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!

Socialize!
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Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia Top Food Blogger Profile

They Came. They Ate. They Blogged.
Food bloggers are the cowboys of the culinary world, armed with insatiable appetities and the ability to broadcast their view with the click of a mouse. Meet the fastest online hands in the east. By AMY MA

They Came. They Ate. They Blogged. Cowboys. The fastest online hands in the east. That Amy Ma can really write!

What a Treat I Found in My Mailbox
When I opened my mail just now I found out that I am a guru! That is what it said, in black and white. I got so excited I called my beagles over and showed them. They were looking at me less like I was a foodie blogger guru and more like I was just going to give them some treats. But dried sardines aren’t allowed in the office! They soon wander back to their beagle house, all disappointed. Sheesh!

I guess I wanted to impress someone with my newfound guruhood, so here you go. A KyotoFoodie article! You don’t see these as often as you used to now. I am not the only guru though. Be sure to pickup a copy of the September 2010 issue of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia and read where the other gurus eat and of course my profiles of Takaraya Ramen (Unfortunately Takaraya Ramen has closed as of November 2011.), Izuju (Kyoto-style sushi) and Hachibei (‘inner meat’ Japanese beef restaurant).

Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia Top Food Blogger Profile

Here are the profiles that I wrote that literally wouldn’t fit on my page. There is some insider info on Kyoto tea, French kaiseki, wagashi and sake. Enjoy!

1. Fukujuen Kyoto Flagship Store
In a town that ought to have accumulated flagship stores for centuries, Kyoto finally got it’s first in 2008. The brainchild of 8th generation owner Masanori Fukui, Fukujuen Kyoto Flagship Store is a place where people can experience the entire tea culture of Kyoto, a place to break new ground and better connect Kyoto to the outside world. Numerous shops, restaurants, cafe and tea salon (with tea house) are all wrapping in a modern, latticed 10 story enclosure, dramatically lit in rainbow colors at night. Each floor has a traditional work of art by a living national treasure!

My most favorite floors are:

Ujicha Tea Atelier [B1F] Sample unblended gyokuro, sencha, kabusecha and tencha free. Purchase these highest grade rare teas as is, or create your own custom blend. See matcha being stone ground, even grind your own! A one of a kind tea experience in Kyoto.

French Cuisine [3F] At Kyo-no-chazen Restaurant, Ujicha tea meets French cuisine. Each dish includes green tea leaves as an ingredient! Salads, wagyu steak, lamb, seafood dishes with green tea spicings, dressings and sauces. Each place is set with unique service handcrafted by a noted female Kyoto ceramicist.

Tea Utensils and Tableware [5F] Browse the Cha-no-chagu store for the finest Kyoto tea culture wares, all made in Kyoto. Styles are from traditional to nouveau, prices are moderate to expensive, everything is elegant.

tel 075-221-2920
closed 3rd Wed monthly
10am-7pm
address: Kyoto, Shimogyo, Shijo-dori, Tominokoji-kado
website: www.fukujuen-kyotohonten.com (Japanese only)

2. Kyoto Kaiseki with a (French) Twist: Takumi Okumura
Five years ago proprietor Naoki Okumura, the son of a Kyoto chef who was the first to combine French cuisine and Kyoto kaiseki opened Takumi Okumura in a former geisha tea house in Gion, just off of Hanamikoji Street. Okumura has created a number of restaurants, bakeries and patisseries.

Takumi Okumura offers harmony of French cuisine and Kyoto kaiseki. Okumura’s original cuisine offers the kaiseki course format and the Kyoto emphasis on seasons, exquisite Japanese ingredients, all made with French techniques.

The former tea house is beautifully renovated in authentic Kyoto style. The art, service and decor is distinctly modern-Japanese, both artisan made and antique.

tel 075-541-2205
hours: 12-1:30, 5:30-9pm
address: Kyoto, Higashiyama, Gion-cho Minamigawa 570-6
website: www.restaurant-okumura.com/takumi/
KyotoFoodie article: Osechi Ryori: French Osechi by Restaurant Okumura

3. Wagashi and Tea Hidden Gem: Saryo Hosen
This Kyoto confectionary has been specializing in bean based sweets for some 60 years (an upstart by Kyoto standards). A few years ago they opened a tea and wagashi salon just down the street from the Hosendo main store in a meticulosity renovated Kyoto-style townhouse and seasonally picturesque garden.

