Food and fuel
 

I spent a year in Okinawa a long time ago, and was exposed to a whole bunch of new foods. A couple of memories stay with me, like they just happened yesterday.

1. Kobe beef is just awesome.
2. More importantly tho, is something I learned about the way they cook.

They used to slice all their foods pretty thin before cooking. The reason for this, is that Okinawa is an island and they had limited fuel supplies to use for cooking.

I suspect that their limited fuel supplies is what gave rise to sushi too, but have never looked into it.