Ton Shabu 豚しゃぶ MOMO (Okinawa, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

It wasn't an easy decision picking what to eat on our first night in Okinawa. Okinawan cuisine was the obvious choice but teppanyaki and ramen sounded interesting too so where exactly should we start!? That was the million-dollar question of the night.

But at the end of the day, we decided to take a different route and went with shabu shabu, something we hadn't done for a little while now.

We knew exactly where we were going for our shabu shabu. The place is called 豚しゃぶ MOMO, a shabu shabu restaurant on the side streets of Kokusaidori (国際通) that specializes in Agu-Buta (Agu pork) and Benibuta (Red Pork).



豚しゃぶ MOMO is a quiet little 20-seater that is just perfect for tourists. They have English and Chinese menus readily available and more importantly, their staff speaks pretty decent English too.



I forgot to do my homework on red pork before the trip but thankfully, our server was more than willing to share her knowledge with us.

According to our expert here, this is a special breed of Okinawan pork that grows up eating Ben-imo (purple sweet potato). That was the reason for the extraordinary texture and unique taste of the meat.

Their cheapest "red pork" set starts at ¥1,000 only (no, you're not dreaming.) but these ones are imported from Denmark. If you're into a real Okinawan pork experience like us, you have to dig a little deeper into your pocket.

I went with their supreme Okinawan red pork set (¥2,030) on this night and it came with some assorted vegetables and a bowl of rice.



Some said a trip to Okinawa is not complete without trying the Agu pork which is an Okinawan traditional breed with black hair (like a wild boar). It's supposed to be one of the tenderest and sweetest pork one would ever find in the world.

So we ended up ordering the Agu pork set (¥3,050) as well.



They have a special soy sauce to go with the pork. While the red pork and Agu pork are both pretty flavorful, I do like the red pork better because it's much leaner. Not that I don't like fatty pork (Agu pork in this case) but there's just too much fat and not enough meat in there (see picture above).



Rice was specially made with sugar cane. According to our server, it's a good source for fibre.



Our server has already told us to save about half a bowl of rice for her and we did exactly what was told.



After finishing our pork, she started adding some soy sauce to the broth before finally putting the rice in.




Now our special "porridge" is ready to be served.







Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 3 Chome-3-12 Kumoji, Naha, Okinawa 900-0015, Japan
Closest Monorail Station: Kenchomae
Tel: +81 098-867-0566