Rafute is a pork belly dish in Okinawan cuisine, from the island of Okinawa, Japan. It consists of skin-on pork belly stewed in soy sauce and brown sugar.[1] The dish is related to kakuni and Dongpo pork. It is traditionally considered to help with longevity.[2] Rafute was originally a form of Okinawan royal cuisine.[3]
In Hawaii, rafute is known as "shoyu pork,"[4] which is served in plate lunches. In the early 1900s, Okinawan immigrants in Hawaii introduced rafute into the local cuisine which later inspired other variations such as shoyu chicken. Okinawans owned and ran many restaurants and okazuya throughout Hawaii in the 1940s.[5]
^Corum, Ann Kondo (2000). Ethnic Foods of Hawaiʻi. Honolulu, Hawaii: Bess Press. p. 78.
^Matsuda, Mitsugu (1968). The Japanese in Hawaii, 1868-1967, a Bibliography of the First Hundred Years. Honolulu: Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawaii.
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