Back in Japan (Spring 2015)...Kaga-style Duck Hot Pot Donabe Dinner

Locally hunted "magamo" duck for donabe hot pot

(April 2015)

We came back from all the fun activities early evening. I enjoyed another relaxing onsen (hot spring) bath in my balcony.


We were especially looking forward to the dinner, because the chef said he was going to use some of the mountain vegetables we foraged today in some dishes. The night started with vegetables in tofu paste, followed by yomogi (mugwort) cake soup.


With Kanazawa's famous Tengu no Mai sake, sushi and sashimi tasted especially wonderful.


Grilled bamboo shoot was followed by grilled fish in a clear broth.


Tonight's main course was magamo hot pot in donabe! The magamo duck is locally hunted in a traditional manner by a small net on a stick. Kaga's duck hunting season has just ended by they got one especially for us. They cooked and served duck in different ways.


After enjoying breast slices, the chef cooked duck meat balls. The flavor was so rich and delicious. With the fortified broth, the final "shime" course was "ojiya" (soupy porridge). I was in heaven.

Happy donabe life.

Back in Japan (Spring 2015)...Outdoor BBQ and Tempura Lunch, Very Kaga Style

Best ingredients from Kaga!

(April 2015)

After a lot of walking in the mountain in the rain, we were so hungry.


The head chef of our hotel was waiting for us at a park and getting ready for our lunch!


Young wild boar, hunted by a local hunter was going to be grilled and also to be served in a donabe miso hot pot. Onigiri (rice balls) looked so delicious, too.


The chef set up a tempura station and started making tempura with all different kinds of local mountain vegetables including the ones we just harvested.


Our freshly-harvested wasabi was used, too. Lunch was simply so amazing! It was such a special experience. We were so thankful to the owners of the chefs of Beniya Mukayu, Nishiyama-san and Katsuragi-san, for organizing such a special tour and gourmet experiences!!


After lunch, we visited Yamanaka Shoyu, which is an artisan soy sauce brewery. The same family has been making soy sauce for over 100 years. The owner/ brewery master, Konishi-san, specially welcomed us and gave us a tour of the brewery.


We climbed up to the aging room, and there were large barrels of aging soy sauce all over the space. I got to try stirring the moromi (mash) and learned it was such a hard work. It was another very special experience. Their soy sauce tastes really wonderful.

Back in Japan (Spring 2015)...Foraging in the rain in Kaga

Freshly harvested mountain wasabi plant

(April 2015)

The 2nd day in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture was full of exciting activities!


We started with wonderful breakfast including freshly cooked donabe rice.


It was a rainy day, but we went on a special tour of foraging as scheduled. We drove to the beach side of Kaga (about 30-minute drive from our hotel) to meet Nishiyama-san and Katsuragi-san, who are both specialists of local plants and nature of Kaga. They gave us a foraging tour! We started from the beach to find many interesting plants, including hamabofu (beach silvertop), hair loom beach daikon, etc.


Then, we drove near mountain. We also harvested shiitake mushrooms and mountain wasabi.


We kept going up deep in the mountain, transferred to micro trucks to drive further up, then we walked way way up! We found so many mountain wasabi and so many other wild plants to forage.


We took a lot of foraged plants with us to have them cooked for lunch. Our ryokan's head chef was waiting for us at the foot of the mountain. He was getting ready for our lunch!