Vegetables are common in the Okinawan diet. Vegetables such as goya (or bitter melon) and nabera (loofah goard), were introduced to Okinawa from Southeast Asia by merchant fleets that traded goods in the ryukyu Kingdom. Vegetables are a staple in Okinawa cooking and you cannot eat a traditional meal that doesn't include vegetables. Goya is probably the famous vegetable because it is chock full of vitamin C and other minerals. Goya is most commonly stir-fried with tofu to make a dish called goya chanpuru. The word chanpuru, an Okinawan dish made of tofu and various vegetables stir-fried together, is said to come from tjampur, a Malay and Indonesian term for "jumbled up."