I love nikuman, both the Japanese and Chinese variety. I find the baozi in China has a wonderful variety of hearty and tasty, usually handmade fillings and the nikuman in Japan often have great steamed bread but are a little mass produced in taste and feel. Japanese nikuman lacks the hearty soul of baozi in China as it is almost never handmade or fresh.

Kyoto-style baozi is not something that I had contemplated. It turns out there is a Kyoto kaiseki restaurant in Gion called Hattori Ebisu Rakuan (服部ゑびす楽庵) that developed a Kyoto-style manju that is sold in a few places in Kyoto, one being the foodie’s paradise of Nishiki Market. Hattori Ebisu Rakuan doesn’t actually have a shop in Nishiki but the tsukudani store Ajidontsuki has a steamer full of their nikuman. Give this one a try if you are visiting Nishiki Market, especially in during the winter months. In one recent year this was the number one selling item in all of Nishiki Market!

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun

In addition to being tasty, these nikuman are beautiful. They have a delightful ‘yakiin’ hot iron brand that says kokyo hoka, kokyo means old capital and hoka means hot, and these manju are hot hot hot!

Inside the thick streamed but is a mixture of beef tsukudani (wagyu beef simmered in sweet soy sauce), kimpira gobo (burdock root simmered in sweet soy sauce) and shibazuke tsukemono (Kyoto-style eggplant and cucumber pickled with red shiso)! The addition of tsukemono is really novel.

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun

Kyoto-style Beef Manju Steamed Bun - detail

How did it taste?
This nikuman is served straight out of the steamer and it is REALLY hot. I couldn’t eat mine right away and had to sit down on a chair in the shop while it cooled down.

I took a first nibble but it was still too hot for me to bite through the steamed bread and get to the tsukudani filling. The steamed bread is quite thick and being bread doesn’t have a huge taste. At first I was a little disappointed  feeling like it was going to be bland. Then after another nibble or two I finally got to the tsukudani filling, it was amazing! The combination of wagyu beef, burdock root — and tsukemono was a real surprise and quite overwhelmed me with flavor.

The texture was weird and satisfying; gooey rich beef, fibrous burdock root and crunchy, but hot tsukemono pickles. Tsukemono is always served as is, not cooked.

This little snack is a wonderously weird combination of several orthodox Japanese dishes and condiments — and pickles — wrapped up in a bit of classic Chinese cuisine. And, somehow it manages to still feel pretty ‘Kyoto’ to me. The shibazuke is one of Kyoto’s most well known tsukemono pickles and comes from Ohara, a small village in the mountains just north of the city. Ohara is very famous for its red shiso which is used to naturally color and flavor various pickles.

One thing, Miwa said that she has had this many times and sometime it is not so good. It is basically fast food. Though this nikuman was developed by a famous restaurant in Gion, I doubt that it is actually made by Hattori Ebisu Rakuan, on site. Production is probably subcontracted out. But it is still very good, pretty authentically Kyoto — and unique!

Ajidontsuki Shop Storefront, Nikuman Steamer on Left

Ajidontsuki Product Lineup, Mostly Tsukudani

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Tonyu Soy Milk Doughnuts

Tonyu Soy Milk Doughnuts

How do soy milk doughnuts taste?
These doughnuts are a bit more chewy on the inside and slightly crunchy outside than the average ‘non-Kyoto’ doughnut. They are slightly sweet, the taste is natural, straightforward, quite ‘Kyoto’ in style. While not overtly sweet I find them completely satisfying due to the richness of the soy milk.

Again, these should be eaten hot. Don’t buy them already bagged from the stall in the Nishiki Market street, go around to the side of the shop where they cook them and get them right out of the oil. Usually there are some customers standing around gobbling up hot donuts. If you take them back home or to your hotel, try reheating them in a toaster oven.

Perhaps these are a bit pricey because a bag of 12 (mini) doughnuts cost 300 yen. I suppose they use plenty of high quality soy milk but still, at this price point I expect Fujino to be selling doughnuts for a long, long time to come.

Even if you are not into the more challenging Japanese food, raw fish, fermented beans … fermented fish, and so on, these doughnuts are a healthy and natural Western inspired treat that are quite ‘Kyoto’ in taste. If you are passing though Nishiki Market, don’t miss these! You will probably smell the shop before you see it.

Soy Milk Doughnut Shop

Properly this shop is called Konnamonjya, a really dreadful and un-Kyoto name, in my opinion. It is owned by Kyoto Tofu Fujino, a Kyoto tofu shinise that also makes a lot of new and inventive soy based products. They have a tofu cafe near Kitano Tenmagu Shine were you can try everything from tofu roll cake to tofu hamburgers.

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Chestnut Shaped Egg Yolk Anpan Sweet Bun

An egg yolk filled anpan sounds really good, and ought to be, especially from a shinise like Miki Keiran. However, I was a little disappointed. It was by no means bad, but the combination has the potential to be quite amazing and it wasn’t. Too bad.

