Japanese-style restaurant Ootomorou

Founded in 1830, Kanazawa's long-established Japanese-style restaurant "Ootomorou" has its roots in the chefs of the Gozensho, the kitchen of the Kaga domain. These chefs, known as "knife samurai," prepared meals for the feudal lord and the warriors working in the castle and Banquet Cuisine for the guests of other domains who came to the Kaga Domain. Ootomorou has a collection of countless books and documents written by chefs of the time, mainly from the Edo period. Based on this collection, the restaurant has recreated the Banquet Cuisine that the Kaga Clan put its prestige on at that time and offers to modern customers.

One of the dishes, "Kijihamori" is a gibier dish in which a pheasant's head, wings, and legs are made to look like a pheasant in flight and served with roasted pheasant meat. The "Tonosama dish" exaggerates and shows off the fact that a whole pheasant is used. Another unforgettable dish is "Kiji-no- Kotsuzake," where hot sake is poured into a bowl containing grilled pheasant meat and then set on fire to create a blue flame.

Another local dish is "Tai-No-Karamushi," which is made by stuffing the belly of sea bream with okara (bean curd), produced when tofu is made. At Ootomorou, you can enjoy this dish, which was once served to samurai warriors, in the stately tatami room. In Kanazawa, a castle town, it is still a rule to open the sea bream from the back, as it is considered bad luck to cut the belly of the sea bream as it is believed to be akin to committing Seppuku (ritual suicide).