Yaeyama soba

Yaeyama noodles are thinner and straighter than main-island soba, and some makers colour them yellow with turmeric or gardenia. Yaeyama made only flat noodles until round ones appeared in 1972, and today the round cross-section is what most people mean by the style. The toppings come cut into thin strips of lean pork simmered in soy, with slivers of kamaboko fish cake. The Okinawa noodle cooperative's ten-point standard for Honba Yaeyama soba requires the noodles to be made on Ishigaki.

The jar on the table holds pipaatsu (ピパーツ), ground from the fruit of the hihatsumodoki vine, and you shake it over the sweet broth. Red pickled ginger rarely appears in Yaeyama. Soba Dokoro Takenoko has served soba on Taketomi since 1975 and sets out kuchu, a spice blend its founding grandmother made. Kunatsuyu sits about a kilometre north of Ishigaki's ferry terminal and pairs a light pork-bone broth with juushii rice.

Soba counters on the smaller islands make a day of ferry hops easier. Densa Shokudo sits a minute from Uehara port on Iriomote, and Peenushima Shokudo feeds Hateruma through the afternoon. On Kuroshima, Undouya serves soba at lunch.