Egg Yolk Anpan Sweet Bun - Egg Yolk Bean Paste Filling

How did it taste?
The bread is soft and just average in taste as far as Japanese bread goes, the egg yolk glaze is quite nice, quite thick and sticky, and fragrant too. There are white (and a few black) poppy seeds adhered to the glaze at the bottom, to create the visual effect of a chestnut.

The filling is egg yolk and smooth and creamy white shiroan bean paste. If you didn’t know it was bean paste, you probably wouldn’t guess it by the taste or texture. The richness of the egg yolk appropriately comes to the forefront.

One variety of this anpan contains a chestnut, which is fine, but with the addition of the whole chestnut, the richness and delicacy of the egg yolk gets overpowered. I tried just the egg yolk bean paste mixture and it was very, very good.

In the end, I think that there is too much bread to filling and the presence of the chestnut muddled the taste.

This is one interesting confection to me and one that I would like to redesign! This anpan cost 150 yen, that is not expensive at all for any anpan in Japan. And, this is Nishiki Market. No one goes to Nishiki Market looking for a bargain! If there were tons more filling I think this would have worked better. Just double the price and double or triple the amount of filling and this anpan would be out of this world! I am not sure what to do about the chestnut but they definitely need one to offer one without the chestnut. This is a shinise egg shop, I think that they should focus on the egg aspect rather than try to make it conventional with a chestnut.

Egg Yolk Anpan Sweet Bun - Egg Yolk Bean Paste Filling (notice chestnut chunk at bottom of paste)

About Anpan
The meaning of anpan comes from ‘an’, anko bean paste and ‘pan’ the adopted word in Japanese for bread. This now ubiquitous confection was developed in 1875 by Yasubei Kimura, a samurai who had recently lost his livelihood as a result of the Meiji Restoration. This was a time of rapid Westernization of Japan but bread hadn’t really caught on in Meiji era Japan. Yasubei, in need of a livelihood based his confection on the traditional manju confection, replacing the mochi with bread but keeping the sweet bean filling. This proved a winning combination. Yasubei was recruited to make an imperial anpan for the emperor and his bakery thrives today in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district.

About Miki Keiran
Miki Keiran was founded in 1928 and the Honten (Main Store) is located in the Nishiki Market. Miki Keiren also has stores in several department stores in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. Miki Keiren only makes Kyoto-style dashimaki tamago omelettes for take out. Dashi means broth and much of Kyoto cuisine starts with broth. Miki Keiren uses the finest eggs for their omelettes but the dashi costs even more money than the eggs. That is Kyoto! Miki is a family name meaning ‘three trees’ and keiren means ‘chicken egg’.

Miki Keiren’s dashimaki is a must have for New Year’s in Kyoto. Kyotoites have to reserve theirs in advance and then they come to a different location on a nearby street away from the narrow Nishiki Market shopping street to pick theirs up at an appointed time a day or two before New Year’s. In Kyoto, dashimaki is serious business!

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Meet nukazuke, a traditional Japanese tsukemono that is fermented in rice bran with a bit of salt. Nukazuke is full of vitamins and can be extremely pungent. Most any kind of vegetable can be used, even meat can be pickled by this method! It is easy to make at home and only takes a few days. The saltiness and sourness of the final product can easily be adjusted to accommodate your own taste.

The Mr. Universe of Nukazuke: Takakuraya’s Red Turnip
In winter when the akakabura, or red turnip is in season, Peko (that’s me) MUST eat akakabura nukazuke from Takakuraya in the Nishiki Market. It is just the best! Let me say that again. It is just the best! Takakuraya’s red turnip nukazuke has appeared on KyotoFoodie several times and is even on our current masthead banner. Peko bought this one the other day and rushed home to photograph it for the foodies of the world. It was mighty tasty with rice and sake. (The taste does vary depending on how long it was fermented. The older, the better, in my book.)

Akakabura nukazuke is also very, very photogenic in my mind. I love how it is to bright red, the ‘greens’ are red, even the nuka gets stained red. Before washing you can’t quite imagine that it could be food inside that clump of dough-like nuka mash. But, just a quick wash and it is something completely different. The reds and the greens, the texture of the turnip itself after being pickled and of course the yeasty smell all come together as something that has no parallel, not just in terms of food, but even among other nukazuke!

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke and ‘Greens’

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed Greens Detail

Akakabura Nukazuke – Washed Detail

What is Nukazuke?
Nukazuke‘s history isn’t as long as you might expect, it was invented in the Edo period with the advent of rice milling. Previous to this there was no nuka in Japan because rice was eaten as brown rice, not white rice.

Beriberi was prevalent in Japan at the time and this illness is a result of vitamin B1 deficiency and nukazuke happens to contain a lot vitamin B1. So, the practice of making and eating nukazuke naturally spread and the government encouraged people to eat it.

