OYABE FOR FOODIES
Oyabe has a rich and distinctive local food culture, drawing upon elements of the region’s natural resources and historic connections. Farmers in Oyabe grow items as diverse as taro root, strawberries, sweet corn, apples, and yacón, as well as other produce like honey and pickled red turnips. Here, you’ll find delicious dishes that are eaten as part of everyday life, and unique items perfect for celebratory meals, often made with fresh local ingredients.
Convenient Travel Food, the Old-Fashioned Way
Nowadays, sushi is often thought of as a somewhat upscale “restaurant food,” but this dish has taken many forms and been eaten in many ways over the years. Here in Oyabe, one popular local style has long been bamboo leaf sushi, made by topping a ball of sushi rice with sliced fish, pickled vegetables, or other toppings, then wrapping bamboo leaves around it. These are then pressed with a weight to flatten and shape them, leaving them ready to pack for a lunch or a snack. The bamboo leaves make for an eco-friendly wrapper, and give the sushi inside a unique and pleasant aroma. Visitors can try making their own at an old farm house, led by a friendly and welcoming teacher — or make other foods traditionally popular here, depending on the time of year!
Beautiful Dishes for Special Occasions
Kamaboko fish cake, made by grinding cod into a paste, then steaming it to cook it, is a food eaten commonly throughout Japan. In Toyama, and especially Oyabe, though, this everyday foodstuff gets to play a starring role. Here, there is a long tradition of elaborately decorated kamaboko, vibrantly colored with natural ingredients and made into a wide variety of shapes, to be served for special events like birthdays, New Year celebrations, and weddings. These designs run the gamut from auspicious traditional symbols like sea bream, to fun custom designs like the town’s mascot, or even caricatures of couples getting married. There are a few shops in town that make kamaboko like this, and they often have other unique items for sale, made from the same ground cod, but with a variety of other shapes, cooking methods, and ingredients.
Even Unassuming Ingredients Are Made with Loving Care
In Japanese cooking, like so many cuisines, a key element of every leading chef’s work is a focus on even the smallest details. Here in Oyabe, there are artisans hard at work every day on one of the most important, yet most overlooked supporting players in Japanese cuisine: soy sauce. Their excellent products are popular not only with locals, but also with chefs from all around Japan — and even some based overseas! The big secret to their quality is, effectively, that there’s no secret: they simply do the hard work of doing everything right, the old-fashioned way. The soy sauce is even aged for three years in wooden tubs, ensuring a mellow, savory complexity that goes perfectly with its not-too-salty seasoning.
