Goya (Bitter Melon)

People either love goya or they hate it. Goya champuru is a very typical Okinawan dish. Goya is bitter, which is why it's called the bitter melon, but the bitterness is in the liquid, its juice. A good way to reduce the bitterness is to soak slices of goya in salt water for an hour or so. Then if you squeeze the slices in a cloth, the goya will lose most of its bitterness.

Effectively we do the same thing. We cut the goya in half, remove the white pith and seeds, slice it and put it in a food dehydrator. This removes the liquid and voila! The bitter melon loses its bitterness. The colour, however, does remain. And when the powdered dried goya is added to the cheese, it gives it a gentle green colour.

There is a very mild goya taste to this cheese, but our customers like it mostly for the colour. It is popular with hotels and large restaurants that offer a cheese plate and wish to present cheeses of different colours.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

As mentioned above, this cheese goes well on a cheese plate because of its striking colour. As a flavour, it is very versatile, pairing well with wines, red or white, with beer, awamori or whisky.

SIMILAR TO

A very mild Cheddar in taste, in colour, there is nothing that we know of that is similar.