My favorite dish is the jelly-like warabi mochi, made with real mountain fern root starch, a rarity. Taking Japanese friends from out of town here never fails to surprise and delight!

Hosen also offers other wagashi confections. Be sure to get some sweetened black beans to take home as a souvenir.

Hosen is located in scenic north Kyoto, between the World Heritage Sites Kamigamo and Shimogamo shrines, near the Tadasu-no-mori forest.

tel 075-712-1270
hours: 10am – 5pm
closed Wed
address: Kyoto, Sakyo, Shimogamo, Nishitakagi-cho 25
website: www.housendou.com (Japanese only)

4. Sake Bar Asakura: Real Sake is Fresh, Fruity Sake
If it isn’t refrigerated, it isn’t sake. Actually, I can’t stand regular sake. It is fortified with ethyl alcohol and produces an instant hangover. Namazake, or fresh sake is unpasturized. My favorite is unpasturized, unfiltered, undiluted and unfortified. Namazake is the rage sake among afficianados in Japan. It is popular with women as it has a fruity bouquit similar to white wine. But how do you get fruity, from rice? Never mind.

There are three sake bars in Kyoto that serve sake that passes muster with me, my favorite is the intimate Nihonshu Bar Asakura. In addition to namazake, there is golden koshu, or aged sake. The young proprietor is speaks English very well, offers good service and his a huge Michael Jackson fan.

tel 075-212-4417
hours: 7pm – 2am (open some weekend afternoons from 3 pm)
closed Tues
address: Kyoto, Nakagyo, Kamiosaka-cho 518-2 Daikyu Bldg 2F
website: www.ameblo.jp/sakebar/ (Japanese only)
OpenKyoto article: The Taste of Real Sake in Kyoto: Sake Bar Asakura (with Fluent English Service)

By Request, a Photo of Me (see the Beagle?)

This is Cheri and I stocking up on luck at Ebisu Shrine in Gion, Kyoto. This festival is held on January 10th. People visit the shrine praying for good fortune and prosperity in the coming year. Most people that visit, especially business owners purchase a freshly cut bamboo branch and decorate it with auspicious trinkets, dolls and symbols.

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I didn’t like just what amounted to a fish head on a stick. This custom isn’t practiced much in Kyoto, and I can see why. A leftover grilled fish head on a stick isn’t very elegant.

It was no matter for me because my sardine head disappeared within a few days. I assumed that the always troublesome ‘karasu’ ravens, that often rip bags of garbage open on garbage day and are responsible for a street strewn with garbage – usually to be discovered after the garbage truck has passed, was the culprit in the case of the missing fish head.

D.I.Y. Home Construction Project Japanese Setsubun

The sardine head on a holly stick is called ‘hiiragi iwashi’ in Japanese. The characters are 柊 holly (hiiragi) and 鰯 sardine (iwashi). It literally means ‘sardine holly’. It is an ancient custom in Japan and one I have been fascinated with since I first saw it in Nara many years ago.

Well, I am a designer, and an architect. I believe that designers identify and solve problems, not just pretty things-up. Since last year, usually when I was riding my bicycle, I had been designing a new kind of Hiiragi Iwashi, in my mind. It had to be attractive, more sophisticated than just a fish head on a stick, it would have to pass muster for Kyoto. And, very importantly, it had to be raven-proof.

This was a real Japanese-style D.I.Y project. My materials and tools came from the home center, the fish monger and the riverside. I tried to keep my design as Japanese as possible; it should be simple and naturally attractive. I decided to use a whole sardine, uncooked. The sardine is fastened to a piece of slender bamboo for rigidity and a generous amount of holly branches and thorny leaves cover up the sardine from being easily spotted by the omnipresent and brutish ravens.

However, this design isn’t weasel or mink proof and you would be surprised at the number of weasel and mink you see scurrying around the quiet streets of Kyoto at night. They can just dash up a tsuchi-kabe (mud-plastered) wall and I guess this year I am just hoping that none will discover it.

