About 1 hour and 17 minutes by car from Naha Airport. Located at the base of Motobu Peninsula in the northern part of Okinawa’s main island, this café specializes in Yanbaru ingredients. From morning to lunch, and even during café hours, this stylish café offers a menu that uses Yanbaru ingredients and is quite unusual.
Point 1: What kind of cafe is “Cookhal”?
Cookhal is located in Nago City in the northern part of Okinawa’s main island and is operated by a company that grows and processes agricultural products.
The exterior and interior are decorated with natural taste. The first thing you see when you enter the store is a large display of vegetables.
Cookhal” is not only a café, but also a vegetable stand, and is doing its best to promote the taste of Yanbaru vegetables under the concept of “Yanbaru is delicious.
The vegetables harvested by neighboring farmers are grown without stress, so they are free from insects and disease even without the use of pesticides.
If you always eat such vegetables, you feel like you will be healthy!
At this café, nearby vegetable and fruit farmers, livestock farmers, and spice farmers cooperate to bring in their produce and do their best to spread the deliciousness of Yanbaru’s food.
Point 2: Everything at “Cookhal” is original and delicious!
Cookhal” offers morning and lunch plates. During café hours, the menu includes Okinawan Zenzai Touka, rice-flour gateau chocolates with brown sugar flavor, and more.
The morning and lunch plates, for example, are made from Yanbaru ingredients and served on a beautiful plate as shown in the photo. The little hibiscus flowers on the plate are also edible flowers!
The Okinawa Zenzai is topped with roasted peanuts and a syrup of pandan leaves simmered in coconut milk and millet sugar! It is an original Okinawa Zenzai that is different from others.
Also, please try the store’s gâteau chocolat, which combines chocolate and brown sugar to create a wonderfully delicious combination.
As for drinks, we highly recommend the “Cheese Cream Tea” using “Benifuuki,” a red tea made by Kanigawa Tea, which has won the Grand Prix in the challenge category of the Japanese black tea Grand Prix for three consecutive years! The one with strawberry sauce, which is only available during the strawberry season, is especially exquisite.
Point 3: Rare souvenirs for sure! Look out for Yanbaru goods from Cookhal!
Cookhal” makes pickles that can only be found in Yanbaru, using Yanbaru fruits such as pineapple and papaya, as well as herbs and spices harvested on the island such as bitter gourd and shell ginger.
The colorful pickles lined up on the shelves all look delicious, and it is very difficult to decide on just one.
The pickles, full of originality and made with Yanbaru fruits and vegetables, pandan leaves, kobu mandarin oranges, and Yanbaru spices, can only be found here!
Some ingredients are only available in the tropics, but in Japan, only in Okinawa, that is, in the rich nature of the Yanbaru region.
I would love to buy some for that gourmand who is always on the lookout for unusual souvenirs!
Of course, it can also be a souvenir for yourself!
As you can see, “Cookhal” focuses on Yanbaru ingredients that are visually appealing and make you want to try and drink them. You will also want to buy plenty of vegetables to take home with you.
Access by car is relatively easy as all you have to do is drive north on Route 58. By bus, take the Yanbaru Express Bus to Nago City Hall, take the left-turn circular line and get off at the B&G Ocean Center, from where a 25-minute walk will get you there relatively easily.
