Seasonal Delicacies
Please enjoy to the full the flavors of Kaga — flavors that are brought out by skillful chefs and enhanced by water and rice from the area of Mt. Hakusan, one of the three most magnificent mountains in Japan.
Kaiseki Cuisine
Enjoy local, seasonal food with local sake.
Normally Japanese-style inns serve kaiseki cuisine, a variety of dishes served on an individual tray. This Japanese-style meal includes an appetizer, clear soup, sashimi, a grilled dish, a boiled dish and a deep-fried dish. This type of meal is said to be a simplified version of the type of meal served to samurais and the imperial household. You will enjoy local flavors created by an abundance of seasonal ingredients.
Harvest of the Japan Sea
Seasonal seafood to be enjoyed raw, grilled or boiled
The harvest of the sea can be enjoyed year-round in Kaga, but it is the most delicious in winter. The superb, refined flavors of snow crab and deep-sea shrimp, and fatty yellowtail, monkfish and cod, which are ideal for hot pots, are at their best in the cold season. The female snow crab, called kobako crab, is only half the size of the male, but contains an abundance of flavorful eggs that are very popular among the locals.
Duck Cuisine
Wild duck caught the traditional way
In the morning and evening, hunters hide in bushes called Sakaba, and throw out a net the instant a duck takes flight. Be sure to try duck caught by this "Sakaami-ryo method", which dates back 300 years. During the winter duck-hunting season, restaurants in town serve duck prepared in various ways — as sashimi, grilled, boiled and in a hot pot.
Sake
A mellow flavor created by good water and high-quality rice
Kaga has long been known for its delicious sake, called "Kaga no Kikuzake". It is brewed according to traditional techniques, using ground water from the magnificent Mt. Hakusan and carefully selected rice. Sake made with quality ingredients in the traditional way has a rich flavor that goes well with seafood. There are two sake breweries that have been in business since the feudal period.
Japanese-style Confections
Famous sweets that carry on the traditions of the tea ceremony
Japanese-style confections are indispensable to the tea ceremony, a custom that exemplifies the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi. In Kaga, which prospered as a castle town under the rule of the Daishoji clan, successive lords of which were fond of the tea ceremony, you can discover various Japanese confections. In addition to delicately flavored high-end tea-ceremony confections that evoke seasonal charms, you can treat your eyes and taste buds to rice dumplings, yokan (bean jelly) and candy — sweets that were traditionally enjoyed by ordinary people.