The Final Product: KyotoFoodie-style Hiiragi Iwashi - Frontal View

KyotoFoodie-style Hiiragi Iwashi - detail

The History and Meaning of Hiiragi Iwashi
Apparently this custom is so old in Japan that no scholars have been able to pinpoint its origins. It is first mentioned in a diary called Tosa Nikki written by Kino Tsurayuki in 935. At this time mullet was used rather than sardine and it was a part of New Year’s shimenawa decoration. (At that time, Japan celebrated the Chinese lunar new year, the exact date changes every year falling between late January to mid February. Now Japanese celebrate the new year according to the Western calendar, on January 1st.)

Setsubun is the day before spring begins in Japan. Simply speaking, it is a kind of new year’s celebration and the ‘Oni’ demon is a troublemaker, so at the beginning of the new year, you want to drive him away. There are several Setsubun customs that all involve food and driving out illness and misfortune and inviting in happiness.

Oni are said to dislike the strong, penetrating and lingering smell of sardines. So, you want to cook and eat sardines on Setsubun. Then, to keep the Oni from entering your home, put the leftover grilled sardine head on or around your front door. Next, Oni are afraid of getting their eyes poked so the thorns on the holly leaf are very frightening to them. Put these two together, you have a double whammy, an oni-ni-kanabo.

Hiiragi Iwashi Just Installed on Setsubun

My Design
I like the idea of the sardine being front and center to the design, it is quite primitive, which I find charming. But, Oni dislikes the smell, not the sight of sardines. So, the sardine doesn’t really have to be readily visible. The most important thing is the odor. So, the sardine can be largely covered by the holly leaves and the hiiragi iwashi out to still be fully effective against the trouble making Oni.

The traditional hiiragi iwashi usually only has a few leaves on it, my design has a lot – 5 branches! Using a whole, large sardine allows for a lot more holly. If Oni are afraid of getting their eyes poked by the holly thorns, then the holly leaves should definitely be at the forefront. I am assuming that Oni sees the thorns and backs off rather than bumping into them first. Either way, I’ve got him with this design. The thorns are many, and out front.

Next come the form follows function aspects of the design. A big, stinky raw sardine on the front of a house is the equivalent of an ‘Eat Me’ sign to those pushy and unmannered ravens. So, this decorative talisman needs to have some self-defense. The sardine is nearly hidden from view head on. From below and up close, the head and eyes of the sardine can be seen, but I think you have to know what to look for. From a few meters away about the only thing seen is those holly leaves full of thorns.

The sardine is trussed and well-tied to a slender but sturdy piece of bamboo.

I thought about covering it up and wrapping it in plastic, that would make the contents visible but nearly in-penetrable to vermin but I really hate that. A lot of shrines now use plastic, transparent tape and other unnatural materials for the charms and talismans. It is a pity and very un-Japanese. My designs doesn’t cut any corners, it is 100% natural – and maybe a bit vulnerable. If it does get eaten, I will employ another Japanese tactic – kaizen; the philosophy of continual improvement and make a better design next year.

Hiiragi Iwashi in Daylight

In Need of Kaizen: Last Year's Hiiragi Iwashi

I will be working on my new and improved design for next year. We have had a number of people say that they want to do Japanese New Year’s Osechi Cuisine in their country. That is a major project. While I don’t know how many Oni are living overseas now, Hiiragi Iwashi would be easy to make and certainly get you talked about in your foodie community. Give it a try!

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Things in my homeland grew so bad over the last 8 years that we had to reject a real patriot who we could have chosen for president 8 years ago and bet on this newcomer with precious little experience and no resumé to be president. Well, Barack Obama delivered on his soaring rhetoric, won big and took the reigns of government with confidence and distinction. Here in Kyoto we tuned-in late night to the inaugural live stream and toasted him in and his post-partisan, post-cultural war vision with the equivalent of Japanese moonshine – doburoku!

KyotoFoodie Toasts President Obama
I was not a believer during most of the campaign, but Barack Obama really grew through out the campaign and by the time of the economic crash and first presidential debate, he looked and acted presidential. Watching him take the oath, I felt grateful to him, for at the very least, inspiring hope in people when the situation looks pretty grim.

The little foodie party that we had planned got even littler when everyone realized that the inauguration was going to be in the middle of the night in Japan. We watched the swearing in and inaugural address and toasted with bubbly ‘home-brewed’ doburoku sake. After the speech we retired to the parlor for more doburoku and some awesome roll cake that Miwa scored. And finally, incense and prayers before bed.

