Rafute

Dates to the Ryukyu Kingdom court cookery of the 17th-18th century, served at royal banquets in Shuri Castle and recorded in "Gozen Honzo" (御膳本草), a 1832 food-medicine treatise compiled by the Okinawan physician Tokashiki Tsukan Pork was central to Ryukyuan cuisine through trade with Fujian, China — the technique parallels Chinese hong-shao rou but uses awamori, brown sugar (kokuto from Okinawan sugarcane), and longer simmering. Became home food after the kingdom fell in 1879.

Ryukyu court cookery from the 17th–18th century, recorded in the 18th-century Gozen Honzo and served at Shuri Castle. The technique parallels Chinese hong-shao rou but uses awamori (Okinawan rice spirit, 30–40% ABV) and kokuto (Okinawan unrefined cane sugar) — awamori cuts pork fat harder than sake, kokuto gives the mineral edge.

Cubes of pork belly, skin-on, simmered until the fat is translucent jelly and the lean is pull-apart soft, glazed in a dark soy-awamori-brown sugar reduction. The skin should yield to chopsticks alone. Served warm with a smear of mustard or grated ginger, often over rice. Awamori (Okinawan rice spirit) instead of sake is what separates rafute from mainland kakuni — gives a rougher, deeper note.

The pork is parboiled twice before braising — first to remove blood scum, second after a 30-minute rest in cold water that tightens the skin. Awamori's higher alcohol (30-40% vs sake's 15%) and koji-fermented base cuts pork fat more aggressively than sake, which is why the finished dish reads cleaner despite the long simmer. Kokuto sugar (not refined brown) gives that mineral edge.