Ashitibichi (pig's trotters)

The trotter gets singed, scrubbed and parboiled for about 20 minutes in water with awamori, then goes into a big pot with knots of kombu and thick half-moons of daikon. MAFF's recipe simmers it for about three and a half hours, skimming all the while, until the bones slip out and the skin turns to soft gelatine. Salt and soy season it at the end, and some cooks add hihatsu pepper.

MAFF ties the dish to the idea that food and medicine share a source and to the old belief that eating a part of the animal helps the same part of you, so trotters were eaten for the legs. It says older people and women favour it today in the hope of slowing ageing and helping the skin. On soba menus, tebichi soba lays a braised trotter over the noodles, and Soba-ya Yoshiko on the Motobu soba road is the stop for it. Hanagasa Shokudo in Makishi serves tebichi nitsuke as a set, and Izakaya Matsunoya on Kume-jima lists ashitebichi among its house dishes.