Omaba Inaugural Address Live Stream

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

(While humming, ‘Then I’ll get on my knees and pray, We don’t get fooled again.’)

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

Toasting Hope and Post-partisanship

The Beagle Drinks to President Obama

KyotoFoodie ‘Mini’ Inaugural Gala

Doburoku Sake and Sake Kasu Roll Cake

Doburoku ‘Home Brewed’ Sake

About the Sake: Doburoku
I had wanted to get champagne but decided on a bubbly and rather chunky doburoku that we first introduced on KyotoFoodie in this Mackerel Yuzu Pepper Nabe article last winter. This sake comes from Nagano Prefecture in north-central Japan and is called Domuroku (Domuroku is the product name).

Traditionally doburoku is home-brewed sake, in centuries past this is the sake that people drank at home, they made it themselves, the same as their tsukemono, miso and so on. Now home-brewing of sake is illegal, but in the last few years doburoku style sake is being made and sold by quality sake producers and consumers are literally drinking it up!

Doburoku ‘Home Brewed’ Sake – Bubbles

Sake Kasu Roll Cake

In the very center the sake kasu can be seen. It is flavored delicately with honey.

About the Cake: Sake Kasu Roll Cake
Roll cake is big in Japan, there are countless variations. My favs in Kyoto are maccha roll cake and Tamba black bean roll cake. This was a new one though. One of Kyoto’s big sake breweries, Kizakura got together with a pâtisserie in Kobe. Kobe is known for it’s good and very Western oriented style. This roll cake is flavored with sake kasu, or the lees that are left after pressing sake. Sake kasu is used in many popular winter dishes in Japan, this was my first experience with it in Western sweets. It was flavored with honey and the combination was just perfect. The pungent, fermented kasu contrasts so nicely with the mellow sweetness of the honey, all wrapped up in cream and sponge cake.

Sake Kasu Roll Cake – detail

The outside of the roll cake reminded me of frost or fresh-fallen snow, on cake!

The Gourmet Beagle Samples Sake Kasu Roll Cake

(and approves!)

Links

Doburoku Sake (Japanese language)
Endo Sake Brewery 遠藤酒造場
‘Domuroku’ Sake どむろく

Sake Kasu Roll Cake
Kizakura Sake Brewery (English website)
Limited Edition Sake Kasu Roll Cake 酒かすろーる

Today I had the honor of meeting a very rare breed, a Sake Samurai!

Sake Samurai started in 2005. Every year just five or six people are made Sake Samurai; this year 4 Japanese and 2 non-Japanese. It is quite an honor! The program was founded by the Japan Sake Brewers Association Junior Council to “share (the) love of sake and the desire to nurture it, to restore the pride (in) sake and to spread sake culture not only within Japan but throughout the world”. According to the project organizers, a samurai is someone that is “pure of heart, defending what is precious to them with passion and resolve”. The Sake Samurai have a deep feeling for sake in their hearts, not only are they a rare breed, they are a new breed. There are literally just a handful of them.

Sake Samurai Timothy Sullivan

image credit: UrbanSake

Meeting A Sake Samurai
Timothy Sullivan, from UrbanSake was in town for a few days for the annual Sake Samurai event. Timothy and I became acquainted via our blogs this last spring and had planned to attend the Sake Samurai events and tastings together. I, unfortunately was unable to attend. Bronchitis kept me horizontal for the last week or so but the wonder of antibiotics has *finally* got me back in action so I was able to meet Timothy for lunch today and he told me all about becoming a Sake Samurai (see below for more about Sake Samurai). This is a great post on his blog about when he was named a Sake Samurai.

UrbanSake Website
UrbanSake.com is one of the most comprehensive and complete resources for sake in English. I can’t recall seeing any Japanese language resources with this breadth. Timothy is not only a samurai, a sake educator, he is a clever and inspired hacker! Check out the CAPTCHA images on his comment forms, all the CAPTCHA words are sake vocabulary!

In addition to Timothy’s Sake Blog, his site has some other really great and informative resources.
Sake Notebook (The Sake Samurai’s tasting notes)
Sake 101: Learn About Sake! (Sake classifications, production process, glossary and video gallery)
Find Sake by Prefecture (Search sake breweries in Japan on an interactive map)
Sake Events

More About Sake Samurai Project

Sake Samurai Poster

image credit: Sake Samurai

Sake Samurai – Prospectus
Samurai: Those who are pure of heart, defending what is precious to them with passion and resolve.

