinawa cuisine so strong compared with that in Japan? This naturally has historical reasons. Ryukyu's productivity is not high, and many crops come directly from China. In addition to sweet potatoes, Xia Ziyang, who was entrusted to Ryukyu in A.D. 1606, also found many local vegetables, such as "melon, eggplant, ginger, garlic, onion, leek, tobacco (radish) and taro; What's more, Ling Bo, Chinese yam, wax gourd, potato and pepper are all transplanted from Fujian ("all planted in Fujian"), and the eating method is similar to that of Fujian, so it comes naturally.

However, today's flight from Shanghai to Naha, Okinawa only takes more than two hours, while in ancient times, it often took a month to cross the sea from Fuzhou to Ryukyu. In this sense, the communication convenience between Ryukyu and China is not as convenient as imagined. In fact, China's diet has a more direct influence on Okinawa cuisine-immigration.