The Okinawan Diet [small town living] [a recipe for taco rice] [scattered notes after a social media storm]
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[Something about Okinawa in the American and Japanese imaginations]
▧ Movements for national self-determination require patrons. At the least, someone must be willing to load crates of weapons onto barges and deliver them to the patriots. There needs to be some powerful partner to deliver diplomatic pressure. Independence for Ryukyu, or Okinawa as it is now known, seems to me as legitimate as many other struggles. The formal annexation of the Ryukyu Kingdom was an early project of the Empire of Japan. Lost in the war, the islands of Okinawa were occupied by the United States until 1972. ▧
▧ Okinawa is a monument to defeat. The other former imperial possession can be ignored or contested, but Okinawa and the crimes committed there under Japanese rule are harder to sweep aside. This must be done carefully. Too much power cannot be granted to the people living there. Even if it was given back to the Japanese, American bases still dominate. Their continued presence cannot be challenged. ▧
▧ Okinawa was sacrificed by the Japanese to the invaders. Its legal status has changed, but it still serves the same purpose. It is a place whose contamination preserves the sanctity of the nation. It is poisoned and beaten and raped. The American brutes are satisfied. The Japanese can fly to Naha and enjoy A&W. ▧
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▧ How could this history not be recorded in diet? The stories of Okinawan longevity are decades out of date. The traditional diet of sweet potatoes and fish fell out of favor completely. Farmland was requisitioned by the American military, who brought in flour and processed pork and milk to feed themselves. Imports of rice from the north replaced old staples. Longevity held for a while, but then it began to fall against improvements in the rest of the country. Today, Okinawa has the fattest, sickest population in Japan. Life expectancy for both genders is among the lowest in the country. Those numbers are kept low by the increased mortality rate of people in under fifty, who are more likely to be fat and sick and smoke cigarettes and drink too much. Lifestyle diseases cut lives short. Bad diet cuts lives short. (I have drawn some of this information from an article by Akiyama Toshio, “A Shared Tragedy of the Okinawan People and the American Indian: Lifestyle Diseases Introduced through Foreign Conquest.”) ▧
▧ There is a lesson to be drawn from the Okinawa diet. It is not about diet, necessarily, but about the power of maintaining cultural sovereignty. ▧
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▧ TACO RICE: developed by a cook working outside of the front gate of Camp Hansen, in a slum dedicated to the entertainment of troops, taco rice has become a symbol of postwar Okinawa cuisine and a popular favorite on family restaurant menus. In my experience, it is usually made by home chefs from Old El Paso mix, ground beef, shredded cabbage, and grated mozzarella cheese. ▧
▧ This is how I make it. Instead of ground beef, I suggest a slab of bottom round from Niku no Hanamasa. A pound and a half will run about seven hundred yen. If you can’t find it there, you’ll have to go to a butcher shop. I have a sack of ancho chilies that I bought through Rakuten months ago and which never seems to run out. Rehydrate them in a bowl with some water just below boiling. Add to that several of the dried red chilies of the sort they sell in Chinese markets, then a couple cloves of garlic, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, some black pepper, half of an onion, a teaspoon of dried oregano, a bit of salt, and a shot of black vinegar. I use a stick blender to purée this mixture. Cut the beef into three or four pieces. In a pot, brown the beef with a bit of neutral oil or whatever’s around. Return the beef to the pot and add the purée. To that can be added a few dried cloves, bay leaves, and a stick of cassia. Add some water if you don’t think there’s enough to last for a couple hours’ cooking. Cover and cook for two or three hours. In the meantime, get some leftover rice or prepare a fresh batch. Prepare additional toppings. I chop cilantro, quarter a few limes, and sometimes slice avocado. I might have some storebought salsa verde, too. To satisfy anyone that grew up eating it, you might offer shredded lettuce. Cheese is important, too, but I usually settle for the conventional shredded mozzarella, since Mexican cheeses are unavailable. I wouldn’t do it myself, but you could make your own queso blanco. And once the beef is cooked, chop and serve on rice, ready to add the additional toppings. Wash down with ice cold Orion. ▧
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