Oden in Kanazawa is a type of hotpot that has things like boiled eggs, daikon, fishcakes in a light dashi broth. There are specialty restaurants that specializes in oden. Originally we were going to skip it because of the hot temperature in the summer. After a visit to the Kanazawa Castle in the morning, we randomly stumbled into an izakaya in the Samurai District- 金澤アンモナイト Izakaya Ammonite, though they didn’t serve izakaya food during lunch.
For lunch, they served oden, not in a hotpot format, but as part of a noodle bowl. So we ended up trying oden anyway, even if it was rather hot outside.
We left Kanazawa rather late so we didn’t have time to sit down somewhere to eat dinner. So we ended up grabbing food from highway pitstop, poetically named My sister’s Hometown. It was named after Ono Imoko, a Japanese politician and diplomat in the late sixth and early seventh century, a period known for its social, artistic and political transformations. Imoko’s place of birth was also in the area, in a town near the road station. His tomb is said to be in Ono Imoko Garden near JR Ono Station.
An oden meal in Kanazawa was a most memorable meal for us literally days before the ban on foreigners was lifted. This posted sign did not deter my wife, but I couldn’t easily enter a place where I was not welcomed.
Walked around some more hunting good eats, finally acquiesced and poked our heads through the curtain. Clientele was obvious local, many afterwork salary folks sucking down sake and beer-u with some oden.
No one came chasing us out, so we tucked into two seats at the counter. Not nearly as hostile as I had feared. Did the Sleepless in Seattle I’ll have what she’s having, with some help from Google Translate.
My wife started asking this lovely neighboring couple about some of items they were eating. Their English was on level with our Japanese. Zilch. We bought a couple of rounds of drinks and our conversation became even better.
Oden is one of those dishes that I usually avoid because there is not much to it, so if the execution is not great, then it’s a disappointment. (In the autumn, convenience stores have oden that is somewhat reminiscent of the rolling hotdogs under the heat lamp you can find in American convenience stores - and just as appealing.)
That said, I once had oden in a mom and pop specialty place that blew my socks off (in Okayama).
