TAKAYAMA, Gifu >>

Caviar is one of the world’s top three luxury foods, along with foie gras and truffles, and is typically known as an imported product from Russia. Japanese people love the idea of putting plenty of the salted sturgeon roe on a bowl of rice.

At an Okuhida hot spring resort in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, at the foot of Mt. Yake, Okuhida Garden Hotel Yakedake boasts one of the largest quantities of hot spring water in Japan and a taste of caviar chazuke-style, in which hot liquid is poured over rice.

It is a dish not to be missed. I put some caviar on cooked rice before pouring hot dashi broth and tea over it. Combined with the aroma of bonito, the modest salty and savory flavor of the high-end delicacy went well with the rice in the broth.

The dish costs about $46, which sounds very expensive for a chazuke dish. However, the price would double if commercially available caviar was used.

Okuhida caviar is used in the delicacy offered at the Okuhida Garden Hotel Yakedake. Rather than the texture of regular caviar, which bursts when eaten, this Takayama variety has a smooth texture that melts in the mouth.

“This is because the caviar is fresh, which is different from imported ones as they have been pasteurized,” said Seiichi Ishida, 66, president of the hotel.

The hotel also offers the caviar with a savory naan prepared by an Indian chef, as well as sturgeon sashimi. The fish itself is also delicious as it has a rich flavor with a firm texture similar to that of sea bream.

The caviar produced in the Okuhida region is designed to go well with traditional Japanese cuisine as its salt concentration is set at 3.5 percent, less than half that of imported products. Okuhida caviar is now used in a long-established restaurant in Kyoto and a popular Japanese restaurant overseas.

But why on earth is caviar offered at a hot spring resort deep in these mountains in the first place?

“We raise sturgeon for caviar using underground water from the Northern Alps,” Ishida said.

Although sturgeon look similar to sharks, the fish lives in freshwater rivers and lakes in the Northern Hemisphere.

While the famous Hida brand of beef can also be enjoyed in Tokyo, Ishida wondered if there were any other high-end delicacies that could be appreciated only at his hot spring resort in Okuhida.

While searching for such a delicacy and raising suppon softshell turtles using hot spring water, Ishida received 600 sturgeons from a company after it gave up on farming the fish. He decided to give farming a try in 2006.

When I visited a farming facility, sturgeon were slowly swimming around in pools. “It takes at least 10 years for their eggs to develop. It’s a long-term job,” said Hiromi Oki, 69, a staff member in charge of breeding. Light is blocked from sections that house 6-foot pregnant female sturgeon to deter algae growth. Sturgeon raised in water that flows from underground do not develop diseases, so it is not necessary to use medical agents to keep the fish healthy, Oki said.

The Okuhida hot spring resort has become one of Japan’s largest caviar producers (along with Miyazaki and Kagawa prefectures) cultivating about 12,000 sturgeon and shipping nearly 220 pounds of caviar a year.