After enjoying Okinawa cuisine at Shinn Sato at Orchard Plaza recently, I was excited to hear that there is a coffee shop stall in Toa Payoh serving Okinawa dishes.
K.K. is a typical, nondescript coffee shop food stall. The stall front was plastered with photos of their menu items. The couple running the stall used to work at the Okinawa restaurant in Great World City.
A bit of background. Okinawa prefecture (in Japan's furthest south) was the Ryukyu kingdom from 1429 - 1879. Ryukyu was a Ming dynasty tributary state until Japan made it its vassal in 1609. In 1879, Japan annexed Ryukyu and made it Okinawa prefecture. Hence, Okinawan cuisine has Chinese elements at its foundation.
Actually, the only Okinawan thing about this stall (other than the owners' former work place) is this stir fried bitter gourd and rice set. The rest of the menu are familiar Japanese theme dishes like salmon sashimi, unagi, saba, tonkatsu, teriyaki, karaage, don, Japanese curry, etc.
Anyway, bitter gourd is enough to bring me here as that was my best memory of Shinn Sato and I love bitter gourd dishes (for example, at Zai Shun and Kah Kah).
After paying, you go back to your table and wait for the pager to buzz (that explains why there is no queue at the stall).
We got two, identical sets of stir fried bitter gourd and upgraded the plain white rice to mixed rice with mushrooms, etc. The bitter gourd dish is an Okinawa cuisine icon and is known as goya champuru. The mixed rice is known as kufajushi.
I also added on fried tofu. Total price $18 plus something cents.
The bitter gourd was nice. Stir fried with cubed pork, tofu, and eggs. The dish tasted sweet, eggy, savoury with hints of bitter which I like. The pork cubes were lean which most people will prefer though personally I would like fatty pork belly better ๐ฌ
The bitter gourd was soft, moist with subtle residual crunch. (I prefer the Shinn Sato rendition as they slice their bitter gourd thinner, and they are firmer and have more crunch. They are also slightly more bitter.)
The rice was soft, moist with gentle savoury sweetness from a savoury sauce, mushroom (shitake), carrot, dried kelp (kombu sea weed), etc.
The set came with savoury egg (stewed in savoury sauce) and crunchy sourish sweet pickle.
Savoury miso soup with soft tofu.
The added on fried soft tofu in a savoury sauce, topped with grated radish.
What can I say? It wasn't really mind blowing but it doesn't really have to - it's comfort food lah dey..... ๐
If I live around here, I will consider myself lucky as then I can get this regularly. The taste is comforting, filling and has vitamins, carbs and protein, everything all together in a tasty package. Very convenient and affordable too.
Next time, I shall also try their other Japanese dishes which has a lot of fans.
Read about Shinn Sato restaurant ๐ click
Also at Ocean 92 kopitiam, the famous curry fish head ๐ click
Written by Tony Boey on 26 Jul 2023
๐ Opinions in this blog are all my own as no restaurant or stall paid money to be featured
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