Cuisine

Mitarashi Dango (sweet dumplings)
These are balls of kneaded rice flour on a bamboo skewer which are basted with soy sauce while cooking, scorched until they are ‘fox red’, then eaten.

Hoba Miso
Magnolia leaves lie roasting over a charcoal brazier, are topped with miso, onions, shiitake mushrooms, etc., then some oil. Eat it while it’s hot! It’s great as a snack with sake or a side dish.

Hida Soba
The buckwheat from fields in cool highlands, Hida’s mountain region, is of truly high quality. Handmade noodles made by grinding this buckwheat on a millstone have exceptional flavor.

Hida Beef
Because of the excellent quality and flavor of the beef from Hida steers, raised in the meadows of Hida’s plateau, it is the best beef for meat dishes such as steak and sukiyaki. Dairy products are also known for their high quality.

Sake
Takayama’s local sake has been brewed since around the middle of the Edo period (about 300 years ago). Truly blessed with perfect conditions for brewing sake  - the mountains’ pure water, Hida-grown rice, and the climate - this local sake has excellent flavor and body. There are 8 breweries in the city, each selling its own unique varieties.

Pickled Vegetables
Simple and honest cuisine using Hida’s specialties such as red turnips, vegetables, and wild mountain vegetables is for sale.

Miso
Since Takayama is far from the ocean in mountain country, and with transportation difficult in earlier times, obtaining goods from the ocean, in particular, was difficult. On top of that, because of the severity of the hard conditions of the long winter, the eating habits of the people of Hida were “Miso with nothing, only pickled vegetables.” Therefore, housewives became especially skilled in using miso. Hida miso, developed under these circumstances is not only used as a condiment, but also as a side dish as an important source of protein; it is food with the unique flavor of Hida.