🍱 Ryukyu

Facing the Seto Inland Sea and blessed with an abundance of seafood, Oita Prefecture is home to a wide variety of seafood for all four seasons, including horse mackerel, sea bream, hairtail, sardine, and mackerel. “Ryukyu" is a typical local dish of Oita Prefecture in which fresh local fish is served with a sauce made of soy sauce, sake, mirin, sesame and ginger. It became popular in the local area as a kind of preserved food. There are many theories about the name "Ryukyu. There is a theory that the name “Ryukyu” came from the fact that an Oita fisherman learned how to make it from an Okinawan (Ryukyu) fisherman and brought it back to his hometown, and there is another theory that it was derived from the fact that the dish of sesame-dressing is called “Rikyu-ae”. It spread from the southern coastal areas to the whole of Oita Prefecture as a fisherman's meal and a preserved food.