Kanazawa's oden uses a broth of kombu and bonito flakes with light soy sauce, and local ingredients such as Kaga vegetables and Hokuriku seafood. Many shops serve it all year, not just in winter. Typical ingredients include kurumafu, akamaki with its red-and-white swirl, and Gensuke daikon, and shops in business for more than 50 years have formed the Kanazawa Oden 50-Year Club.
Sources: nap-camp.com
This moment in the journey
Kanazawa oden and a local seafood bowl
A shopping street, I think, lets you feel the air of a town on your skin. At a steaming oden stall, the menu also offered grilled oysters and scallops in butter.
For lunch I wanted to enjoy Kanazawa's specialties, so I went into Ichiba Meshi Amatsubo, a restaurant in a corner of the market, and ordered Kanazawa oden and a seafood bowl. The oden came with daikon steeped in broth, kurumafu wheat-gluten rings and akamaki fish cake with its red-and-white swirl. Using local Kanazawa ingredients, and being eaten all year round: those, I was told, are the definitions of Kanazawa oden.
The seafood bowl was made with local fish too: sweet shrimp, salmon roe, flaked crab and white fish on shiso leaves. I drizzled soy sauce over it and poured non-alcoholic beer into a blue cut-glass cup. I felt welcomed by all these dishes made from local ingredients. Thank you, god of fortune.
Watch this scene on YouTube2:26
More notes from this journey
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Jibuni
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From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Nodoguro takikomi gohan
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From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Mettajiru
A hearty pork miso soup full of root vegetables, distinguished by using sweet potato in place of the usual potato.
From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
My take on Yahoo chazuke
The shop known as "Yahoo chazuke" was Shinano, an ochazuke shop in Katamachi 1-chome, Kanazawa.
From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Higashi Chaya District
A teahouse district opened in 1820 on the east side of the Asano River with the approval of the Kaga domain.
From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Omicho Market
A market in Musashigatsuji, in the heart of Kanazawa, with roughly 300 years of history going back to the days of the domain.
From: Winter in Kanazawa, from a townhouse kitchen
More notes from Hokuriku & Koshinetsu
Nozawaonsen, Nagano
Onsen tamago boiled in the hot spring
At the Ogama, the main source of Nozawa Onsen, water close to 90 degrees wells up, and locals have long boiled mountain vegetables and eggs in it.
From: Boiling breakfast in a hot spring: life in Nozawa
Nozawaonsen, Nagano
Rice bowl with stir-fried nozawana, fried tofu and onsen tamago
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From: Boiling breakfast in a hot spring: life in Nozawa
Shiojiri, Nagano
Rice-flour oyaki with nozawana
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From: Autumn leaves in Narai-juku and an autumn table in Shinshu
Shiojiri, Nagano
Shinshu beef sukiyaki
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From: Autumn leaves in Narai-juku and an autumn table in Shinshu
Nozawaonsen, Nagano
The Ogama hot-spring source
One of the springs that feed Nozawa Onsen, with water close to 90 degrees.
From: Boiling breakfast in a hot spring: life in Nozawa
Nozawaonsen, Nagano
The Oyu and the 13 sotoyu bathhouses
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From: Boiling breakfast in a hot spring: life in Nozawa