Nukazuke has the tanginess of pickles but retains much of the crunchiness of fresh vegetables.

How is Nukazuke Made?
Traditionally every household had a large container filled with nuka for making tsukemono. Now it is often purchased in stores, but some families still make it. In recent years a small bag ‘set’ filled with salted, wet nuka and ready to pickle has become popular with small families and singles that want to make their own nukazuke at home.

Nuka can be obtained for free from most rice stores. It is popular to mill rice in a small milling machine on site after the customer has decided what kind of rice and how many kilos they want to purchase. Nuka just piles up and they end up throwing a lot of it away. I got some at Kunitaya, my favorite liquor store, and they were only too happy to give me a huge bag of it.

The water and salt is added to the nuka powder and the vegetables are buried in the nuka mixture, called nukamiso in Japanese. Once started the nuka ‘bed’ must be stirred once or twice a day, depending on the air temperature to prevent rotting. Water content is maintained in the nukamiso via the vegetables pickled. Additional ingredients may be added to the nukamiso for flavor such as kombu, egg shells, apple peels and chili peppers.

The tangy, pungent flavor is achieved as a result of fermentation process that produces lactic acid.

Nukazuke Sliced and Served with Rice

Nukazuke Served with Rice

This picture might be a bit misleading. You don’t ‘sprinkle’ tsukemono on rice in Japan like a topping. Tsukemono and rice are almost always eaten together, in the same bite, but tsukemono isn’t a ‘topping’. A bite-sized portion is picked up off the plate, placed on the rice and scooped up the the chopsticks.

Peko’s Favorite Nukazuke Shop
Peko’s favorite shop for nukazuke is Takakuraya at the east end of Nishiki Market street. Takakuraya offers other kinds of pickles as well, but I like their nukazuke because it is very sour.

Miwa did some research on the store and it turns out that the owner, loves nukazuke that is quite old, the older the more sour. So, Takakuraya’s nukazuke is a bit more sour than usual — therefore Peko is a big fan.

＊Below are some pretty horrible piks that I took with my mobile phone. You get the idea how they sell them in the market. The tsukemono is presented on top of the nuka bed. This is just for show. They are really fermented somewhere else.

Akakabura Nukazuke and Plum Bonsai

Akakabura Nukazuke

Akakabura Nukazuke

Previous KyotoFoodie article (midway down there are two pretty excellent piks, before and after.)
Uni-ikura Donburi

Nishiki Takakuraya Tsukemono Specialty Store 京漬物専門店 錦・高倉屋
location: Takakuraya is located on the east end of the Nishiki Market street, next to the shoe store on the south side of the street, very close to the Shikyogoku arcade.
address: Kyoto-shi, Nakagyo-ku, Nishikikoji-dori, Teramachi, Nishi-iru, Higashidaimonji-cho 289-2 (京都市中京区錦小路通寺町西入ル東大文字町289-2)
tel: 075-231-0032
website: http://nsk-takakuraya.ocnk.net/ (circa 1995, Japanese language only)
10:00 am – 6:30 pm

For this unusual wagashi just two ingredients; sugar and egg yolk, and some ancient Portuguese technique are needed to make Keiran Somen, literally ‘chicken egg angel hair noodles’.

Barbarian Confection: Fios de Ovos

Tsuruya is a Kyoto wagashi shinise that has a new shop in the Nishiki Market called Tsurujuan. I had heard about this confection from Miwa but I had never seen it. The moment I laid eyes on it I reached for my wallet.

The inventiveness of wagashi never ceases to amaze, keiran somen, like kasutera and kompeito, is one of those ‘not quite’ Japanese confections that is inspired by fios de ovos, or ‘angel hair’ that made its way to Japan in the 1600′s from Portugal. The ingredient list is short; just sugar and egg yolk. The taste and texture is out of this world rich and luxurious!

Keiran Somen – Package

Keiran Somen – Package Unwrapped

Keiran Somen

Keiran somen is based on the Portuguese dish fios de ovos or ‘angel hair’.

How to Make: A Pound of Sugar, A Pound of Egg Yolk

A few years ago I learned why pound cake is called pound cake; a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour. Very simple, very rich. When I first tasted Tsuruya’s keiran somen, the first thing that came to mind was, a pound of sugar, a pound of egg yolk.

Kyoto Tsuruya won’t say how they make their keiran somen, however they do say that it is made the ‘traditional way’. There are a small number of wagashi companies in Japan that make keiran somen. Rock sugar is melted over heat in a pan and into this well stirred egg yolk is poured from a container with multiple narrow spouts. The cooked threads of egg yolk are gathered up into a loop, just like yarn. It is then twisted tight and cut into bite sized pieces.

Keiran Somen

Keiran Somen

Keiran Somen Pulled Apart

Gently untwisting will separate the ‘noodles’.

