My friend, Chef Tanigawa, the owner-chef of Kichisen was frustrated to see a total absence of overseas visitors to Kyoto this spring. The disaster in Tohoku is that cause, however the exaggerated media coverage has made the local tragedy into a national economic calamity, with far reaching consequences, and for no rational reason. While the nuclear meltdown is deadly serious, so far, just two workers at the plant have required treatment for radiation exposure. Apparently, simple soap and water was their only required treatment.

From what I heard and saw this spring, Kyoto hospitality related businesses lost more than 98% of their customers from overseas. Yet, there was absolutely no damage or danger in Kyoto. That fact didn’t stop the media from going into frenzy mode and report that the situation in Japan was as bad as Chernobyl. This inflicts real damage on small businesses and local economies. And then, the media just move onto the next crisis, their greener pastures. It is very irresponsible, to say the least.

If you want to help Japan recover from this tragedy and you have a trip planned. Don’t cancel! Come, enjoy yourself and support the economy. If you cancelled or postponed a trip, please consider coming!

Kichisen White Miso and Tofu Served with Rice Tea Ceremony-style and Sashimi

So, here we go. Kichisen’s recipe for Kyoto-style white miso.

Temperature: Usually miso is made in the winter so it doesn’t need refrigeration as it ferments. We started this in late May so it will have to ferment in the refrigerator over the summer.

Name: Kyoto white miso, called ‘saikyo’ (west capital) miso in Kyoto and ‘shiro’ (white) miso in the rest if the country, has a lower than usual salt content, so the temperature during the fermentation process is important.

Kichisen Shiromiso Ingredients

• 1.2 kg soybeans (best quality, from Hokkaido)
• kome-koji 2.5 kg (malted rice)
• arajio salt 450 g (natural sea salt)
• water 3.5 liters

Ingredient: Hokkaido Soybeans

Ingredient: Hokkaido Soybeans - Soaked

Ingredient: Rice Koji

Preparation: Simmering Soybeans

Preparation: Simmering Soybeans - Done

Preparation: Soybean Grinder

Preparation: Mixing in Salt

Preparation: Adding Liquid

Preparation: Mixing

Preparation: Packing and Removing Air

Ready for Fermentation

Preparation Steps

• Soak soybeans in cold water overnight.
• Drain and rinse soybeans.
• In a large pot bring 3.5 liters of water to boil, reduce heat and add soybeans. Simmer for about 1 hour.
• Drain and allow to cool.
• Mash, grind or puree the soybeans. (Kichisen uses a meat grinder with a fine hole plate attachment.)
• Mix by hand the soybean puree with kome-koji thoroughly and then add salt while continuing to mix.
• Add liquid. Use the cooled ‘soup’ leftover from simmering the soybeans to soften the mix. Ladle in this liquid little-by-little and mix by hand until evenly absorbed creating a soft paste. The ideal liquid content will make the paste ‘the softness of an earlobe.’
• Vigorously knead paste and remove air bubbles.
• Make into balls and place in non-reactive container. Flatten the balls of miso paste until you have filled the container.
• Cover container and ferment at about 5 degrees C for 3 months.

Final Product: Kichisen White Miso - Done!

Final Product: Kichisen White Miso - Smokey and Pungent

About kome-koji: Rice koji (malted rice) can be made if you can obtain the active koji mold. In Japan we purchase this from a company that specialized in making kome-koji. Chef Tanigawa ordered his from a company in Shikoku. If anyone is interested, I can get the company name and contact information. However, kome-koji must be used fresh and kept refrigerated until use. I guess it is impossible to be shipped abroad.

Sake breweries, miso breweries and so on make their own kome-koji but usually purchase the actual koji mold. There are many varieties of koji in Japan and in sake and miso they play a large part in determining the taste of the final product.

Obtaining Koji Spores Abroad: Vision Brewing
The koji seeds are dry and extremely stable and are stored in an air lock bag. They have an indefinite shelf life being dried conidia, they need no refrigeration and the packet can be opened and closed frequently without harm done to the contents. Postage (air mail, 7 working days) is the method of shipping.

2010 was probably the best year of my life, therefore there were very few KF articles this year, sorry!! KF does still get lots of access, encouraging comments, links and mentions. Thank you!

To ring in the new year, to hope for a year of happiness and contentment, people like to have good food and drink. Here is some inspiration, KyotoFoodie style!

Uni Ikura Donburi and Champagne

Uni Ikura Donburi - detail

Even before I was the KyotoFoodie, I dreamt up this breakfast for Japanese ’Oshogatsu’ New Year’s Day. Japanese have osechi on New Year’s Day morning, all together, at home, a family meal, all out of one box. Osechi is real Zen master food, it is great. However, I couldn’t really call it delicious, and that is fine. Traditionally, the idea was to give the womenfolk three days rest by eating preserved food for the first three days of the year. Truly delicious or not, you only eat osechi once a year and it definitely gives you a taste of life from like 1000 years ago. How Zen master!
I like osechi but this is my idea of how to celebrate the new year. This is my take on Japanese zeitaku (luxury).

How to Do It:
1. You wake up on Jan 1st, not too early, hopefully not hung over from the previous evening’s festivities.
2. You see a big box of excellent Osechi on the dining room table. But, you save that for later. Hey, this is New Year’s Day. You should go back to bed – drunk on champagne, real soon.
3. You have the most zeitaku donburi imaginable – for breakfast. This meal is:
Rice cooked in dashi, heaps and heaps of konbu and maybe sake and mirin. (I thought about cooking the rice in champagne this year, but chickened out. Maybe another day?)
On the rice you heap tons of uni (sea urchin roe) and ikura (salmon roe). This is New Year’s Day, so don’t hold back! I aim to make it about 1 inch thick, this is at least 5 times more than you would get if you ordered this dish at a decent donburi restaurant.
4. You drink a bottle of champagne, with your zeitaku breaki. (One bottle per capita. No sparkling wine, go with the overpriced French stuff today.)
5. You go back to bed and sleep for another few hours.
6. You wake up and think: Hey, this is starting out to be a really great year! (And, its only like half a day old.)
7. What to say to your lover: I hope I don’t need to explain this part on this PG13 site.

Champagne Chilling in the Snow - Japanese Garden Style!

Eating with a Spoon Makes it More Luxurious

All Gone!

What to do if you can’t get, or eat, uni and ikura: Ah, how about steak and lobster, etc? The point here is to:
1. Have one of the most luxurious dinners of the year – for breakfast!
2. Drink a bottle of champagne.
3. Go back to bed (or futon).

