Miyakojima Miyako Somen

👋 Haisai! I’m CULT.
Today it’s a story about a Miyakojima eatery: Miyako Somen (宮古素麵). First of all, I asked a Miyakojima native who had lived on Miyakojima his whole life and moved to Okinawa’s main island three years ago for work, and he recommended two places — one was temporarily closed, and this place was open, so I visited. And the companion I was with also recommended it, so it felt trustworthy. [Jaenam-hyung’s Delicious Outing]
But there’s hardly a less trustworthy keyword than “locals-recommended restaurant.” As the saying goes, it’s dark under the lamp… Since I finished cross-checking, be sure to visit. You can have a special food-culture experience.

There is also a Miyako soba specialty restaurant called Churashima Shokudo (美ら島食堂), but because the thick, seemingly undercooked texture of the noodles divides opinions a lot, Miyako Somen is prepared with thin somen noodles, so I think it will be less divisive for people from Asia.

📌 Miyako Somen Location

The location of Miyako Somen is on the western side of Miyakojima’s main island. Since the island is tiny anyway… even from the far west it’s only a 20–30 minute trip, so if you’re visiting Miyakojima you can fit it into your route no matter where you go. ⏰Opening hours are daily from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM — daytime service only.

Here’s the front of the shop. There’s space for three cars in front, and if you go around to the left there’s room for about six more. The shop isn’t very big, so you probably won’t have any trouble with parking. The front area actually has high curbs on both sides, so you could ding your car door when getting out — it’s better to use the parking lot on the left 😀

Cultravel

Recommended for a family of five, Toyota Raize

Today's Okinawa rental car review is about the Toyota Raize. It boasts excellent fuel efficiency and has ample trunk space that can accommodate multiple suitcases, even with five adults on board. The 360-degree around view makes parking incredibly easy. The best value-for-money vehicle for five people!

The Raize on the right is the car I drove. I haven’t uploaded it yet, but it will be uploaded soon. Below is the Okinawa main-island Raize review

This is roughly what it looks like inside.
As it’s a restaurant famous with Japanese people… most of the customers are Japanese. Except for our party, everyone was Japanese… At weekend lunchtime… the wait can be quite long. On weekends, I recommend either arriving right when it opens to line up, or visiting after 1:00 PM.

When you sit down, they give you cold green tea and a long cracker. That is surprisingly tasty, so I personally like it. I haven’t seen it elsewhere, but in Okinawa you often get things like this when you go to a bar. Since they’re small, there’s no pressure to eat them 😀

🍜 Miyako Somen Set

This shop’s signature dish is the Miyako Somen set. The price is 1,500 yen
Served in zaru soba style, it’s a format where you can enjoy six different flavors at once. For reference, all six sauces are served cold, so you don’t have to worry about the dish getting cold.

Starting from the left, excluding the rice, I arranged them clockwise.
This is mackerel braised in doenjang (soybean paste), and there are small pieces of mackerel flesh in the sauce. Just because it’s eaten cold doesn’t mean it’s not tasty. Even without dipping the soba noodles like this, I personally found it tasty just to pick it up and drink. The soup was made to be refreshing, and it’s amazing how tasty it is.

Next up is shredded carrot sauce.
Carrots in Okinawa are incredibly delicious. They taste much better than in Korea or Europe. Because the carrots are tender, even children can enjoy them, and dipping them in a cool sauce is quite a tasty delicacy.

This left a strong impression on me. It’s a sesame sauce.. it has a very rich kongguksu flavor.
It’s like kongguksu made by adding lots of sesame, and people who like kongguksu will definitely like this.

Edamame sauce — a sauce made from slightly under-ripe green soybeans.
How to put it… maybe a hint of Korean melon? A faint melon flavor comes through, and it really feels like a sauce that should be eaten chilled. This is also delicious. Although this one is actually made from beans, it feels less like kongguksu than the sesame sauce introduced just before.

Next is the tomato sauce.
A little… does it feel like just picking off the pizza toppings? You know the cheapest pasta you get in Italy? The kind that’s cooked with nothing but tomato sauce — it’s like eating that, but cool and refreshing. I think kids would probably describe it as tasting like pizza or pasta.

This sauce feels a bit heavier than other sauces. For one thing, it contains pieces of pork belly, but it doesn’t feel greasy. The base is soy sauce-based. It’s kind of like a typical zaru-soba topped with pork belly, maybe?

The last one is jushi. It’s Okinawan-style fried rice. On the main island of Okinawa it’s an extremely common dish. But it’s expensive… Even though it’s fried, it doesn’t feel greasy or oily. The taste isn’t particularly unique… and it’s less seasoned than the powdered seasoning you buy at the supermarket to sprinkle over rice.
You can think of it as rice that’s a bit pretty and lightly seasoned. Originally, when Okinawan fishermen went out to sea… if they took plain rice it would go bad in half a day, so I heard they would dump a ton of salt on it and fry it before heading out. It’s just a traditional rice dish.

I wanted to finish it neatly but I ran out of time.. Still, it was a very delicious meal. What I remember most is, of course, the sesame sauce 😀
It’s not overpowering, and it’s a dish anyone can enjoy.. If you visit Miyakojima, be sure to stop by once.

💮 In conclusion

Since I came to Miyakojima… my schedule was so packed that I hardly had time for a proper meal. Even so, I was satisfied because I went to a recommended restaurant, and like Okinawa and Miyakojima in general, the food tends to be a bit bland… but this place is at least somewhat special. If you’re traveling to Miyakojima, be sure to visit Miyako Somen at least once.
That’s it for today — I’ll be back tomorrow with more Okinawa travel news. Matayasai 👋

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