Keiran Somen – detail

Ingredient List: Sugar and Egg

(From the second line) 砂糖 sugar, 鶏卵 chicken egg

Tsunoki is more than 200 years old and is the place in Kyoto to purchase fine sake, shochu and Japanese whiskey. The friendly 8th generation owner of Tsunoki, Teruo Fujii, speaks some English and is always happy to make recommendations to visitors.

Where are you going to get fine sake in Kyoto?
We have done a number of sake related posts now and no trip to Kyoto would be complete without sampling some fine sake, so we thought we would tell you where in Kyoto to get a hold of some. For retail, our recommendation is Tsunoki.

Secret: Fine Sake Often Not Offered at Fine Ryokan
Many visitors to Japan enjoy staying at traditional Japanese inns called, ‘ryokan’ of which Kyoto has many, many to offer. A stay at a ryokan usually includes dinner and breakfast. Dinner is often excellent and while ryokan often stock several varieties of sake to serve guests with dinner it is often poor quality, the same stuff you can buy from a vending machine or a convenience store. The best sake I (Peko) have ever had at even a very expensive ryokan was mediocre. So, consider bringing your own.

Several liquor stores in Kyoto offer good selections of fine sake, however Tsunoki offers far and way the best we have seen with an excellent selection of sake produced in Kyoto. Service is friendly and helpful, prices are average and being centrally located in Nishiki Market, a destination that any visitor to Kyoto will surely want to experience makes Tsunoki the place.

About Tsunoki
Tsunoki is a rare find indeed, it’s like shinise (old and famous store) meets rarified boutique. The 8th generation owner, Mr Fujii greatly increased the variety of fine sake. Now Tsunoki stocks rare and premium sake from not just Kyoto but other breweries from the Kansai region. An assortment of shochu and fine Japanese whiskey which is especially popular with foreign visitors these days is also available.

When you visit Tsunoki look for liquor license issued some 220 years ago hanging above the door at the back of the store.

About the Proprietor
Teruo Fujii is a very interesting dude. Not only is the English speaking 8th generation owner of the historic sake dealer in the heart of Kyoto and Nishiki Market, he is a local rock star, aspiring novelist, accomplished calligrapher and web-savvy blogger.

Mr Fujii offers sake recommendations for customers based on the weather and season, accompanying meal, the customer’s character, specified tastes and so on. Often several kinds of sake are available for tasting.

Mr Fujii choses the sake he stocks in a unique way. After consistently hearing good things about a brewery in the media and word-of-mouth, he contacts the brewery and arranges a visit to meet the brew master first hand and samples the brewery’s sake. If it passes muster, he will stock it in his store.

Tsunoki Storefront in Nishiki Market

If you would like to sip some yummy, chilled Fushimi Daiginjo sake as you take in Nishiki Market, you can get a generously filled paper cup full for around 630 yen from the tank at the front of the store.

Try Some Daiginjo Sake

The 8th Generation Proprietor, Teruo Fujii

Mr Fujii is quite a calligrapher, his ‘kyo’ (京) adorns this label.

The Proprietor Counseling on Sake

The Proprietor Counseling on Sake

Pasteurized Sake

Pasteurized sake can be kept at room temperature. If you want to take some sake back home with you, pasteurized sake is what you want.

Pasteurized Sake

Unpasteurized Sake

Unpasteurized sake must be refrigerated. If you purchase unpasteurized sake, you will want to keep it cool and drink it while you are in Kyoto.

Selection of Shochu

The large ceramic pots are fill with shochu, customers can bring their own container and have them filled by the staff.

The Proprietor Blogging

Unfortunately it cannot be seen in this photo, but Mr Fujii’s desk sits atop several Marshall amplifiers. Not your usual shinise! The refrigerated cases in the background display unpasteurized sake.

Fine Japanese Whiskey

Mr Fujii says that recently many foreign visitors are looking for Japanese whiskey.

Yamazaki Single Malt Whiskey

The Suntory Yamazaki Distillery is located in a suburb of Kyoto.

The Proprietor’s Calligraphy

Calligraphy in Japanese or English.

The Proprietor’s Calligraphy

The Proprietor’s Calligraphy

This makes for unique gifts.

Tsunoki Storefront in Nishiki Market

Note: Some ryokan do not like it if you drink your own sake in your room. The main reason to have your own fine sake is that the ryokan has failed to prepare it’s own. Don’t accept this. Many ryokan have their own private label sake and they are often just mediocre with a nice label and high price.

Our recommendation:
1. DO NOT stay at a ryokan that doesn’t allow guests to enjoy sake of their choice in their own room.
2. DO NOT stay at a ryokan that charges extra if guests drink their own sake.
3. If a ryokan has such terms as the above, they have to be stated clearly in the reservation process or when checking in. If terms are not clearly stated, it is perfectly natural by Japanese custom to refuse payment.
4. If you have a bad experience, send us an email as we are considering a ‘Hall of Shame’ page.

