is an Okinawan stir fry dish. It is considered the representative dish of

Okinawan cuisine is the cuisine of the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. The cuisine is also known as , a reference to the Ryukyu Kingdom. Due to differences in culture, historical contact between other regions, climate, vegetables and other ingredients, Okinawan cu ...

. Chanpurū generally consists of

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...

combined with some kind of

vegetable Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...

, meat, or

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

Luncheon meat Lunch meats—also known as cold cuts, luncheon meats, cooked meats, sliced meats, cold meats, sandwich meats, and deli meats—are precooked or cured meats that are sliced and served cold or hot. They are typically served in sandwiches or on ...

(such as American Spam or Danish

Tulip Tulips (''Tulipa'') are a genus of spring-blooming perennial herbaceous bulbiferous geophytes (having bulbs as storage organs). The flowers are usually large, showy and brightly coloured, generally red, pink, yellow, or white (usually in warm ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

, ''moyashi'' (

bean sprout Sprouting is the natural process by which seeds or spores germinate and put out shoots, and already established plants produce new leaves or buds, or other structures experience further growth. In the field of nutrition, the term signifies ...

s) and ''gōyā'' (

bitter melon ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon; Goya; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear; with many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Afr ...

) are some other common ingredients. Spam is not typically used in mainland Japan; but it is more common in Okinawa due primarily to the historical influence of its introduction by the US Navy. ''Chanpurū'' is Okinawan for "something mixed" and the word is sometimes used to refer to the culture of Okinawa, as it can be seen as a mixture of traditional Okinawan,

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, mainland Japanese, Southeast Asian and North American culture. The term originates from the Malay and

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

word '' campur'' (pronounced "cham-poor"), meaning "mix". Long a local specialty only found on Okinawa, ''chanpurū'' has in recent years, through television shows and increased interest in Okinawan culture, spread to many restaurants on mainland Japan.

Types of chanpurū

Gōyā chanpurū is the quintessential ''chanpurū''. It consists of ''gōyā'' (

), egg, tofu, and either Spam or thinly sliced

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

. It often also includes vegetables such as carrots. Tofu chanpurū is tofu stir-fried with vegetables and Spam, bacon, thinly sliced pork belly, or canned tuna. Unlike tofu from mainland Japan, Okinawan tofu is firm and does not fall apart when stir-fried. It is considered best form to crumble the tofu into the frying pan by hand, so as to avoid uniform cubes. Māmina chanpurū is a version of chanpurū that contains '' moyashi'', or mung bean sprouts. Fu chanpurū is made using '' fu'', a kind of wheat gluten. It is stir-fried with vegetables and a meat as above.

Sōmen , ''somyeon'' ( ko, 소면; 素麵), or ''sùmiàn'' () is a very thin noodle made of wheat flour, less than 1.3 mm in diameter. The noodles are used extensively in East Asian cuisines. Japanese ''sōmen'' is made by stretching the dough ...

chanpurū (''somin chanpurū'' in Okinawan) includes sōmen, very thin

noodles Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, Ind ...

. They are stir-fried lightly in oil with green onions and meat as above.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chanpuru Japanese fusion cuisine Okinawan cuisine Pork dishes Spam dishes Tofu dishes

Types of chanpurū

See also

References