’Recipe’
1. Get your lover close and be sweet.
2. Cook rice.
Use really good water, preferable from a shrine with the best, or second best feng shui in the prefecture.
Cook that rice in dashi with, and I quote, an ’insane’ amount of konbu. Miwa, said that my white rice is black, because of so much konbu. Good, good. Make your white rice ’black’ with flavor on New Year’s Day!!!
3. Serve and Indulge
Heap with tons (and I mean tons) of fresh uni and ikura. Authentic KyotoFoodie style is that it should exceed 1 inch in thickness!
4. Go back to bed.

Kurogome - Black Heirloom Rice

Black Rice - Kombu Overload!

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Cold Summer Noodles: Iced Soba with Karami Daikon, Beni Shoga and Onsen Tamago

After I did this article on my favorite cold udon at Tsunamichi I thought that I ought to do a recipe post too. I somehow came up with this simple recipe that is really quite great. Unfortunately the ingredients are not readily available overseas, I think. However, if you are a real foodie, you could easily grow the radishes and make the pickled beni shoga ginger yourself.

The Ingredients
nama (fresh) soba or udon
karami bitter daikon radish
beni shoga pickled ginger
tsuyu (dashi-broth based sauce)

Cold Summer Noodle Ingredients: Nama (Fresh) Soba, Karami Daikon (Radish), Beni Shoga (Ginger)

I made umeboshi this year, for the first time, so I have two big plastic buckets in my kitchen full of pickling plums. One variety includes fresh ginger and the ume and ginger are naturally colored a deep and beautiful (and tasty) red with heaps of red perilla shiso leaves. (ume articles on the way)

I just reached into the umeboshi barrel and pulled out some beni shoga for this dish. If you like beni shoga, you have to make this at home. It is really not very difficult. Just buy a bunch of ‘shin shoga’ new ginger when it is in season. You would probably just have to grow your own red shiso as you need quite a bit. This is a wonderful condiment and will keep forever.

By the way, if you cannot get ‘nama’ noodles, dried will work too. A regular daikon radish could be substituted and the top, near the greens, is usually the most bitter part of the radish. A hot western radish would likely work too.

Cold Summer Noodles: Beni Shoga from the Umeboshi Barrel

Cold Summer Noodles: Umeboshi Vintage 2010 (in process)

I don’t make my own tsuyu. It usually includes dashi, shoyu and mirin. A lot of bottled tsuyu (and dashi) is full of chemicals like MSG. If you pay a little more you can get excellent tasting natural tsuyu, that is what I use. It usually is in concentrated form. I guess if I were a real foodie I would make my own. I will have to try that one day!

Nama (fresh, lit. raw) noodles take just 3 minutes or so to boil. Once I start the noodles I pour some tsuyu over ice in the serving bowl. If you are having guests, put the bowls in the freezer well before serving so that they are still frosty cold to the touch when they are served. That would be very ‘Kyoto’.

After the noodles have cook, rinse them with cold water several times until they are cold. The colder the better, use ice water to chill them if possible.

Cold Summer Noodles: Ice and Tsuyu

Grate the karami daikon and slice the beni shoga while the noodles are cooking and chilling. I grate about 2 to 3 tablespoons of daikon per serving. That is maybe a bit much as it is quite potent stuff. I can sometimes feel it burning in my tummy after the meal. The beni shoga is very salty so I use about a teaspoon or so. If it is too salty for you simply soak in water for 10 minutes or so and squeeze before dicing. You could also soak and squeeze after dicing but that will remove some flavor too. The smaller you can dice the ginger the more ‘Kyoto’ it will be.

Place the noodles over the ice and tsuyu and turn over a few times with your fingers or chopsticks. Then add the grated daikon and pickled ginger. An onsen tamago (hot spring egg) is also a nice addition. (No Recipes has a good recipe for onsen tamago here.)

Cold Summer Noodles with Tempura Served: Iced Soba with Karami Daikon, Beni Shoga and Onsen Tamago

I need some calories to keep me going in the hot summer so I like to have cold noodles with tempura. I usually buy tempura in the supermarket. I get kakiage ‘mixed’ tempura and often add it to my bowl of noodles after I have had a few bites. (Here are a few Kyoto kakiage links: Gion Tenshu, Yoshikawa Tempura and Marugame Udon)

Cold Summer Noodles with Tempura - All Mixed Up

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More on KyotoFoodie about Karami Daikon here.

Kitazawa Seed Company sells karami daikon seeds online, you could grow them yourself!

I had the pleasure of meeting Michal and her coffee roaster husband Chris when they visited Kyoto recently. Being KyotoFoodie fans they kindly gave me a signed copy of her book. I flipped through the book a few times and knew that I liked it but didn’t have time to spend with it for a while. And then I made a few recipes.

Scent of the Monsoon Winds is all about cooking with spices and draws inspiration from the cuisines of the world; Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, North African and of course European.

Scent of the Mansoon Winds Cover

I must say that I think I have become somewhat prejudiced against spices after my exposure to Kyoto cuisine. Recently while watching a clip from an English language culinary program on YouTube, and Indian woman said that without spice there is no Indian cuisine. I cringed at that. While some spice and flavorings are used in Kyoto cuisine, the purity, quality and freshness of the ingredients are the ideal.

I do love spicy food though. I grow my own habanero and jalapeno chili peppers in my little Kyoto garden, smoke them in my little Kyoto kitchen and have developed a layu-type spiced oil recipe made from my smoked habaneros.

Yet, Michal’s book consciously reacquainted me with the spice traditions and broadened my understanding and desire learn (and eat) more. Michal is an accomplished chef and her experience of running a specialty food stores in Auckland for some 15 years I assume contributes greatly to her knowledge of spices. Her Chinese grandfather was also quite a chef, she reports in the book her childhood memories of his meals. In addition to spice, the recipes themselves are often ones with history yet they seem original and spiced up with a unique charm, very much of our time.

Arab Orange Blossom and Sumac Pancakes Page

Many of the ingredients required for the recipes, especially the variety of spices are just not available here. So, I have only made 2 of the recipes so far. Lover’s Oxtail Stew, a Yemeni recipe spiced with caraway, which is said to encourage fidelity, was absolutely wonderful! Hot Mezze Hummus, a Turkish baked hummus dish was also absolutely wonderful! (A little secret, this KyotoFoodie is a fiend for both oxtail and hummus.)

