Ushioya Omicho

Buri is traditionally a fish caught during the winter seasons, where the fish have a good portion of fat giving rice to its rich taste. In order to maintain the quality throughout the year, Ushioya, uses domestically farmed buri to ensure that the quality of the fish remains consistent. During the winter months, they will also sell special buri dishes that take advantage of the taste of wild caught buri and its fatty meat.

To make buri tataki, the meat is prepared using sea salt specially sourced from the Okunoto Shioda Village which still produces salt using the 500-year-old traditional Agehama method. Wooden buckets of seawater are carried to sand fields to be crystallised, scattered and then boiled to produce the sea salt with no additives. This salt is then used to prepare the buri which is then quickly broiled in a large burner to produce a charred exterior, while keeping the interior raw and fresh.

Ushioya is one of our favourite seafood donburi places in Kanazawa. Buri (ブリ, Young Yellowtail) is not a type of fish that you often see outside of Japan, but it is a younger version of the tasty hamachi (はまち, Yellowtail). Buri is probably our second favourite fish after salmon for sashimi because of how naturally tasty and fatty the meat is. White fish can sometimes be a bit too light in taste for us, but buri has a nice sweet taste to the meat.

Served atop a bed of rice and nicely grilled as Buri Tataki, Ushioya's unique dish is one of the best ways to enjoy this famous local delicacy. The rice served is sushi rice, and goes extremely well with the fish. The buri itself is really fresh, and you can really taste it when you bite into it.

Perhaps one of the best places to dine in Omicho Market, especially since the area is full of street food and various restaurants, it can be really hard to actually pick on a place to settle on. However, Ushioya's unique menu makes it a really easy pick for us, and we go back every time we're in Kanazawa.