Arrive hungry; this sprawling market – fondly nicknamed “Kanazawa’s kitchen” – will have you taste-testing your way through more than 160 stalls groaning with fresh produce. Seafood really shines here. Sample sweet shrimp, pickled squid and croquettes crammed with crab. A must-order: a kaisendon bowl of steamed rice draped with buri (yellowtail jack fish), crab and nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch).

Rise early to catch hundreds of hawkers peddling ripe produce and caught-that-morning seafood. Spilling into Wajima’s pedestrianised side streets, Wajima Morning Market has been a thriving local hub for what’s believed to be more than 1,000 years. It’s said to have first started fruition in the Heian period (794–1185), when people would gather around the local shrine on festival days and barter for seafood and vegetables. Nowadays, the negotiations for dried cuttlefish, fish sauce and fermented foods ring out from morning until noon. Soak up the atmosphere and haggle with the octogenarian stall keepers. Our order? A piping-hot Ika no shiokara-pan, golden pastry globe filled with salted squid and mashed potato.

Detour to the fishing village of Hashitate, the gateway to Ishikawa’s treasured delicacy: snow crab. Between the bobbing boats and jovial fishermen, you’ll find a smattering of hole-in-the-wall restaurants. We’re satisfying our appetites at the fuss-free Kassen Shintoku, where sweet crab meat draws culinary pilgrims and global food critics from the world over. Trust us, it’s worth the journey.