I am intrigued beyond description with this recipe:

Arab Orange Blossom and Sumac Pancakes

“The plain version of these pancakes, known as ‘ataif’, harks back to medieval times for the purpose of breaking the Ramadan fast. For a variation, omit the syrup and serve with stewed fruit and some thick Greek-style yoghurt – prefect for a lazy weekend breakfast.”

And a few more:

Moorish Swimming Rabbit (rabbit is almond milk sauce)

Spicy Rolled Indian Omelettes (with date and lemon chutney, another recipe in the book)

Armenian Street Bread (a cross between pizza and flatbread)

Watermelon, Cumin Seed and Feta Salad

Chicken Livers with Szechwan Peppercorns and Pears (pears!)

Mum’s Most Wanted Pork Noodles

Date Marsala Buttermilk Cake

Red Cumin Mayonnaise

Chapters include; mid-week speed, portable feasts, Asian feasting, luxury Sundays, spiced nights, winter blues, baked treats, drink it in (drink recipes) and kingly condiments.

The book is a hardcover, smartly designed with beautiful and colorful, bright photographs. Each recipe on the page is laid-out simple and clean and is usually accompanied by a full-page photo of the dish.

The book contains a very convenient Weights and Measure page to help with metric vs English customary and a wonderful Spice Glossary to which Michal has concise explanation of spices of world, some of them this foodie hadn’t heard of!

The US publisher dummied down the title and blandly called The Spice Kitchen in my homeland. Oh well.

Links and Reference
Author: Michal Haines Official Website
Publisher: Scent of the Monsoon Winds – New Holland Publishers

This is a classic Japanese home cooking dish: nikujaga. Nikujaga is based on Western beef stew and I have tried to give a novel Kyoto taste to it. This autumn I have been trying to perfect it and I must say that I am proud of this one. Please give it a try and enjoy!

Get a Kyoto Foodie Present! Please see the end of this article for details.

KyotoFoodie’s Original Kyoto-style Nikujaga with Wagyu Beef Tendon and Kakushi Aji
Nikujaga (肉じゃが) was invented by cooks in the Japanese Navy and is based on beef stew. Niku means meat, as in beef, and jaga (jagaimo) is potato. Nikujaga is now a very popular home cooking dish in Japan. The main ingredients for nikujaga are thin sliced beef, potato, carrot and onion. These typical beef stew ingredients are then simmered in a Japanese style broth of sweet sake and soy sauce.

Beef Tendon: I decided that I wanted to use a non-roast cut of beef for this recipe and decided on fatty tendon. In Japan, beef tendon is popular simmered in sweetened soy sauce and sake. After it is well cooked it is pleasantly ‘mochi-mochi’, or mochi-like in texture. If tendon is undercooked it is just rubbery. After thoroughly cooked it is pleasantly chewy, but more gooey like mochi than rubbery. This cut of meat is called called suji niku in Japanese, literally ‘tendon meat’. This is not just tendon, it is tendon with some meat and fat. Properly prepared, tendon is really good! Give it a try.

Hidden Taste: Next I wanted to add a little non-conventional taste and kakushi aji, or hidden taste. The kakushi aji is cinnamon. Why cinnamon? Cinnamon has been used for centuries to flavor Kyoto’s ubiquitous confection called yatsuhashi that no one in Kyoto actually eats. Today, yatsuhashi is mainly purchased by junior high school students as omiyage when they come to Kyoto on their school excursion. In true kakushi aji fashion, I wanted the cinnamon taste to be there and noticeable but not prominent enough to catch right away as cinnamon.

I was a bit inspired for this recipe by watching Heston Blumenthal’s In Search of Perfection series. This is my perfect Kyoto-style Nikujaga. For the early stages of this dish, I also referred to a recipe in a ‘quick and easy’ type cookbook (村田吉弘の10分でできる和のおかず) that I bought at Kikunoi some years ago written by Chef Yoshihiro Murata. (Mainly the microwaving of potatoes part.)

Here is what it looks like:

Michael's Original: KyotoFoodie-style Nikujaga Wagyu Tendon Beef Stew

You might notice a few things in the photo that are not on the beef stew list of ingredients above. I wanted to add a few non-traditional things; two are ‘Kyoto’ and one isn’t. The ingredients are:

Aburaage: Deep fried tofu used to make the wrapping for Kyoto’s inarizushi.
Yaki Fu: Wheat gluten that has been baked. Various preparations of fu are an important part of Kyoto cuisine.
Kampyo: Kampyo is strips of dried gourd that are most commonly found in sushi rolls.

These three ingredients absorb that flavors of the broth and add contrasting textures.

One last ingredient is ito konnyaku, or threads of konnyaku jelly. Ito konnyaku is often used in nikujaga. While it doesn’t have a lot of taste on its own, it gives an additional contrast of textures.

There is some authentic Kyoto-style philosophical discussion regarding the dashi broth, but lets talk tendon first.

Preparing the Suji Niku Beef Tendon
While it is possible to find just beef tendon in Japan I prefer the part that is a mix of thinner tendon, meat and a bit of fat. It needs more time to cook than the vegetable so I cook it twice before adding the veggies. Sometimes this wagyu suji niku can be quite fatty, the tendon in the photos here is not very fatty though.

I start by boiling the suji niku in salt water for about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the tendon. I am mainly doing this to remove fat, but not the flavor. After giving it a good boil I pour off the water and rinse the suji niku with hot water in a colander and allow to cool. Once cool enough to handle I cut it into bite sized portions and put it in a wok or frying pan. I cover the meat with sake or cooking sake (ryorishu), cover (and use a wooden otoshibuta if you have one) and cook covered over high heat. I cook it down until all the sake is evaporated and I can hear the oil from the meat sizzling in the pan and then remove from heat.

Wagyu Suji Niku (Beef Tendon)

Wagyu Suji Niku Boiled to Remove Fat

Wagyu Suji Niku Simmered in Sake

Wagyu Suji Niku Simmered in Sake

The Other Ingredients
The other ingredients don’t require much preparation. Cut the kampyo strips into bite sized pieces. Simply drain and rinse the konnyaku and quickly rinse the kampyo and yaki fu in hot water and then place in the dashi broth to reconstitute. The before slicing the aburaage, place in a colander in the sink and slowly pour a pot of boiling water over it to wash any remaining oil from the deep frying process.