The Japan Sake Brewers Association Junior Council, fearing that the pride of the Japanese people was in danger of being lost from Japan, formed the Sake Samurai last year as a gathering of those who share a love of sake and the desire to nurture it, to restore the pride of sake and to spread sake culture not only within Japan but throughout the world.

Sake Samurai – Three Tenets
・Love both sake and the beautiful culture of Japan.
・Strive to gain a deeper understanding of sake culture and work on behalf of its further development.
・Spread the word about Japanese sake around the world with pride and passion.

Sake Samurai – Conferment Rules
1. Sake Samurai will engage in activities designed to promote Japanese culture and the magnificence of sake both in Japan and overseas.

2. Sake Samurai will be headquartered in the offices of the Japan Sake Brewers Association Junior Council.

3. Sake Samurai headquarters may confer the title of Sake Samurai on individuals who love sake and have contributed to the promotion of its merits in Japan or overseas, or to those with the potential to make such a
contribution, based on its own selection or by approving a nomination made by a Sake Samurai.

4. Sake Samurai, in accepting this title, pledge to respect and practice the Three Tenets.

5. Sake Samurai shall bear their title proudly as a symbol of their active role in protecting sake’s honor.

source: Sake Samurai Official Site

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Hello Foodies!

Thanks to all of you that took part in the Classic and Summer Theme Japanese Junk Food Presents! Subscribe to KyotoFoodie dealie and subscribed to KyotoFoodie!

We really appreciate your interest in KyotoFoodie!

We have two winners: Rachel and Julie. They will each be receiving a package with the fine Japanese junk food shown below!

Winners

Rachel
Coconut & Lime

Julie Sumiki
(no blog)

Classic and Summer Japanese Junk Food for the Winners

Again, thank you everyone!

P & P

We’re terribly, terribly sorry that KyotoFoodie was down for about two days straight. We appreciate your concerned emails, thank you for missing KyotoFoodie! We are not signing off, we’re just getting going here.

The problem was with our webhost (DreamHost). Their gear don’t work and their support crew don’t support!

DreamHost, you’re fired!

Well, I guess I should have known though with status reports like the following:

“kegerator (server name) ran out of beer” (and stopped serving customers’ webpages)

The server ‘ran out of beer?’ I don’t think that’s possible.

My suggestion for DreamHost’s rebranding:

DreamHost: Nightmare Webhosting
We take your dream and turn it into your nightmare. (All while charging you money.)

I guess they didn’t read Pete Blackshaw’s book: Tell 3,000

We are now up and running at the racy Media Temple on a new and hopefully dependable server now, which is probably a good thing as our access has been climbing steadily over the summer and we have one, maybe two new and exciting projects to tell you about in the near future.

P.S. We are going to add two days to the deadline for our Subscribe to KyotoFoodie campaign dealie.

A new and excellent sake discovery! Photos with Paku’s new iPhone. Great label design. New, and secret Peko project!

I discovered this incredible namazake with an even more incredible name from my favorite brewery (that doesn’t seem to want to be interviewed). Fifty-two day moromi. (I think that means that the mash (moromi) is fermented for 52 days, rather than the usual 30 or so. This sake seems to me to be of biblical proportions — or perhaps I just imbibed too much. This is another genteihin (限定品), or ‘limited product’.

Then Paku got a sexy new iPhone 3G and I am trying it out for foodie photos. It is very convenient and takes pretty good photos.

Furosen (不老泉)

Furosen is the brand name of perhaps my favorite sake brewery. The name means something like ‘Fountain of Youth’, but not quite.

52 Day Mash (五拾弐日もろみ)

The other words state that this sake is fermented in a wooden vat (木樽) and that it is a limited edition　product (限定品).

52 Day Mash (五拾弐日もろみ)

Junmai Ginjo Nama (純米吟醸生)

This sake is nama, meaning that it is unpasteurized. At the bottom is the name of the brewery (Uehara Shuzo), the address (Shiga Prefecture) and the brewery’s stamp (red).

52 Day Moromi
As you pour this sake into an uncolored glass the first thing you notice is the color which is a rich ‘ogon-iro‘, or golden color. Most sake is not actually colorless but this is quite golden.