There are a lot of cheap, crappy and stuck-up restaurants, shops and inns in Kyoto. If you are visiting Kyoto from abroad, you will have spent a lot of time and money to get here and you deserve to be treated well!

＊Tell’em all about it!: When you visit a restaurant or shop that you heard about from KyotoFoodie, please tell them about us. Thank you!

English:
English menu/pamphlet: none
English website: none
Service/Staff: helpful and friendly
Hours: 9:00 am-6:00 pm, closed the second Wednesday of each month.
Price: 500-10,000 yen. (credit cards are not accepted)
Location and Access: Tsunoki is located in Nishiki Market.
Address: 604-8055 Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku Nishiki Ichiba Tominokoji Higashi-iru 194
(京都市中京区錦市場富小路東入ル194)
Telephone: 075-221-2441

Map:

View KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

The New Year’s celebration, in Japanese, Oshogatsu (お正月) is the most important celebration of the year, like that of Christmas in Western countries.

The food eaten at Oshogatsu are many and varied. There are numerous traditional dishes that are only eaten at New Year’s, and it is also now common to purchase the highest quality fish, beef and poultry for family feasts.

I went to Nishiki Market this afternoon to do some of my own shopping and to snap some photos for KyotoFoodie.

Nishiki Market cannot be beaten for shopping for Oshogatsu feasts, it not only has everything, it also has the best. And the delicacies are priced accordingly!

Oshogatsu Shopping Crowd in Nishiki
Nishiki Market is just a narrow shopping arcade street, normally it is literally wall to wall people. On the last days of the year, it is even far more so. The crush of the crowd not unlike the rush hour trains of Tokyo and Osaka!

All kinds of fish for sale!

herring (nishin), herring-kombu roll (nishin-kombu maki), yellowtail (buri), Spanish mackerel (sawara)

New Year’s decorations for sale.
This temporary stand was set-up on a side street.

New Year’s Flower Arrangements

Shinise invariably have oshogatsu flower arrangements in and about the store.

Nishiki Tea Shop with Nishiki Bancha

Bancha is the popular ‘everyday tea’ in Kyoto.

Various Teas for Sale, Roaster in the Background

The roaster produces bancha, and plenty of rich, aromatic smoke.

Roaster Detail

Roasted tea leaves spill out into the container on the floor.

Customers Sampling Kyoto White Miso
White miso is sweet and is the most ‘Kyoto’ miso. It contains very little salt — and quite a few calories!

Sozaiya-san

This shop sells various ippin ryori type dishes, think of it as a Japanese deli.

Sozaiya-san

Scooping up goodies!

Osechi-ryori for Take Away

The boxes seen and beautifully wrapped contain the osechi-ryori for one person’s oshogatsu. These are for sale, or perhaps pick-up for orders.

Dried Persimmons

Tanaka, Wagashi Shinese

Mochi (rice cakes). Mochi is a necessity for Oshogatsu and often handmade by families or neighborhoods.

Bodara – Oshogatsu Cod

Bodara (棒だら), cod simmered in shoyu, mirin and sugar. This is a shogatsu staple. On the bottom left are sweetened black beans with candied chestnuts.

More Oshogatsu Osechi Fixins

In the center are candied kumquats — candied WITH the leaves still attached. I had never seen them with the leaves still attached. This is the kind of thing that makes Nishiki Market a cut above the super markets.

Another Busy Fishmonger

This shop had lots of crab for sale. Japanese love crab, especially in the winter.
Tsukemono Shop

Japanese LOVE tsukemono (pickles)!

A Well Loved Grilled Fish Shop

At oshogatsu everyone wants to eat snapper (tai), so this shop changes it’s offerings to only salt grilled snapper (tai no shioyaki). Prices are steep!

10,000 Yen Snapper!

Priced from about $50 to $100+, think of tai as the Christmas goose of the Japanese New Year’s celebration.

Cooking and Selling Snapper

The men in the background are tending the ovens.

Fugu (Pufferfish) Specialty Shop

This shop specializes in fresh fugu, another popular Oshogatsu feast. A very special treat.

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

On the left is chunks of fugu with large, heavy bones intact for nabe (hotpot). I always think of this as being like whole chopped chicken soup in Chinese cuisine, the meat is nibbled off the bone which is discarded on a plate. Next is paper thin sliced fugu for tessa, fugu sashimi. Next, fugu no shirako, this is the sperm sac of the male fugu. Thinly sliced fugu skin, called teppi on the lower right.

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

Fugu, Fugu and More Fugu

Fugu no shirako, this can be eaten raw, steamed or lightly grilled. Again, it is the sperm sac of the fugu, you might want to give it a miss, although if you had it and did not know what you were eating, I bet that you would like it!