Yaki Fu and Kampyo

Aburaage and Konnyaku

Sliced Aburaage

The Dashi Dilemma: Clear Soup or Stew
In Kyoto, dashi soup broth is very serious business. Many traditionalists say that (clear) soup is the climax of the meal and even just pretty good Kyoto restaurants make their dashi from scratch every morning. Some fanatical restaurants make it 3 times a day! It is said to lose its freshness after just a few hours. Dashi is the basis of many classic dishes. At Kichisen I was amazed to learn that they cook their sushi rice in dashi! (They don’t really even serve sushi to guests. But when they make sushi, they use their $5 a cup dashi to cook the rice!)

The typical nikujaga usually has a light broth but I decided to go with a more gravy or stew-like consistency (I live in Kyoto, but I am from “out on the edge of the prairie“), I also wanted to make it with the traditional kastuo dashi — and a little inspiration from Heston Blumenthal! (See this video, 4:02, potato skin infusion.)

Thanks to Heston, I decided to develop a ‘potato dashi’, I call it jaga dashi. While jaga dashi may not be ‘Kyoto’ in taste, I think that it is sufficiently ‘crazy about dashi’ to be authentically ‘Kyoto’.

First I simmer the potato skins in katsuo dashi, this infuses the dashi with the most flavorful part of the potato. Also, I overcooked about 1/3 of the potatoes in the microwave and then dissolve them into the jaga dashi to thicken the consistency and add even more flavor.

 About the katsuo dashi, I never use the chemical powdered stuff. I use the dashi packs that contain all the ingredients that go into proper dashi, these ingredients are just ground and put into a tea bag. Making authentic dashi from scratch is just not something done in home cooking now, leave that to the masters. Dashi packs are a reasonable compromise between ‘chemical’ and ‘from scratch’.

After cooking, most of this jaga dashi will be absorbed into the vegetables and meat, but making it more soupy would surely be yummy too. Just add more sake!

Starting Jaga Dashi

Well Microwaved Potatoes Jaga Dashi

Jaga Dashi Broth with Yaki Fu and Kampyo

Cooking: Simmering the Stew
The peeled potatoes should be pre-cooked in the microwave oven for about 5 minutes. Saute the reconstituted fu and kampyo, konnyaku, aburaage slices and onion with suji niku and remaining oil. Saute covered over high heat for several minutes and until browned slightly.

Next come the sliced potatoes and carrots, chuck them in and then add the jaga dashi and ‘top off’ pan with sake or cooking sake. Most cooking sake has lots of salt added to it so that it can be sold in grocery stores. You want to use seishu (clear sake) if at all possible. Just buy the cheapest sake you can find but make sure it is seishu and not synthetic (goseishu). It has been said that I use an insane amount of sake when I simmer this dish.

After you have drowned all the ingredients in sake turn up the heat. I prefer to use a Chinese style wok instead of the typical Western-style stew pot because I don’t want to stir the nikujaga while it is cooking. Stirring will break the potatoes.

Next you add the cinnamon and tare (soy sauce, mirin, sugar, salt and probably some more sake).

Saute the Beef and Other Ingredients

Drown those ingredients in sake!

Bring to boil

Add the Cinnamon and Tare

Disperse Dashi in Ingredients

Cover with Foil and Simmer

Dekita! ... I think this one is a masterpiece!

My Perfect Nikujaga Served

Kyoto-style Nikujaga Served

Kyoto-style Nikujaga First Bite: Kampyo, Suji Niku and Carrot

Kyoto-style Nikujaga Recipe
This recipe will make at least 10 servings and like any stew, nikujaga tastes even better as leftovers. Just half the ingredients if you want to make less. When I make a large portion like this I use less sugar, salt and soy sauce as it is more healthy. The recipe below you may find bland. I think that you could double the amount of mirin, soy sauce and sugar and add another teaspoon or so of cinnamon to rev up the flavor. If I were doing this recipe for guests or for just one meal, I would definitely use more sugar and soy sauce. Try this as your base and then taste and adjust as you cook.

Ingredients

• 500 g beef
• 1.5 k potato
• 1-2 onions
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 cup sliced aburaage (deep fried tofu)
• 1/2 – 1 cup konnyaku (thin sliced or ito konnyaku)
• 30 g kampyo (dried gourd strips, unbleached if possible)

dashi

• 1 liter water
• 2 katsuo dashi packs
• skins from peeled potatos
• 1/3 of the potatoes, well microwaved and lightly crushed with fork.
• dried kombu kelp (optional)

700 ml – 1 liter of cheap sake (this much ryorishu with salt will ruin the stew)

tare

• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 200 ml sake or cooking sake (ryorishu)
• 100-150 ml Japanese shoyu soy sauce (not thick koikuchi)
• 200 ml mirin (sweet sake)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar
• salt (pinch)

Preparation
Ingredients: Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters or eighths depending on size, then cover in a bowl and cook in a microwave oven until about half-done. Use about 1/3 of the potatoes for another round of microwaving, cook well. The overcooked potatoes will be used to thicken the jaga dashi.

Peel and slice the carrots and onions.

Drain and rinse the konnyaku. Cut the kampyo into bite sized strips and rinse with hot water with the baked fu and then reconstitute in jaga dashi.

Pour boiling water over aburaage and cut into strips after cooling.

If necessary boil the beef once to remove excess fat. (See above for details if you are using tendon. If you are using roast or similar cut, this step is probably not necessary.) If using tendon or other tough cut of beef, simmer in sake.

Dashi: Simmer about 1 liter of water with several katsudashi packs and the peeled skins from the potatoes. After 20 minutes remove dashi packs and potato skins. Gently mash the over-microwaved potato slices and add to dashi and simmer covered for about 20 minutes.

Saute the beef with other ingredients except potato and carrot until lightly browned then add the jaga dashi. Next add the potatoes and carrots and fill pan with sake until all ingredients are covered and bring to a gentle boil.

Tare: Over a low flame, heat the tare ingredients gently until sugar is dissolved.

Simmer the over medium heat and add tare and cinnamon. Use a ladle to mix the tare with the dashi well. Avoid stirring to not break the potatoes. Cover with foil, leaving a small hole for steam to escape. Simmer and reduce dashi to a thick gravy-like consistency.

Flavor Balance and Kakushi Aji
Either a thick gravy or a light broth for this recipe would be nice, I think. The amount of salt and soy sauce is very important, so do like real chefs do and taste as you go. You can always add more but you can’t take it away.