Next you get the bouquet, from a good distance away too. Like a lot of premium modern sake, 52 Day Moromi’s bouquet is fruity.

52 Day Moromi is namagenshu (生原酒), it is unpasteurized and not diluted with water. As it is nama (unpasteurized), the flavor is quite fruity and very complex, very natural. As it is genshu (undiluted), the alcohol content is a whopping 17-18%!

The Taste
One the front end, the taste is rather soft and though this sake is plenty potent, it is decidedly delicate.

By the time you are at the back end of this one though, it is completely different. While still fruity the high powered aspect asserts itself and your mouth is hit with a full on, full bodied blast of what makes a good nama genshu, nama genshu. Raw and unrestrained, yet refined and somehow retaining its delicacy. Quite a combination!

Peko’s New Project

Then, a few days ago, I started another little project. This photo is the very first thing for the world to see. Paku doesn’t even know what it is all about. Stay tuned!

Me and My Beagle

This is the very top of the ‘大’ on the mountain where the Daimonji character bonfire is done. That’s Kyoto down below. Daimonji is Higashiyama, or the East Mountains and off in the distance are the Western Hills.

Happy Birthday KyotoFoodie!

KyotoFoodie is now one year old and we are throwing a party with presents of Japanese ‘classic’ and ‘summer’ junk food!

Oh how time flies when you are blogging foodie. KyotoFoodie is now a yearling!

Continuing on the theme of our Win Fine Junk Food Help Improve KyotoFoodie Survey, we are going to give some Japanese junk food prizes to readers that subscribe to KyotoFoodie via email.

What should you do? Just go to that ‘Subscribe’ box at the top of the right column of the site and sign up. Be sure to confirm your subscription via the link sent to your email.

After 1 month we will randomly choose several subscribers to receive a present (see below). Winners will be contacted via email.

The Present — Classic and Summer Theme Junk Food

Japanese ‘Summer’ Junk Food

It looks like the theme is watermelon this year. Watermelon and salt KitKat, now that IS funky!!

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon and Salt KitKat!

The package says to serve this KitKat chilled.

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon and Salt KitKat!

Notice the salt shaker on the lower right.

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon Gummy

This gummy comes in regular and sour watermelon flavors!

Japanese ‘Classical’ Junk Food

Bontan Ame (ぼんたん飴) – An Unusual Japanese Fruit

Bontan Ame Package

Bontan Ame Candy

About Bontan Ame
This candy (ame) is made from the bontan, also buntan (ぼんたん、文旦) fruit. This fruit is similar to a grapefruit but larger. Large specimens are the size of a volleyball. This fruit came to Japan from Southeast Asia so it grows in the southern-most island of Kyushu where the climate is most suitable.

Bontan ame was has been made by a company in Kagoshima City, Kyushu since 1926. It is said to be inspired by caramel. It is made of mochi, gyuhi, mizuame (traditional sweetener) and the bontan fruit juice.

Interestingly, each piece of candy is individually wrapped and is eaten with the wrapper on. The wrapper is made of oblaat which is gelatinous, transparent film that melts immediately on contact with the tongue. Oblaat originally came to Japan with Dutch medicine, it was used to wrap up bitter medicine in a package like modern-day gelatin capsules. In bontan ame it is utilized to prevent the sticky mochi-based ame pieces from sticking to one another.

Bontan ame is one of Paku’s favs.

Miyako Kombu (都こんぶ) – Kelp ‘Junk Food’

Classic Japanese Junk Food – Miyako Kombu

Miyako Kombu – Strips of Flavored Kelp

Miyako Kombu is a very rags-to-riches, entrepreneurial story. A poor, elementary school educated apprentice laborer from Kyoto at a kombu company in Osaka worked at a machine cutting kombu. The edges of the kelp leaf were cut off and could not be sold. He often chewed them while working, both to pass time and to combat hunger pains and he thought that with some flavoring added he could create a product like chewing gum. In 1931, when he was 19 he started out on his own and began selling flavored kombu.

Unlike imported chewing gum, the flavor of Miyako Kombu was well suited to Japanese tastes. Miyako Kombu uses fine kombu from Hokkaido and is flavored with vinegar, sugar and bonito extract. It is quite sour.