A Popular Mochi Shop with Popular Oshogatsu Mochi Flavors
On the left is the No. 1 ninki (popular) mochi, mame mochi (mochi with black beans), and No. 2 ninki is yomogi mochi, it is green because it is made with the mugwort (yomogi) plant. Yomogi mochi is slightly astringent with a feel something like mint. Next, to the right, the yellowish colored mochi is awa mochi, awa is one of several kinds of millet that was eaten in ancient times. Now it is mostly used in confections and mochi.

Various Kinds of Mochi

The pink mochi is ebi mochi, shrimp mochi. Baby dried shrimp are added to the mochi. These ‘loafs’ of mochi are sliced and usually roasted and eaten with shoyu and sometimes a bit of sugar. The bags of round mochi to the right is for ozoni soup.

TORO!

Honmaguro chutoro is wild maguro (tuna). Chutoro (middle toro) is the cut between the red meat maguro of the back and the fatty ‘pork belly’ bottom called ootoro. The prices are around $70 for a block of toro. While that is not cheap it can provide 4 or 5 people with a generous amount of toro to go with a New Year’s family feast.

Dried Cod

This dried cod is that is reconstituted and simmered with sweetened shoyu to make bodara, an oshogatsu staple.

Chinmi – Namazu Kabayaki (Catfish)

Chinmi, literally ‘delicacy’ is especially popular with drinkers in Japan (who are not on a tight budget). This item was labeled at ‘chinmi‘, it is broiled catfish (namazu). I have never seen catfish for sale in Japan before. Catfish are regarded as an indicator of a coming earthquake, rather than food in Japan. This shop specializes in fish from Lake Biwa.

Red Snapper Heads for Sale

The head of the tai are popular for making tai no ara, a nimono (simmered dish) ever popular with the Japanese. The slowly simmered tai head is carefully picked apart and the sweetest meat of the fish is teased out with chopsticks. Tai no ara is simmered with shoyu, sake, mirin, shredded ginger and sometimes gobo.

Fugu

Notice how rotund the fugu is. When fugu is written with the Chinese kanji characters, it is usually written as ‘河豚’. 河 is ‘river’ and 豚 is ‘pig’.
Dashimaki-tamago, Serious Business at Oshogatsu
Notice the sign with the number 2 on it. This shop is so busy that customers have to get a number and reservation at a different location and come to pickup their dashimaki at a set time, in order to lessen the chaos.

Tanaka Keiran (Tanaka Chicken Egg Shop)

The stacks in the background at the center of the photo are wooden forms that the dashimaki is put in and takes it’s rectangular shape as it cools down.

Making Dashimaki

Making Dashimaki — Frantically

Making Dashimaki

Miki Keiren — The Most Famous Dashimaki Shop in Nishiki
Miki Keiren is insanely busy. The sign at the upper center shows where to go to get a number and reservation for a New Year’s dashimaki.

Side Street with People Queuing for Miki Keiren Dashimaki Reservations

Queuing for Miki Keiren

Mishimatei in Daimaru Department Store

Right around the corner from the west end of Nishiki is Daimaru Department Store which is also an excellent place to buy tasty things. Here, the man holding the sign shows where the end of the line currently is for people waiting to buy their Mishima-tei fine beef for Oshogatsu dinner. I took this photo about 4:30pm when they were nearly sold out and therefore the line was short. On the 30th and up until early afternoon on the 31st, the line would be hundreds of people long, taking hours buy some Mishima-tei beef, which many people are perfectly willing to do.

At Nishiki Market there are many old ‘shinese‘ shops selling everything from Japanese pickles (tsukemono) to the finest Japanese cutlery, as well as a number newer and novel shops, such as tofu doughnuts. Shinise come in the form of an old shop renovated and transformed into a vegetable and fruit boutique to an tiny egg specialty shop that is all of 4 feet wide.

Nishiki Market is often considered to be the place where the ‘nice’ people of Kyoto shop, but like places like Gion and Poncho-cho it is fully accessible to all now. Prices are a bit higher than the neighborhood super market but the difference in freshness, quality and taste is readily apparent.

I was over at Nishiki Market in search of dried fugu fin for this ‘home cooking’ post the other day and snapped some pictures to put up on KyotoFoodie. These photos were taken in mid-November so they show some of the seasonal delights of autumn.

Nishiki Market is about 6 blocks long and runs east-west, from Teramachi Street to Takakura Street. It is located one block north of Shijo Street (Shijo-dori). If it can be eaten, it can be found here.

Nishiki Market seems to be on the itinerary of both foodie and non-foodie types alike. A search on Flickr yields a nearly endless supply of photos of Nishiki Market, in all seasons.

As it is a covered arcade, if you are going to be in Kyoto for a few days, you might save this spot for a rainy morning or afternoon.

Oysters at Daiyau

Eat them standing, or at the bar next door with beers or take them home. This is a new shop actually. Until modern times, raw oysters in Kyoto would not have been possible. This place has a rather un-Kyoto, rowdy atmosphere.

