Bitter melon stir-fried with firm tofu, pork and egg — Okinawa's everyday dish, bitter, savoury and soft at once.
What makes it gōyā chanpurū
Gōyā, sliced thin and salted so it's less bitter.
Firm tofu, torn and fried until golden.
Pork — or luncheon meat — and egg stirred through at the end.
Where it comes from
Chanpurū is Okinawan for something mixed together, and it's the islands' everyday stir-fry: whatever vegetable there is, with firm island tofu, pork and egg. Gōyā — bitter melon — is the one everyone knows.
Okinawa was the Ryukyu Kingdom, trading with China and South-east Asia, before Japan annexed it in 1879, and its cooking has more pork than the rest of Japan. After the war, tinned luncheon meat from the American bases often took the pork's place, and it still does.