The best of Fukui Prefecture: Wakasa Beef, Echizen Crab... Let's go to Fukui Prefecture, which is overflowing with gastronomic delights!

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The best of French cuisine] Bountiful Harvest Fair in Cultive291

On January 24, 2025, the "Bountiful Harvest Fair in Cultive291" dinner event was held in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, to enjoy a special menu and local sake woven by the passion of Michelin chefs with the bountiful ingredients nurtured by the climate, climate, tradition, culture and spirit of Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture. The menu for the fair was a special menu only available on this occasion, but we will introduce the ingredients served and information related to them!

Echizen Crab

Fair Menu 1: Echizen Crab and Winter Vegetable Aioli
Echizen crab is the king of winter delicacies in Fukui. The fishing season is from November 6 to March 20, and snow crabs landed in Fukui Prefecture are marked with a yellow tag, the hallmark of the brand.
Fair menu 2: Echizen crab and avocado guacamole
If you want to know more about Echizen crab caught in Mikuni Port, click here

Umi no Restaurant Ootoku

Sea Restaurant Otoku is a hideaway restaurant for adults. Located in Yasushima, Mikuni-cho, which has the atmosphere of a fishing town, the restaurant offers a spectacular view of the Sea of Japan and delicious Japanese cuisine. The owner-chef, Mr. Otoku, is one of the chefs who also served at the Bountiful Harvest Fair!
For the official website of "Umi no Restaurant Otoku", click here

Echizen Crab Bo

If you want to eat Echizen crab, this restaurant is also recommended. The chef who held the knife at the fair, Mr. Toru Tone, operates "Echizen Kani-no-Bo," a restaurant and souvenir shop directly operated by "Byo-yoro," a famous ryokan in Tojinbo Mikuni Onsen, which was established in the Meiji era. The store is filled with huge Echizen crabs (amaebi tempomori donburi)! (I also recommend the amaebi tempura rice bowl!)
For the official website of "Echizen Kani-no-Bo", click here

Oysters

Fair menu ③ Raw oysters and shallot vinegar
Oysters are famous in Hiroshima, but delicious oysters can also be caught in Fukui Prefecture. In Wakasa Bay, natural rock oysters are landed from June to August. The farm-raised oysters, which are in season from December to March, have smaller shells than the rock oysters, but their meat is packed with flavor and richness. They have a rich, creamy flavor.

Ghibier

Fair Menu 4: Wild Boar Possum
Gastronomy in Fukui Prefecture is not limited to seafood! There are also many delicious foods in the mountains. Restaurant la clarté, located in Sakai City, can offer gibier cuisine if you make a reservation in advance♪ The restaurant is proud of its wood-fired ovens that use wood from the prefecture's forests. Chef Matsushita is one of the chefs who also served at the Bountiful Harvest Fair!
For the official website of "Restaurant la clarté with wood fire view", click here

Kuzuryu Maitake

Fair menu⑤Kutouryu Maitake Mushroom and Anchovy Tarte Flambée
Kutouryu maitake, a specialty of Ono City, Fukui Prefecture, is a mushroom that has a perfect triple combination of taste, aroma, and texture. Some restaurants offer it as a topping for grated soba noodles, making it a popular ingredient among locals. Kutouryu maitake mushrooms are cultivated so that they take time to develop a dense moisture density, making them fresh and tasty even down to the shaft.

Fukui Salmon

Fair menu⑥Micuey of Fukui salmon
Trout salmon (rainbow trout) raised in the waters of Fukui Prefecture are known as "Fukui salmon. They are raised from fry under thorough management at four coastal locations in the prefecture, where the low water temperatures and good water quality are ideal for aquaculture, and are characterized by their elegant fat and rich flavor. Fukui salmon is raised under strict management from the time it is a juvenile at four locations along the prefecture's coastline, where the water quality is excellent and the fish are raised under strict management.
For the restaurant where you can eat Fukui Salmon, click here

