Ryukyu Royal Cuisine · Braised Pork Belly
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Photo: ayustety / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
It's a direct descendant of a famous Chinese dish, Dongpo pork, adapted at the Ryukyu Kingdom's royal court by swapping in local awamori liquor and Okinawan brown sugar for the mainland Chinese seasonings.
Thick-cut pork belly is simmered low and slow in awamori (Okinawan distilled spirit), soy sauce and dark brown sugar until the fat turns soft enough to cut with chopsticks, served in thick, glossy slices as a rich, sweet-savory main.
Why it's made this way: Pork itself only reached Okinawa's cuisine via 14th-century Chinese missions, and by the Ryukyu Kingdom era (1429-1879) court cooks had turned it into a formal banquet dish reserved for royalty, giving Okinawa a pork culture distinct from mainland Japan.
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