Echizen of Fukui Prefecture

Late last month I attended an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at the
Yokohama Sheraton Hotel, which featured an excellent selection of comfort food from Fukui, Prefecture.

Firstly, I am a local foods geek. I love local specialties from Japan. One of my favorite dishes is called Echizen oroshi soba noodles which uses graded daikon radish – not a very common topping for soba in Japan. The nice texture and sweetness really makes this a great specialty item from this prefecture.

Another nice dish is the katsu-don, but unlike other pork dishes in Japan this one uses Worcester sauce and is deep fried giving the pork a crispy sweet taste. I had to go back for seconds and thirds on this one. The pork is bite sized and very easy to eat.

Next, we have Fukui koshihikari rice. Actually, this is where koshihikari comes from ! The signature rice grain from this part of Japan is called Hana-Echizen and it’s in a class all its own and is regarded as just as good or even better than koshihikari.

Lastly, the grilled mackerel sushi or saba. As a matter of fact, Kanagawa Prefecture prides itself off of having its own saba dish which is called “saba-zushi” and is famed for its delicious and juicy fatty texture. It can easily be purchased in Kamakura. The Fukui version is grilled whereas the Kanagawa version is marinated and served as is.