The package is small, a little larger than a package of chewing gum and the kombu comes in strips. It is easily transportable and can be kept in a pocket, briefcase, school bag etc. Miyako Kombu sold especially well at train stations and quickly became popular throughout the entire country.

In an economy where the life of a product in a convenience store is about 6 weeks, Miyako Kombu can still be found in any convenience store, supermarket or station kiosk in the country and in its original 1930′s package!

Hello foodies and thank you so much to everyone that took the ‘Win Junk’ survey! We are very happy to receive more than 70 replies with a lot of really great feedback! Your feedback has created a ‘To Do’ list for us and pointed us in the direction to go for the next 6 months.

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

Winners
First we’ve got some winners for you, be sure to visit their blogs. This is an informal dealie, so we are going to keep it simple. Feedback is reported below in an overall with a generalized way. There were no ideas submitted that struck us as ‘insanely great’.

Big Prize (as advertised)
Lori madehealthier.com
Lisa Kuo (no site)

Small Prize (honorable mention)
diva sugarbar.org
Stuart Lindsay flickr.com/thingsimade
Christa isaacstudio.com
Jacelyn Sng daintyflair.net

＊note(s):
Honorable mention was added to show our thanks for all the responses.
More winners were chosen but we are waiting for permission to publish their names.

Background to Survey
Conducting surveys is something Peko sometimes does at his day-job. All bloggers should know that getting feedback from your readers is REALLY, REALLY important. This survey was most inspired while listening to Jay’s interview with Avinah Kaushik on the Ten Golden Rules podcast (info|podcast) while jogging around Kyoto. Avinah works at Google and he mentioned his Three Greatest Survey Questions and we added a fourth to our ‘Win Junk’ survey.

Some of the early feedback from the survey said that people wanted to know more about us – Paku and Peko. People said they really want video. (Our first video was us announcing the survey.) At the same time, I (Peko) had picked up Robit Bhargava’s new book Personality Not Included. Robit’s blog is one that I read a lot to learn all about blogging. Here is a REALLY wonderful video post (PNI Goes On A BeachWalk With Rox) that just sums everything up so well.

So, we are doing more video.

I. KyotoFoodie ‘To Do’ List

A. Content

Do Not Miss List
Feedback: Create a Do Not Miss List for foodie visitors to Kyoto.
KF Reply: Yep. Please stand by.
Status: Not done

More Wagashi
Feedback: More wagashi posts.
KF Reply: Yep. Working on them right now. Regular wagashi posts planned.
Status: In progress.

Q & A Page or Forum
Feedback: A place for Q & A please.
KF Reply: Right. Thinking about what technology to use. Just a single page isn’t going to suffice.
Status: Not done. Investigating.

Video Content
Feedback: Want more videos, want to see Peko and Paku, hear you guys speak, get a feel of the Kyoto atmosphere, etc.
KF Reply: Roger. More on the way.
Status: Done. Three up on KF, 5 on the Mac, more on the way.

Shorter, More Frequent Posts
Feedback: One: “Post more frequently.” Two: “Shorter posts OK.”
KF Reply: Roger. Do keep in mind that KyotoFoodie is a labor of love and that we have day-jobs. Aiming for 2.5 posts per week (two short, one longish), 10 total per month.
Status: In process.

Maps
Feedback: Use one single map and have all restaurants on it.
KF Reply: Right. We are working on it but now we just found that there is a bug in our current version of WordPress that is causing GoogleMaps not to be displayed in posts. Sorry, can’t find the fix yet.
Status: In process. Working on It

More Recipes
Feedback: More recipes. And stuff that we can really cook out here in Kansas. (and Bosnia Herzegovina)
KF Reply: More recipes we can do. As for authentic ingredients, if you don’t live in a huge city over there, dunno. Did you try ordering online? Also, send us photos of your local Japanese food store shelf so we have a better idea of what is available over there.
Status: In progess. More recipes on the way.

Podcast/Videocast
Feedback: A podcast would be cool.
KF Reply: Yes, it would be cool indeed. A podcast is a good deal of work. Would like to do it. How about next year?
Status: Thinking about it.

More Budget, More Super Expensive
Feedback: More budget, more exclusive restaurant reviews.
KF Reply: OK.
Status: Not done. Thinking about it.

Category Organization
Feedback: Categories not organized well.
KF Reply: We agree.
Status: Not done. Be done soon.