The most important point in the recipe for me is the cinnamon. I want it to be a hidden taste. I want the person eating it to say, Uh, what is this? I know this taste but I can’t quite place it. If they say something like; Wow, cinnamon flavored stew, that’s interesting. Then, I think have used too much cinnamon.

Help Spread Kyoto Culinary Culture and Get a Present from Kyoto Foodie! If you make and adapt this recipe and publish it on your blog, I will send you box Kyoto foodie goodies. (If a lot of people do it, I think I will have to choose just a few winners and not send everyone a prize.) Send a trackback and/or comment with a link to your nikujaga! Be daring!

Reference and Links
Nikujaga
Dashi
Aburaage
Fu (wheat gluten)
Kampyo
Yatsuhashi

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Donabe Yakiguri Gohan (Roasted Chestnut Rice) 焼き栗ご飯

Kuri-gohan and O-koge
Kuri-gohan is an autumn favorite, as are yaki-kuri (yakiguri), or roasted chestnuts. This dish is slightly novel in that combines the two. Kuri-gohan is wonderful but it lacks the smokey aroma of well roasted chestnuts. Peeling chestnuts is a bit of a pain, but it is worth the effort and cannot be beat. Roasting and peeling chestnuts can be done with family or friends and makes for a nice time. This dish goes well with seasonal tsukemono pickles and grilled fish.

This dish has a good deal of sugar content from the chestnuts, sake and mirin, so if cooked in a donabe earthenware pot you can be sure that you will get a nice crust of o-koge (お焦げ), slightly burned rice, at the bottom of the donabe pot.

Yakiguri Gohan – Roasting Chestnuts Over Open Flame

The same effect can be accomplished with charcoal, an electric broiler, or even a torch.

Yakiguri Gohan – Roasted Chestnuts, Still Smoldering

These are a bit underdone.

Yaki-kuri Gohan Recipe
Using roasted chestnuts makes this recipe different from the usual kuri gohan.

Ingredients

• 20-30 medium size fresh chestnuts
• 1 1/2 – 2 cups short grain white rice
• fresh water, equal to amount of rice after washing (if using donabe)
• 2 tablespoons sake (ryorishu cooking sake or sake)
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt
• dashi kombu (kelp for dashi broth)

Preparation
Peeling the chestnuts: There are numerous ways to peel chestnuts in Japan; boiling, roasting and just peeling raw with a sharp paring knife. Yakiguri (roasted chestnuts) gives a more kobashii (smokey and aromatic) flavor so we flamed the chestnuts to peel them. A charcoal grill could be used as well, the point is the infrared heat.

Chestnuts can be peeled easiest when they are hot, the hotter the better. Try roasting them in small batches to keep them hot while peeling. I burned away most of the outer shell over the gas range and then peeled away the inner skin with my fingers and sometimes favorite ceramic paring knife.

I returned the peeled chestnuts to the flame for just a few seconds to give them some additional ‘yaki’ roast flavor and aroma.

Donabe: Rinse the rice with water several times and place in colander while preparing the donabe and other ingredients. Remeasure rice and add to donabe. Add the same amount of water as rice. Then add sake, mirin and salt. Mix chestnuts into the rice and liquid and place small sheet of dried dashi kombu on top. You could use up to 1 cup of sake in place of water if you want to be very luxurious. Don’t skimp on salt, chestnuts need a good deal of salt to bring out their sweetness.

Heat until near boil and cover donabe. Reduce heat and set timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove heat (if you are using an electric range, move the donabe from heat source) and set timer for another 10 minutes.

Uncover and mix gently with shamoji rice paddle and break chestnuts into pieces. You could leave them whole if you like, but that creates a presentation conundrum, or at least in Kyoto it might.

Yakiguri Gohan – Roasted Chestnuts, Ready to Peel

These are well done, the shell has almost been burned away completely. The trick is to peel the inner skin while the chestnut is still hot.

Yakiguri Gohan – Peeled and Roasted Chestnuts

I put these to the flame again for a few seconds after peeling.

Cooking Yakiguri Gohan in Donabe

Cooking Yakiguri Gohan in Donabe

Cooking Yakiguri Gohan in Donabe – Boiling and Ready to Cover

Cooking Yakiguri Gohan in Donabe – 20 Minutes Later, Dekita! (Done)

Generally the kombu is discarded, but I (Peko) like to bite off a chunk and chew it while I am serving the meal.

Yakiguri Gohan – Two Ways to Serve

The Presentation Conundrum
The presentation conundrum is with the whole chestnuts, on the right. Some will probably have been broken in the peeling process and the rice sticks to the tops and sides of the chestnuts in an unnatural and icky way. While the whole chestnuts look much more sexy, gently breaking them with the shamoji rice paddle solves the presentation conundrum and creates a uniform taste. This dish has only three main flavors: rice, chestnut and salt. If you don’t have whole chestnut in every bite, you might be disappointed.

Yakiguri Gohan – Whole Chestnuts

Nice o-koge charring on rice from the bottom of the donabe, this maybe a little too much. The o-koge should never make the rice become hard nor black, golden brown is what you are after. A tiny bit less heat would have made the o-koge come out perfect.

Yakiguri Gohan – Rice and Chestnuts Mix

The bit of rice at the top right of the bowl sticking out is very bad form, you can tell a foreigner served this! Everything inside the bowl, no stray rice sticking grains to the mouth of the bowl!

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Aomikan (Green Tangerine) Marmalade 青みかんマーマレード

The Taste of Green Tangerines

Aomikan, or ‘green tangerine’ mark the beginning of autumn. They are more sour than sweet and make a wonderfully refreshing snack in the still hot late afternoons and early evenings of this season.

The early autumn aomikan has a delightful, berry-like ‘tingle on the tongue’ tartness to it, similar to the sensation of a perfectly fresh strawberry.

In this season though, mikan are not quite ripe, but that makes them all the more tasty! Aomikan is one of Peko’s favorite fruit of all time. Aomikan only stay ‘ao’, green naturally for a short time, so this is the time to enjoy them!

source: KyotoFoodie End of Summer Aomikan article

Aomikan – Green Tangerines

Aren’t these absolutely gorgeous?

I love aomikan! Last year I tried to make aomikanshu liqueur (like umeshu, yuzushu, karinshu), but it didn’t turn out very well. I think that I didn’t add enough sugar and I bought cheap aomikan that weren’t very juicy. Since early this year I have made a lot of marmalade with Japanese citrus, like this yuzu marmalade, and had been looking forward to aomikan season so that I could make some aomikan marmalade.

