When Life Hands You Salt Water...

A few weeks ago we went to the village of Yomitan to learn more about two popular food items in Okinawa: beni-imo and sea salt.

First we went to Okashi Goten, a store filled with sweets made from beni-imo. Beni-imo is a local purple sweet potato and is the major crop in Yomitan. Here are the girls posing in front of the store's statue of the beni-imo tart. 

Zoe's face sums up my feelings about the tart. Okay, not great.

The store sells every manner of treat made from this stuff. The color is beautiful, but the treats are not terribly sweet by American standards. They do not really do it for me. But there were lots of free samples, and we could observe the production line. The girls enjoyed watching the tarts go from the large baking trays, to the ovens, to the cooling racks, and then through the wrapping machine. Didn't Mister Rogers take visits to factories to show how things were made? That is what it reminded me of, without the trolley or the cardigan. Maddox was particularly intrigued by the factory process. Maybe she will be an engineer! (Apple, tree, not far.)

Like Willy Wonka, but with purple sweet potato

Ready for baking!

After a few samples and some Okinawan Blue Seal ice cream (oh, the sugar cane ice cream ... ahhhmazing), we headed to Gala Aoiumi  to learn about Okinawan sea salt. The sea salt here is known for its quality, and we figured we should learn how to extract some salt of our own! 

First, you get instructions, and a stone bowl filled with seawater that has already been boiled down some. Then you put the stone bowl on a fire pit that is incredibly hot and dangerously close. No, Dorothy, you aren't in the U.S. anymore!

Then you stir and stir, and warn your unfocused children to be careful with sticks, and stir and stir, and tell Zoe that yes, you will take her to run around the adjacent field, and stir and stir, and ask Maddox not to accidentally flick salt in your face, and remind them again that it is really really really hot, and then you stir, and then a kind man with heat-resistant gloves and a clamp declares that you are ready to move to the table for the final portion of the salt-making, and then you wonder if you have successfully completed this detour and are going to get your next clue on the Amazing Race!

My mission: try to find a photo op in which Zoe looks impressed. Mission not accomplished.

Almost there!  Continue stirring to make sure all water has evaporated.

Finally, your stirring is done, and the same kind man brings you fresh rice crackers so that you can taste-test your salt, and he shows you how to pack up your salt in a lovely pottery piece and tie it with a pretty ribbon.  Maddox also really enjoyed this project.  Maybe a chemist like Poppy rather than an engineer like Daddy? Or maybe she is just preparing for some future gig on a cooking show.

So now I have a lovely bit of sea salt, and I keep wondering if it would taste good on the rim of a good margarita, or to season a perfect steak from the Big Green Egg.

The day ended with pizza (a surprisingly easy thing to find here) at the adjacent restaurant, on a deck, watching the sunset.  A serious game of hangman ensued.  Perfecto*, as Maddox would say.

*Apparently perfecto is better than perfect; we have some serious homeschooling work to do regarding definitions. Or we'll just start Spanish lessons in Albuquerque.