Matsusaka beef โ raised in Mie Prefecture using strict traditional methods and considered by many connoisseurs to surpass even Kobe beef โ features the most extensive fat marbling of any wagyu breed. Specialist steakhouses and yakiniku restaurants in Matsusaka city serve this extraordinary meat in a reverential setting befitting its premium status. Wagyu beer and classical music are reportedly part of the raising process.
Akafuku mochi has been made using the same recipe since 1707 at a single family-run shop in Okage Yokocho, and the product is deliberately sold only at this location and cannot be purchased online or taken by overnight courier because it contains no preservatives. Each piece is a small ball of soft rice cake topped with smooth red-bean paste shaped to evoke the Isuzu River's flow, and the combination of freshness and simplicity makes it one of Japan's most sought-after confections. At ยฅ250 for three pieces, it is exceptional value.
Matsusaka beef is widely regarded as Japan's most prestigious wagyu, raised from female cattle only โ never oxen โ in a centuries-old tradition of careful feeding, sake massage, and stress-free rearing in the cedar mountains of Mie. The resulting meat has an extraordinary fat-marbling that melts at low temperatures, producing a sweetness and tenderness that even Kobe beef aficionados concede is singular. Sukiyaki in a Matsusaka restaurant, with local sake and tofu, costs ยฅ6,000โยฅ15,000 and is an unforgettable meal.
Ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster), named for this coastline where it is most abundant and prized, is the most ceremonially important seafood in Japan โ displayed at weddings and new year celebrations for its auspicious curved shape. Coastal restaurants in Toba and Shima serve it as sashimi, miso soup, and grilled with butter from October to April.
The spiny Ise lobster from the rocky reefs of Ago Bay is the defining luxury seafood of the Shima peninsula, so intertwined with the region's identity that it appears on festival ornaments, shrine offerings, and souvenir packaging throughout Mie. Grilled over charcoal with salt or simmered into a rich miso soup, a single lobster meal in Toba or Kashikojima typically costs ยฅ3,000โยฅ8,000. The season runs September through April and the fishing is done by small-boat ama and male fisher crews.
Mie's ama are female free-divers who have harvested abalone, turban shells, and sea urchin from the coastal reefs without equipment for over 2,000 years, and several ama huts around Toba and Osatsu village now offer visitors the chance to eat the morning's catch grilled over charcoal at communal hearths. The experience combines cultural immersion โ the ama women chat while cooking โ with extraordinarily fresh seafood at farm-gate prices. A reservation is strongly recommended as the huts operate limited sessions and sell out quickly.
Tekone sushi is a robust fisherman's dish from the Shima peninsula: thick slices of raw bonito marinated in a sweet tosa soy sauce are mixed by hand directly into vinegared rice, creating a bold, deeply flavoured scattered sushi unlike the delicate nigiri of Tokyo. The name means 'hand-kneaded' and the dish was historically made on fishing boats using the freshest catch. It is served at seafood restaurants throughout Toba and Kashikojima and is one of Mie's most distinctively regional tastes.
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