Rafute

{{short description|Pork rib dish in the Okinawan cuisine}}

{{Infobox food

| name = Rafute

| image = Okinawan Rafute.jpg

| image_size = 300px

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| caption = Rafute, braised pork belly

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| country = Japan

| region = Okinawa

| national_cuisine = Okinawan cuisine

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| main_ingredient = Pork

| minor_ingredient = Dashi, soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar, sake

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| similar_dish = Kakuni, Dongpo pork

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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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7128.html|title=Okinawa Food Guide|website=www.japan-guide.com|language=en|access-date=2021-08-29}} The dish is related to kakuni and Dongpo pork. It is traditionally considered to help with longevity.A surprising slice of Japan by Tom Downey June/ July 2013 AFAR page 38 Rafute was originally a form of Okinawan royal cuisine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7128.html|title=Okinawa Food Guide|website=www.japan-guide.com|language=en|access-date=2018-03-28}}

In Hawaii, rafute is known as "shoyu pork,"{{cite book |last=Corum |first=Ann Kondo |date=2000 |title=Ethnic Foods of Hawaiʻi |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |publisher=Bess Press |page=78 }} 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.{{cite book |last1=Matsuda |first1=Mitsugu |title=The Japanese in Hawaii, 1868-1967, a Bibliography of the First Hundred Years |date=1968 |publisher=Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawaii |location=Honolulu}}

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