Slicing Aomikan

Sliced Aomikan

Ready to Simmer – Aomikan and Sugar in the Pot

How I Made It
I followed this quick and simple recipe by a Japanese foodie blogger that called for the entire mikan tangerine being used, as is. I was a little disappointed with the result. The marmalade looks pleasantly creamy, but that is the pith, I think. The pith really needs to be removed and the peel needs to be boiled at least once to remove the bitterness. I don’t think that there is a quick and easy way to make excellent marmalade.

I used 10 large, beautiful, juicy aomikan.

Tangerine Marmalade Recipe

• 5 aomikan (substitute ripe mikan tangerine)
• 100 g sugar
• 500 ml water

Preparation
Scrub tangerines with brush and slice thinly as seen in photos. Simmer sliced tangerines in water for 1 hour and then add sugar and simmer for another 1 hour.

How I Would Make it Next Time
Start with 20 aomikan or ripe tangerines.

Wash the whole aomikan with a scrub brush. Miwa found information in the internet saying to wipe the peel with a towel soaked in shochu (substitute vodka or similar alcohol) to remove wax and (some) chemicals.

Peel aomikan and scrap the inside of the peel with a knife or spoon to remove the pith (see this yuzushu article for photos).

Hand-chop or mix tangerine flesh in blender and squeeze through course woven cloth. You want to separate the juice from the pith and fiber.

Select about half the aomikan peel and boil for 5 minutes and strain. Repeat this process 1 to 3 times, with new boiling water each time. (Thick peel citrus requires a good deal of boiling, aomikan peel is quite thin and delicate so I think that once ought to be sufficient to take the bitter edge off.) You can make candied peel with the remaining peel.

Mix juice, sugar and peel with 500 ml to 1 l of water and simmer for 1 to 2 hours.

Normally, I wouldn’t use white processed sugar, but I wanted to try to bring out the freshness and tartness of the aomikan without complicating the taste with brown or black sugar. Wasanbon sugar, though expensive, could be incredible combination with properly prepared aomikan.

Aomikan Marmalade Served

I am enjoying this marmalade on my bread in the morning and have done a taste test with other marmalade that I made this year and this really is quite bitter. Too bad. Once again, the easy way turned out not to be the best way. By the way, there is no ‘quick and easy’ way in Kyoto cuisine.

Fruit Store in Shopping Arcade

This is the shop where I bought the aomikan. They have some cheap ones out front, but I went in and dug around and found some big, juicy aomikans. They were well worth the extra few hundred yen that they cost. This little old guy that works at the fruit shop is so old that he can’t stand-up straight! I bet he knows everything there is to know about fruit by now.

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There are a number of ways that the pod may be cooked and eaten including grilled, sauteed and tempura. The pod is pleasantly bitter and cooking takes the bite off the bitterness. We sauteed ours in miso which is a perfect contrast to the bitterness of the pod. (This is not Kyoto cuisine.)

Washed and Sliced Akebi Pod

Miso Sauteed Akebi (Miso Itame) あけび みそ炒め
Miso itame is a common way to saute vegetables in Japan. First the vegetable is sauteed with oil then a mixture of ryorishu (cooking sake), shoyu, mirin, sugar and miso is added and sauteed for a few more minutes. Miso itame is a very tasty, quick and versatile dish that combines the taste of sweet, pungent (miso) and salty.

Ripened and Opened Akebi

Recipe for Akebi Miso Itame あけび みそ炒め

Ingredients

• 1 akebi pod (inner fruit removed)
• 2 tablespoons oil (sesame oil is nice)
• 1-2 teaspoon miso paste (same as for miso soup)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
• 2 tablespoons of ryorishu (cooking sake or sake)
• shiso leaf (fresh green shiso leaf) optional

I used at least 2 teaspoons of Kansai-style sweet miso paste which is light in color. Tohoku style miso is red and saltier and you might want to go easy on the amount if you are using that style of miso. Adjust amount based on the kind of miso you are using and of course your taste.

Preparation
If you would like to remove some of the bitterness you can soak the pod halves or slices in warm water for 30 to 60 minutes. Pat dry before sauteing.

Mix all the liquid ingredients together in a bowl, dissolving the miso paste and sugar.

Heat a fry pan and add several tablespoons of oil. Once hot, add sliced akebi pod and saute covered until akebi softens, this should take about 2 minutes.

Pour in liquid ingredients, reduce heat and simmer down until little liquid remains. This should take 1 to 2 minutes. Due to the high sugar content, the mixture will quickly burn – don’t allow that to happen. Once the liquid has been reduced, serve on a plate and garnish with chopped shiso leaf.

Washed and Sliced Akebi Pod

Akebi Pod Miso Itame

Akebi Pod Miso Itame

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Home Cooking: Shishito Peppers and Jako Simmered in Soy Sauce

Shishito peppers are perhaps the most commonly consumed variety of pepper in Japan. Shishito peppers are ‘peppery’ in flavor and while fairly sweet, it seems that in every bunch of shishito there are one or two hot ones. As you bite into one, you never know if you have a zinger or not! In Japan, Shishito are available all year now.

About the Name of the Dish
‘Itame’ means to saute and ‘ni’ means to simmer, as in nizakana (simmered fish).

Shishito Peppers

Saute Jako in Sesame Oil

Simmer in Sake

Shishito Peppers and Jako Itameni Recipe
Be sure not to use chirimen jako that has already been flavored with shoyu and/or sansho. Chirimen should be whitish grey in color, not brownish red.

Ingredients

• 20-30 Japanese shishito peppers
• 1/2 cup chirmen jako (plain, not sansho flavored)
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/2 – 1 cup sake or cooking sake (ryorishu)
• 5 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)
• 1-2 tablespoons mirin (sweet cooking sake)

Preparation
Wash shishito and remove stems. Saute chirimen jako in smoking hot oil 1 or 2 minutes then add shishito and reduce heat. After the bottoms of the shishito have browned slightly pour on sake and cover. After 2 to 3 minutes and most of the sake has been absorbed, add the soy sauce and mirin and simmer until absorbed.

You can add sugar to caramelize the chirimen jako, if you like.

point: Don’t overcook. If shishito are overcooked the collapse and become flat. You want them to be cook and retain their shape. Adjust the amount of soy sauce to suit your taste. This is a side dish, not a main dish. It is intended to be salty.

Shishito Peppers and Jako Itameni – Served

This is another dish that you ought to be able to adapt easily with local vegetables in your region. As chirimen jako is dried, it ought to be relatively easy to obtain outside of Japan. Try online. Let us know of your localized creations!