B. Visual

Layout
Feedback: Layout is too dull. Grey? Come on! Spice it up, make it as delicious as the food!
KF Reply: Yeah, we don’t like it either. Peko has spoken to some designers about a custom design but we need a budget.
Status: Not done. Will try to make a smart and sexy custom design this year (2008).

More Food Porn
Feedback: More food porn. More big, colorful, super seductive images.
KF Reply: Ah yes, sweet seduction. Peko installed this NextGEN Gallery dealie but hasn’t released it yet. Also, we want to use larger images in posts but need a new page design to accommodate it.
Status: Not done. Working on it.

C. Fun

Contests and Prizes
Feedback: Have more contests and prizes, something like Daring Bakers.
KF Reply: Oh yeah! Want to do! Will need to drum up some sponsorship in town though.
Status: Not done. Peko will court sponsors this summer.

Organize Tours
Feedback: You guys know the town, offer tours.
KF Reply: Yeah, we did think of this and Paku has done this kind of thing. Please see Paku’s Kyoto ‘Experience’ Tour page for details.
Status: Open for business.

Feed Me
Feedback: Will access KyotoFoodie for food.
KF Reply: Ah, we can deliver digital food but not physical food, via the web. If you REALLY want food from Kyoto, visit Peko’s Source Delish! page for details.
Status: Open for business.

Kyoto Foodie Meet-ups
Feedback: Get people together in person and chow.
KF Reply: Yeah? Ah, OK. Sure. Send us an email with ideas.
Status: Not done.

II. The Good and the Bad

Good
lots of images
nice mix (restaurant review, homecooking, etc)
in-depth reports (sake, etc)

Bad
too infrequent posts
dull interface
impersonal: Show the hosts, Peko and Paku more.
no video
poor category organization
multiple maps

III. KyotoFoodie No-Can-Do

Every thing that we can’t do we would like to do, so thanks so much for the input! Maybe in the future.

Searchable Index of Recipes
Why not: Huge project, a whole new site.

Non-japanese Food in Kyoto Reviews
Why not: You can only get Kyoto cuisine in Kyoto, so eat it up while you are here!

Other Places in Japan
Why not: We will do day-trips from Kyoto, but generally this topic is a huge project, a whole new site.

Non-culinary Kyoto Topics (other sightseeing destinations, festivals)
Why not: Huge project, a whole new site.

Fast Food and Junk Food Articles
Why not: Great, great subject. But, huge project, a whole new site.

Hello Foodies and to all of you that took the Win Fine Japanese Junk Food, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

We will go through the survey submissions and announce the results in the near future. We will also of course be sending out some prizes to participants that gave us great ideas. Stay tuned!

Special thanks to Sparklette in Singapore for telling all her readers on her Want Some Kyoto Treats? post about the survey! Sparklette.net is a beautifully designed blog about the art, culture and cuisine of Singapore.

Hello everybody out there in FoodieLand and BloggieLand!

Hello from Peko and Paku at the ‘Gosho’ Imperial Palace

KyotoFoodie has been a lot of fun for us! We have enjoyed writing about the culinary culture of Kyoto and have learned a lot in the process. We have also made friends with some interesting people from all over the world and discovered some incredible foodie blogs and recipes!

Thanks so much everyone!

Judging from our stats, over the last months KyotoFoodie has become a big hit.

Our next step is to refine and fine-tune the site and to do this we REALLY need to hear our readers.

To help us understand how to make the site more interesting, useful and relevant to you, we are conducting a survey AND will award prizes for great feedback and ideas.

Please take this survey!

The survey is short, just 4 questions. Please tell us what you think!

Details:

• Survey ends May 16, 2008 at 11:59pm (Kyoto time).
• Several prizes consisting of ‘fine’ Japanese junk food will be awarded. The more great ideas, the more prizes!
• For ‘insanely great’ ideas, fine Japanese junk food AND something exquisitely ‘Kyoto’ will be awarded.
• The value of the prize will be about $20-25USD.
• Winners will have their prizes sent to them by post.
• The ‘fine’ Japanese junk food will be candy, chocolate and so on, nothing fresh. So it ought to be deliverable to your country. If it is not, our sincerest apologies.
• Multiple entries are permitted.
• Winners will be notified via email. We’ll ask for your mailing address then.
• If we announce the winners on the site, we will ask your permission first.