Mu-chi-(鬼餅) Day

We have a tradition of eating mu-chi- on Mu-chi-(ムーチー) day in Okinawa.

I can imagine that most of you are thinking,

"What's that? What's mu-chi-??"

Well, mu-chi- is a type of streamed rice cake wrapped in getto (月桃) leaves. Mu-chi- day is on the 8th of December in lunar calendar in Okinawa, and this year's mu-chi- day fell on the 11th of January. Traditionally, we are supposed to pray for the children's health and well being. There's an interesting story behind this tradition.

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Legend has it that there was a man who was originally from Shuri (首里), our old capital city. He was a lonely man (he lost his parents when he was very young, and his little sister got married and moved to another Okinawan island) and eventually turned into an ogre and attacked animals and children to eat every night. Nobody could do anything about it. His sister heard about this and decided to see him taking his favourite food - rice cake but put iron nails inside. His sister took him to the cliff and gave him the special rice cake. While he was suffering in pain, his sister pushed him down the cliff. So no more ogre! This event happened on the 8th of December (in lunar calendar) apparently. That's how this tradition started.

Mu-chi- day is also called mu-chi-bi-sa, and it's supposed to be the coldest day of the year in Okinawa. (Am I right, my Okinawan friends?)

By the way, kanji (or Chinese character) for mu-chi- is 鬼餅. 鬼 means devil, and 餅 means rice cake.

My family make mu-chi- every year. The photos you can see below were taken back in the early 2009.

Wish I were there to make and eat it..... If you are in Okinawa, you should definitely try it!! If you do, make sure to eat one extra for me and let me know how you like it :)

Just let you know...

Haitai everybody! Sorry I've been quiet here on this blog. I've been extremely busy these days, but I'm happy to tell you the world that I'm going back to Okinawa for the summer!!!!!!! :):):)

Two more days until our holiday starts. We're flying via Tokyo and staying there for a week, then flying to Okinawa.

Hopefully I can update food I will have while in Tokyo/Okinawa.

Until then, see ya!

M x

Okinawa Day 2010 at Spitalfields Market!

It's Okinawa Day 2010 tomorrow!!! If you live around London, then do come and join us! It's going to be a fun event. I must be off to get some sleep. I'm getting up in 4 hours' time.

Click here for more details.

Hope to see you tomorrow!!!

Okinawa Day 2010

I'm happy to let you know that there will be an Okinawan event called "Okinawa Day 2010" on the 26th of June. It will take place at Spitalfields, London. I will be making two dishes for the occasion. If you live around London, then come and join us!

Click here for more details of the event!

Lunch on 05/01/05

I'm putting up old photos here. They were taken back in 2005 on the mainland Okinawa. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was in the northern part of the island. That place looks like a house, doesn't it? I'll ask my mum to see if she still remembers the name of the place and I'll post it here.

Doesn't the food look nice? They are onigiri (rice balls) and yakitori. They were really nice.

Okinawa Festival at Cafe Oto

Here's the video of the event. Enjoy it!

How to Live to be 101

The other day, there was a TV programme called "Horizon"on BBC2. It was about "How to Live to be 101", and Okinawa was featured!!! I was proud of that. Even though many people don't know much about Okinawa (some have never heard of the name), it's a good sign that we get to see and learn about Okinawa on television. Click here to watch the programme, which is available for 4 more days.

The two doctors who were talking about Okinawa on the programme are the ones who wrote the book called The Okinawa Program : How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too . In the programme, they were cooking Goya Champuru, which is one of my favourite dishes! One of the important ingredients in our stir-fry dishes (champuru as we call it) is tofu. We eat tofu a lot. It's different from Japanese one, and we love our tofu.

If you would like to know and learn how to live long like us (to be specific, the old people in Okinawa), this is the book. I've got a copy of this book as well.

Videos of Okinawa by James Knott

James Knott has made nice videos of Okinawa. Check them out!

Okinawa, Japan 1: Intro


Okinawa, Japan 2: Heading North


Okinawa, Japan 3: Hedo Misaki


Okinawa, Japan 4: Hiking Route 58


Okinawa, Japan 5: Hentona to Ogimi