Nishiri – Kyoto Tsukemono

This is a Kyoto shinise that has gone big time in Japan. A lot of locals pooh-pooh Nishiri now, but they have excellent tsukemono. On the second floor is a restaurant where a truly one-of-a-kind veggie meal can be had. A must try!

Hanakatsuo – ‘shaved fish’

This is the gourmet stuff!

A wagashiya-san

Family style wagashi (Japanese sweets)

Ayu Nitsuke

Ayu is a relative of the trout, these come from Lake Biwa. They are simmered in shoyu, sugar, mirin and sansho. They are komochi (子持ち). literally, ‘has child (eggs)’. VERY tasty!

Yaki senbei

This is one of the new and novel shops, it is a chain that you will see near many sight seeing places in Kyoto and Nara. They sell a variety of grilled senbei (crackers) in numerous flavors, some quite spicy. This mundane snack is done-up well here. Excellent snacks and portable.

Matsubagai (crab)

Crab comes into season in the late autumn. These are 8,500 yen a piece!

A tofu and yuba shinise

They started doing tofu soft cream cones recently, then the place became a mecca when they started making tofu milk doughnuts. A bag full of steaming hot, tofu milk mini doughnuts on a cold day KICKS! Not to be missed! (Doughnuts and soft creams are around the back, where folks are lining up.)

Fugu teppi

The skin of the fugu (pufferfish) cut into delicate strips. There are several layers of skin, all mixed together after chopping.

Nishin (herring)

Nishin fillets are simmered in sweetened shoyu.
Kyoto’s most famous soba dish is Nishin Soba, a fillet like this served on the top of hot noodles.

Kombu (dried kelp)

A kombu shinise. Kombu is used for soup and nabe stock (dashi). This is some pricey kombu!

Fish eggs

Red snapper, salmon, cod. Yum!

Unagiya-san — extreme eating
Here at the eel shop (unagiya-san) there are grilled sparrows (left) and grilled quail (middle) too! Peko and Paku have never eaten sparrow, and have no plans to either. On the right is grilled eel liver — not bad, apparently very good for one’s health!

Simmered komochi (子持ち) carp, from Lake Biwa. Lots of eggs inside!

Eel honesenbei (deep fried bones) — these go great with beer!

The standard grilled eel (鰻, unagi).
Unagi is, served on a bed of rice (unagi donburi) is a must try!
On the right are grilled ayu from Lake Biwa.

Japanese lemons (the green ones)

Japanese citrus fruit starts to appear on store shelves when it is still green, it is more tart then. Compare the imported lemons in the background to the green domestic ones basket.

Oni Yuzu – 鬼柚子

devil’s face yuzu, big (and scary) bother to the yuzu

Matsutake Mushroom

Japan’s famed matsutake mushroom. In season in the autumn. A taste sublime! Domestically harvested matsutake are among the most expensive delicacies in Japan.

Narazuke

Narazuke is the famed tsukemono of Nara. Vegetables are pickled in miso, shoyu and alcohol. Another dish with many detractors, popular with older men, goes well with rice, sake and beer. A buzz can be had on just a few bites of narazuke alone!

Fugu and other fish in a live tank.

Fugu is on the bottom right.

Tsukemono! — nukazuke

Nukazuke: nuka is rice bran, vegetables are fermented in rice bran — clean and simple, natural taste, that packs a pungent punch!

Yakiguri (焼き栗)

Neighboring Hyogo Prefecture produces the most prized chestnuts (kuri) in Japan. Chestnuts are synonymous with autumn dishes in Japan.

More kombu (kelp)

Here, kombu us simmered with shoyu, sugar and mirin, it is eaten with rice.

Best damn eggs in Kyoto!

This shops seems to be in an alley between shops, it is just 4 feet wide!
Notice, eggs in Japan are not refrigerated — and they are often eaten raw or under cooked.

Yakizakana (焼き魚) – grilled fish

Fish are grilled over charcoal (can’t do that at home) with various kinds of sauces. The shinise always seem to have a sauce that is superior to that of the new places.

And bit-sized helpings to be eaten on the spot.

Funazushi (鮒寿司) – fermented carp ‘sushi’

This shinise is from neighboring Shiga Prefecture. Lake Biwa produces the carp (funa) used for funazushi. Funazushi is a narezushi (fermented ‘sushi’). It is fermented (some say rotted) with rice. It is said that if you like blue cheese, you might like this. This is perhaps the most controversial dish in all of Japanese cuisine. Most Japanese have not tried it. It is fairly popular in Kyoto due to Lake Biwa being just over the mountain and much of Kyoto’s culture and residents originally coming from Shiga.

The board at the bottom center of the case reads, ‘Ministery of Agriculture Prize,’ this is a rare honor in Japan.

On left is ‘komochi’ funa that has been sliced thin, notice the orange eggs inside. The others are whole fish, mostly funa (carp), of several varieties and saba (mackerel) and ayu.

