Savoring Noto Oysters in Japan: Grilling Delights in Kanazawa and Beyond

Being in Kanazawa, the snow crab was the famous seafood of the town, but oysters were also huge. I need to get a hold of tries some of these Noto oysters.

If you stay at the Hyatt Centric/Hyatt House in Kanazawa you’ll notice there is a small row of night time food stalls called “yatai” at the end of the street.

One of them offered oysters so I decided to give it a try.

This place had a cap for the grill and the staff told me to:

1. Place the coasters on the flat side and grill for one minute with a cover on,
2. Flip it over and to grill for another 4-5 minutes with the cover on.

I tried it, and to be honest, it worked perfectly. When I flipped it over, I could hear the oyster pop open around the four minute mark.

The cover also blocked the explosive banging of the shells as they crackled and through shrapnel everywhere. It protected my kids from having oyster shell in the eye, I think I will have to make one of these covers for my bbq back home.

My next question for oyster took me to the Noto peninsula, specifically the Noto Shokusai Food Market Ichiba. Here you can, purchase pressure, oysters, shrimp, and other seafood at the merchant stalls, and then take them to the back restaurant to grill. All you have to pay as a table sitting fee.

Armed with my new knowledge from the other oyster store, I feel confident coming to this restaurant. However, I was disheartened to find out this place did not have a cover for the grill, and my oysters were already open. So the question was, how would I flip them over without losing all of the wonderful oyster juice and what would be the timing?

In the end, I would have to fend for myself, and here’s my result.

I didn’t want to get food poisoning so I started on the flat side first and grilled for one minute, allowing some precious juice to drip.

I then took the tones, proceeded to flip them over quickly, and let them grill with the shell on for 6-7 minutes.

My results were mixed. Two oysters came out perfectly well to overcook. I’m sure there were a number of reasons for it but I didn’t want to keep opening the lids to see how they were done.

However, even been the over cooked ones had plenty of flavor and it was a great meal.

I’m sure you always your pros out there have some great advice for me so let me know a better way to do it in the comments below!