Chanpurū
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Chanpurū (ちゃんぷるー?) is a form of popular Okinawan stir fry dish, generally containing vegetables, tofu, and some kind of meat or fish. Luncheon meat (such as SPAM or Danish Tulip), egg, moyashi and gōyā (bitter melon) are some other common ingredients.
"Chanpurū" is Okinawan for "something mixed" and the word is sometimes used to refer to the culture of Okinawa, as it can be seen as a mixture of traditional Ryūkyū, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and North-American culture. It is thought to come from the Indonesian word "campur" meaning mixture.
Long a local specialty only found on Okinawa, chanpurū has in recent years through television shows and increased interest in Okinawan culture, spread to many restaurants on mainland Japan.
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[edit] Types of chanpurū
[edit] Gōyā chanpurū
The quintessential chanpurū, gōyā chanpurū consists of gōyā (bitter melon), other vegetables, tōfu, and either SPAM, bacon, thinly sliced pork belly, or canned tuna.
[edit] Tōfu chanpurū
Tōfu stir-fried with vegetables and SPAM, bacon, thinly sliced pork belly, or canned tuna. Unlike tōfu from mainland Japan, Okinawan tōfu is firm and does not fall apart when stir fried. It is considered best form to crumble the tofu into the frying pan by hand, so as to avoid uniform squares.
[edit] Fū chanpurū
Fū is a kind of flatbread made from wheat bran, water, and eggs. It is stir fried with vegetables and a meat as above.
[edit] Sōmen chanpurū
Sōmen (or sōmin) are very thin noodles resembling angel hair pasta. It is stir-fried lightly in oil with green onions and meat as above.
[edit] Cultural Chanpurū
"Chanpurū" (sometimes written and pronounced champloo) is Okinawan for "something mixed" and Okinawans take great pride in describing their culture and traditional attitudes to people and food as "chanpurū". They will cite examples of their happy acceptance of foreign cultural items in the popularity of Awamori (originally a liquor from Thailand), Tacos albeit with added rice (from Mexico) and Rafute (a Chinese meat dish). "Chanpurū culture" is a term used to mean an easy-going culture which Okinawans pride themselves on having. The anime series Samurai Champloo uses the term in its title based on its anachronistic mixture of Edo period events with a contemporary sensibility. One of the main characters is also from the Ryūkyū islands.
[edit] See also