Fukui Amaebi

Fair menu⑦Bruschetta with shrimp and dried tomato
The catchphrase "Fukui Salmon" is "Delivering Red Happiness. is the catchphrase for Fukui amaebi. The shrimp is caught off the coast of Fukui Prefecture and is officially called "Hokkoku Akaebi" (red shrimp), and must be a "medium" size or larger. The season is May, June, and September to January. Mikuni Port in Sakai City boasts the largest catch of ama-ebi in the prefecture, accounting for more than 70% of the total! Mikuni Port holds a morning market on Sunday mornings during the off-season for crab.
For more about Fukui Sweet Shrimp, click here For those who want to know more about Fukui amaebi, please visit

Mikuni Port Morning Market

Held every Sunday morning from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the market offers a variety of side dishes, dried fish, sashimi, and more. Seafood soup and freshly cooked rice using fresh seafood from Mikuni Port are also available (400 yen per meal), making it a good way to have breakfast at the port.

An all-you-can-stuff amaebi event is also held!

Please check the official website for dates and times.
Please use tongs to stuff as many amaebi as you can into the plastic cups within the 90-second time limit and take them home. The all-you-can-fill amaebi are slightly smaller and are not "Fukui amaebi," but the difference is only in size, and the rich umami taste of amaebi from Mikuni Port remains the same.â
Mikuni Port Market official HP

Wakasa mahata

Fair menu ⑧Steamed mahata grouper in oriental style
Wakasa Mahata" is a brand name fish born in 2025. Its flavor is enhanced when cooked through, making it perfect for dishes such as nabe (hot pot) and boiled fish. The firm texture of the meat is also delicious as sashimi.
Shop where you can eat Wakasa mahata

Wakasa beef

Fair menu ⑨ Char-grilled Wagyu beef with shiitake mushrooms and cachocavallo
Wakasa beef is a brand of beef from Fukui Prefecture. It is characterized by its tender, finely marbled meat and sweetness, and its red meat is also exceptionally tasty. The Wakasa beef raised by Mr. Saito spreads its flavor with every bite...! We asked him to tell us about the restaurants that serve it.

Restaurant in Sakai City that wholesales meat from "Sun Beef Saito

Byoyo-Ro
・Marine Restaurant Otoku
・Take-sho
・Birdland
etc.

A restaurant run by Mr. Saito

Ushiwakamaru" in Awara City, which we introduced in *and trip. before, is a yakiniku restaurant run by Mr. Saito of "Sun Beef Saito. The Hokuriku editorial staff also loves this restaurant, where you can eat Wakasa beef at a reasonable price. For more information about "Gyuwakamaru," please refer to the article below.
Other dishes include "Baked sea bream and Echizen crab in a pie shell," "Seiko crab paella," "Marlin tuna cutlet with sansho tartar sauce," and many more! The participants were overwhelmed by the lineup of Fukui's gastronomic delights. And at the end of the fair, the souvenirs were given out as gifts...

Sake Manju

Sake buns branded with "Chou
Sake Manju, a specialty of Mikuni, Sakai City! According to one theory, when Mikuni was an important trading center on the Sea of Japan as a port of call for Kitamae-bune, the sailors of Kitamae-bune who brought in cargoes of sugar taught the locals how to make Sake Manju when they anchored in the port town of Mikuni. Mikuni's sake manju has the most delicious moist red bean paste and a subtle sweet sake flavor!
Sake Manju "Nishisaka" official HP is here

The suppliers of seafood for this fair are...!

This article has introduced various ingredients from Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, centered on the fair menu. The restaurant that we asked to purchase seafood for this fair is Take-sho. Located near the port of Mikuni, Take-sho carefully selects, auctions, and sells seafood caught from the sea, and also operates a sushi restaurant.
"Take-sho" official HP is here

Local Sake

Local sake served at the fair
To accompany the delicious food is a good sake! Fukui is a rice and water producing area, so sake brewing is also very popular. You can enjoy pairing and comparing different kinds of sake at the buffet of Mikuni Ocean Resort & Hotel in Sakai City, Fukui Prefecture, which always has more than 20 brands of locally brewed sake available for 90 minutes! Stay and taste...! Please come to Fukui and experience the high potential of our food!
"Kubota Sake Brewery" official HP is here

Click here for a report on Mikuni Ocean Resort & Hotel

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