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Miwa’s Kyoto Kitchen Recipe This recipe is a staple of late summer and early autumn home cooking in Japan. Eggplants are grilled under direct flame, peeled, chilled and served with bonito shavings, grated ginger and soy sauce. The taste is pungent and smoky. This dish is very quick and easy to make.

Don’t let your daughter-in-law eat autumn eggplant!
While in season in summer too, autumn eggplant is said to taste best. This is due to the difference in temperature between day and night which make the eggplant tastier and more pleasing in texture. Autumn eggplant is considered so good that there is even an old saying; don’t let your daughter-in-law eat autumn eggplant! (秋なすは、嫁に食わすな)

This saying has two interpretations. One is that autumn eggplant is too good for the daughter-in-law — she can have porridge or something. Another meaning is more interesting and relevant. According to Japanese folk wisdom, eggplant cools the body and a woman wanting or expecting a baby will want to keep her body warm, not cool. So, eating eggplant keeps you cool!

My version of this dish is to chill the eggplant in the refrigerator or freezer before eating. This obviously makes it even more cooling on the body. Perfect for summer or early autumn!

Japanese Eggplant

Hitting Eggplants Together

Score Eggplant

Scoring the skin of the eggplant makes it easier to peel the skin away after charring.

Grilled Eggplant ‘Yakinasu’ Recipe

Ingredients

• 6-10 Japanese ‘nasu’ eggplants
• shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
• hana katsuo (shaved bonito)
• ginger

Preparation
Wash eggplants well. Bang the eggplants together gently about 50 times each to facilitate removal of the skin after grilling. Trim the points off the stem ‘cap’ of the eggplants. Score the skin on opposite sides from end to end, lengthwise, as seen in photo above.

Preheat grill at full flame. Reduce heat and add eggplants and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, turning as needed. Increase heat if needed to sufficiently char the skin of the eggplant.

Remove and allow to cool enough to handle. Pull charred skin away from flesh, from top to bottom. It should come off cleanly in two sheets.

Chill peeled grilled eggplant in refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Scatter shaved fish and grate ginger on top add Japanese soy sauce to taste.

point: You want the eggplant to be cooked thoroughly but not well-done. The charring imparts flavor and fragrance to the dish, so you don’t want them underdone either.

Grilling Eggplant

Peeling Eggplant

Autumn Grilled Eggplant Served 秋なすの焼きなす

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Home Cooking: Kyoto-style Sweet Potato (Sui-to Poteto) with Cinnamon

Classic Modern Japanese Sweet: Sui-to Poteto
Sui-to Poteto is a classic that was invented in 1949 by Matsuzo Inoue, the patisserie at the exclusive Imperial (Teikoku) Hotel in Tokyo. Though he was based in Tokyo, his philosophy about food seems informed by Kyoto’s culinary culture; select quality and seasonal ingredients and endeavor to bring out the taste of the ingredients. Chef Inoue’s creation can now be found in confectionaries and bakeries all over Japan.

The sweet potato came to Japan some 300 years ago and is now a very common ingredient in many wagashi confections. (See below for details.)

Kyoto Cinnamon Omiyage: Yatsuhashi
Cinnamon came to Japan in the 8th century. At that time cinnamon was considered more a medicine than a spice. It was used to cure stomach aches, fever, improve blood circulation and warm the body. Yatsuhashi is Kyoto’s ubiquitous confection, it is omiyage, or souvenir. Yatsuhashi comes in numerous variaties but is invariably mochi, either fresh or baked, that has been flavored with cinnamon. There are countless companies and stores in Kyoto that make and sell yatsuhashi, at least three have been in business for more than 300 years!

Therefore, we added cinnamon to our sui-to poteto to make it Kyoto-style.

Japanese ‘Satsuma Imo’ Sweet Potato

Steaming Satsuma Imo

Mashing with Butter

Mixing in Cinnamon

Kyoto-style ‘Sui-to Poteto’ Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes (about 500 grams total)
• 6 tablespoons sugar (we like natural brown sugar)
• 30 grams butter
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 2 egg yolk (one for potato mixture one for glaze)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt (if desired)
• sesame seeds

＊Our measurements are approximate and we assume that our readers are foodies, so please taste along the way and adjust as you see fit.

point: To be Kyoto-style the final product should not be too sweet and the cinnamon should not overpower any of the other tastes. You want to bring out the natural taste of the sweet potato, enhance it with sweetness and richness. The cinnamon should be the grab your attention immediately but be the finish. Complexity and subtlety is the point, but by no means be dull!

Preparation
Wash the sweet potatoes. Cut into 2 cm thick slices. Steam gently for 0ver low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Place in mixing bowl and remove skins after the slices have cooled enough to touch. It is important to gently steam the sweet potatoes at a relatively low temperature as this will increase the natural sweetness of the potatoes. (Best not to cheat and use the microwave!)

Mashing and mixing by hand, stir in butter and sugar. (A mixer can be used but we liked ours with a little chunkiness left. See last photo below for interior detail.) Mix in egg yolk and milk. Taste and add sugar and/or butter if needed. Stir in half the cinnamon and taste. Add remaining cinnamon as needed.

Gently form into roughly ping pong sized balls. Squeeze chakin shibori style if you like. Simply use damp muslin or similar cloth for this and rinse occasionally.

Brush on egg yolk glaze and add several sesame seeds on top. The second time we made this, I used white sesame seeds for some and sprinkled sugar on others.

Cook for 15 minutes in oven with broiler at 200 c or oven toaster. We tried both and definitely liked the oven toaster sui-to poteto best. You aren’t really cooking it through and through like a chocolate chip cookie, just getting it hot and browning the top.

Chakin Shibori – Twist and Squeeze in Muslin Cloth

Chakin shibori (茶巾絞り) is used to shape many wagashi confections.

Chakin Shibori Formed Sui-to Poteto

Notice the delicate texture imparted to the raw ‘sui-to poteto’ from the chakin cloth.

Egg Yolk and Black Sesame Seeds

Baking Sui-to Poteto

Sui-to Poteto – Served

Sui-to Poteto and Milk

Sui-to Poteto – detail

Sweet Potatoes in Japanese Culinary Culture
Sweet potatoes are more ubiquitous in Japan than you might imagined. They are used in all sorts of dishes, especially confections. Sweet potatoes came to Japan from South America through Southeast Asia, China and the Ryukyu Kingdom, present-day Okinawa and landed in Kyushu about 300 years ago.

