Category: Fall

Roasted Vegetables and My Obsession with 安納芋

Orange sweet potatoes, ubiquitous in the US, are often nowhere to be found in Ishikawa. Depending on where you are in the prefecture, you can usually locate some in one brief part of late winter in the local-vegetable section of the grocery store with the Noto- and Kaga Yasai (heirloom vegetables from Noto  [northern Ishikawa]…

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Spiced Persimmon Cake

桃栗三年柿八年 (momo kuri sannen kaki hachinen): it takes time to reap the fruit of one’s actions (lit. [It takes] three years for [planted] peach and chestnut trees, eight for persimmons [to bear fruit]) (ことわざ学習室） In late autumn and early winter (mid-Nov. to New Year), Omicho Market is awash in reds and oranges: strawberries, crabs, mikan,…

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Homemade Thanksgiving

Despite my oft-mentioned love of turkey, I had actually never cooked one until this year. In between being a super serious high-school student buried in a stack of books during the holidays and being a super-serious undergrad/grad student visiting from out of state, still buried in a stack of books and often rushing to get…

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Travel Checklist: Local Foods in Hida-Takayama, Part 1

Submitted to the November 2011 J. Festa “Dining in Japan,” hosted at Japingu. Part 2 is here. In September, a friend and I traveled to Takayama, about 3 hours from Kanazawa. Located in Gifu near the border of Nagano, the old towns of Hida (飛騨） and Takayama (高山）are a food tourist’s paradise. Since the town…

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Apple “Hunting” in Kurouchi Orchard Fruit Park, Hida-Takayama

This article is featured in the J. Festa October 2011 edition: “Entertainment in Japan,” hosted at japingu. The second three-day weekend of “Silver Week,” the week in mid-September with both the national holidays of the Autumnal Equinox (shûbun no hi, 秋分の日) and Respect for the Aged Day (keirô no hi, 敬老の日), found me and a…

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