Goya (Bitter Melon)

Okinawans love our bitter melon.

We have long hot summers, and eat it often as it contains lots of vitamin C.

There are several ways of cooking bitter melon, and the most common way is to stir-fry.


In Okinawa, we have many kinds of stir-fry dishes - we call it "champuru" which literally means "mix". There are many kinds of stir-fry dishes in Japan, but the difference between their stir-fries and ours is that we put tofu in them.

I bought a couple of bitter melons from a Chinese market the other day and cooked a very simple Goya champuru (bitter melon stir-fry).

I normally use moyashi (bean sprouts), carrots, tofu, tinned tuna, egg along with bitter melon, but I only had bitter melon, carrots and tinned tuna that day. It was still delicious!

Traditionally, we only add salt to taste, but I add a bit of dashi (powdered kelp or bonito) as well. Some people use soy sauce.

Some people use sliced pork instead of tuna, but I prefer using tuna.

I truly enjoyed my Goya champuru, and so did my 18 month-old daughter!