Production of satsuma imo soon flourished on the southern tip of Japan (called Satsuma then) because of the volcanic soil and hot climate. Kyushu’s famed imo-jochu, the shochu distilled alcohol of the region, is made from these same sweet potatoes. Farther north in Japan wheat and rice is used.

Production of sweet potatoes was limited to the Satsuma region for some time until a horrible famine swept Japan. The people in present-day Kagoshima and Nagasaki prefectures fared significantly better than other areas because they had an abundant supply of rich and hardy sweet potatoes. After the famine, satsuma imo production was promoted by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Tokyo and quickly spread throughout the country.

from KyotoFoodie article Satsuma Imo (Sweet Potato) Caramel

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Learning to Make Kyoto-style Sushi from Chef Tanigawa

About Helena Chlepnac and Sushi Fusion
Helena is lives in Switzerland and does Sushi Fusion, a sushi catering company and now offers sushi classes which are very popular. Helena has over 300 students learning to make sushi in Switzerland!

Prelude to Sushi Lesson: Furosen Sake and Funazushi Day Trip
Before learning to make Kyoto-style sushi from the Iron Chef defeater, we went up to Shiga Prefecture for a day to experience a bit of Shiga’s culinary culture.

First we visited Uehara Sake Brewery to see the how they make the world’s greatest sake: Furosen. We were given a tour of the brewery and a generous tasting. Uehara Sake Brewery revived the tradition of using wooden barrels for brewing sake and Helena remarked that her favorite champaign maker is the only one that continued to use wood while everyone else changed to stainless steel. Now, how is that for good taste!

Uehara Sake Brewery and Sixth Generation Owner Mr Uehara

Uehara Sake Brewery Tasting Furosen Sake

This is the greatest sake in the world.

Two Year Old Funazushi

In the afternoon we visited a tsukemono maker called Marucho that has been making tsukemono with Shiga vegetables since the Edo era to see how they make their pickles and Shiga’s meibutsu (famous product): funazushi. Funazishi is made from a special variety of carp from Lake Biwa that has been salted and fermented with rice for 2 years. It is a variety of narazushi (fermented fish ‘sushi’) which is the origin of modern-day sushi. Fermented fish is not popular even among many Japanese foodies for reasons that you can imagine. It is not bad though.

At Marucho they make the real deal; funazushi that has been made with the finest wild carp from Lake Biwa and fermented for 2 years. (The cheaper funazushi is made with aqua-cultured carp and only fermented 1 year.) This proper way of making funazushi is called hon-jikomi (authentic production). This requires frequent washing and changing of the rice. This is what separates the good funazushi from the bad. Additionally, the bones of the carp are quite robust and the two year fermentation process softens them to nearly the same as the meat.

Marucho generously offered us a sample of their best, hon-jikomi funazushi. Helena remarked that if she didn’t know that it was fish, she wouldn’t have known from the taste. Funazushi made the old-fashioned way is not fishy and is surprisingly sour. If you like cheese, you would probably like funazushi. The best funazushi is nearly bursting with eggs. The taste of the eggs really reminded me of mimolette cheese, both in flavor and in texture.

It was a fun and interesting day, but I sensed that Helena was really looking forward to her sushi day!

The Main Event: Sushi Lesson at Kichisen

Helena went to the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market with Chef Tanigawa bright and early and selected fish with him. From mid-day the lesson began in the kitchen. Helena learned how to make most all the summertime Kyoto sushi styles from Chef Tanigawa. Miwa translated and I only joined the party late in the afternoon, just in time to eat.

This is what Helena learned:

1. How to Clean and Prepare Fish

• Ayu (Sweetfish)
• Tai (Sea Bream)
• Saba (Mackerel)
• Hamo (Pike Eel)
• Ika (Squid)
• Akagai (Red Shellfish)

2. How to Make Kyoto-style Sushi

• Hamozushi
• Sabazushi
• Sasamaki Zushi
• Ayuzushi
• Isomaki Zushi
• Ryuhimaki
• Temarizushi (ball-shaped, similar to nigiri sushi)
• Kikuzushi (chrysanthemum flower-shaped, similar to nigiri sushi)
• Komakizushi (Kinzanji Miso, Shiso and Cucumber)
• Tsukemono Sushi (also nigiri sushi)
• Inarizushi (deep fried tofu pockets stuffed sushi)

Cleaning Fish at Kichisen

Sea bream ‘tai’ for several kinds of sushi.

Cleaning Fish at Kichisen

After cleaning the tai for sushi, the head is split for soup or rice. Nothing is discarded.

Making Sushi Rice

Chef Tanigawa kindly gave Helena his recipe for sushi rice — I got a copy of it too.

Helena Shaping Rice for Hamozushi

Chef Tanigawa Demonstrating Cutting Hamozushi

Chef Tanigawa Demonstrating Cutting Sabazushi

Finishing-up in the Kitchen

Epic Sushi Plate One

From top to bottom; hamozushi, sabazushi, inarizushi, sasamaki.

Epic Sushi Plate Two

From top to bottom, left to right; ayuzushi, kikuzushi, temarizushi, isomaki, komakizushi, tsukemono (nigiri) sushi, ryuhimaki sushi.

Assortment of Kyoto-style Sushi

My fav was the one on the bottom right, it is called ryuhi maki. It is a ‘bozushi’ made with tai on rice with sansho leaves wrapped in soft and chewy kombu and has slices of raw green yuzu between each piece. At the back right is one of Kichisen’s exquisite homemade umeboshi. On the lower left is ayuzushi.

Hamozushi (Pike Eel Sushi) – detail

Hamo is only eaten in Kyoto.

Sabazushi (Mackerel Sushi) – detail

Sabazushi is perhaps Kyoto’s most common and popular sushi.

Sasamaki (Sasa Bamboo Leaf Wrapped Sushi) – Wrapped

Sasamaki (Sasa Bamboo Leaf Wrapped Sushi) – Unwrapped

This is kodai, literally ‘small tai’ (young sea bream).

Temarizushi (Ball-shaped Sushi) – detail

This is squid (ika), notice the sprig of green kinome sansho leaf under the squid.

Q&A with Chef Tanigawa after the Feast

Chef Tanigawa said that he is open to doing such lessons occasionally for chefs from abroad. If you are a chef and going to be in town and want to learn from a Kyoto master chef, feel free to send us an email.

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