Hirezake is a somewhat rare drink in Japan. It is often enjoyed by older men at exclusive sushi and fish cuisine restaurants, especially in the autumn and winter.

The dried fin of the fugu (pufferfish, blowfish) is steeped in hot sake for about ten minutes and served.

A hot cup of this most imaginative concoction, rich and complex in taste goes extremely well slowly sipped with delicacies of fish on a cold night, tucked away inside a warmly lit favorite Kyoto haunt.

As you might imagine, this one does have it’s detractors. Many young Japanese, people in their 20′s and 30′s have never tried hirezake. Many women don’t care for it.

However, the taste is not fishy. It is vaguely fish in flavor however the sake is heavily accented with rich earthy and nutty tones permeated with an unusual smokiness.

If you are a foodie and in Japan, seek it out. Hirezake is a must try!

I wanted to show how to make hirezake, so I went down to Nishiki Market today to look for dried fugu fin. It is still a bit early in the season for fugu, but I did find several shops that had dried tiger fugu fin. The tiger fugu fin I chose was from Shimonoseki (in Yamaguchi Prefecture on the southern end of Honshu). Shimanoseki is synonymous with fugu in Japan, the most prized fugu comes from this region.

At restaurants that serve fugu, the fins can often be seen stuck to a wall in the kitchen to dry, or at exclusive fish restaurants and drinking establishments in Gion, they are stuck to a board and placed outside to dry in the sun during the day.

The steps to making hirezake are as follows:

Fugu fins

Obtain professionally harvested and dried fugu fin (parts of the fugu are highly toxic).

Sake, cup with cover and fugu fin
We went with a bottle of saga kobai (嵯峨紅梅), this sake is produced by a small, craft brewery in Saga, near Arashiyama, a popular sightseeing destination in a suburb of Kyoto.

For hirezake, dry Japanese sake, karakuchi (辛口) is considered far more appropriate than sweet (甘口) (amakuchi). Karakuchi is considered ‘manly’.

Gently heat the sake

Heat the sake in a cup (with a cover if possible). This is best done in boiling water. It is common now to heat sake in a microwave oven, but this is frowned upon by true believers as the sake can get far too hot, damaging the delicate flavor.

Sear the fin

Lightly sear the fin over an open flame, or ideally over charcoal.

Add the seared fin immediately and cover

Allow to steep about 10 minutes

The flame

It is popular to burn off the vaporized alcohol when uncovering the hirezake with a match. This is surely more for theatrical effect than taste, but it is part of the ritual and many Japanese do say that it does improve the flavor. Suit yourself!

Sip slowly on a cold night!

aozakana (青魚) literally, ‘blue fish’ are in season from mid-autumn throughout the winter. These are such species as mackerel (青魚, saba), pacific saury (秋刀魚, sanma), sardine (鰯, iwashi), and jack mackerel (鯵, aji). Their blue colored backs give these well loved fish their Japanese name.

In Japan, the cold months are the time to gorge on fish, and aozakana are the main event. Fish are genki, laid on heavily with fat and rich with oils. Super fresh, simply grilled, this is some of the best cuisine Japan has to offer; uncontrived, straight forward and natural.

Last week I (Peko) was invited to participate in the preparation of an aozakana feast extravaganza with some native foodies here to celebrate the beginning of the next 5 months of exquisitely rich and tasty fish.

We shopped at Nishiki Market (錦商市場店街, nishiki ichiba shotengai) for the fixins. Nishiki Market is the place to go in Kyoto for all the best ingredients for traditional Japanese cuisine. An entire blog could be devoted just to the wonders of Nishiki Market.

The main event for the dinner was of course sabazushi (lightly pickled mackerel pressed on rice and thickly sliced). The sabazushi was actually prepared the day before, so I only have photos of it being sliced. Sabazushi, and many kinds of fish in Japan are said to taste best a day or so after being caught. Saba is the king of aozakana, but there were also a number of other dishes, some cooked some some raw.

I am just going to narrate the photos for each dish and it’s preparation. Here we go, enjoy! I haven’t noted the recipes, but if you can get the fixins, the fish, all you foodies out there can just wing it.

Aji (鯵, jack mackerel) Sashimi Salad

pulling the skin (sorry, bad photo)

The bones of the aji are pulled with a heavy-duty tweezers. (again, sorry, bad photo, the tweezers is blurry)

Battered Sanma Fried with Eggs and Spinach
Sanma (秋刀魚) is a much loved fish in Japan and the characters used for the name are wonderfully suited to this long, silvery fish in season from the autumn; 秋 autumn, 刀 sword, 魚 fish. Sanma are most often grilled whole, with head and guts intact, and eaten with spicy grated daikon radish and a squeeze of sudachi (酢橘), a native Japanese citrus fruit similar to a lime, but with a very unique Japanese flavor.

This rendition of sanma was a first for me.

Cut diagonal and at an angle. Sushi and sashimi is usually cut this way, make it even more beautiful and appealing to the eye.

First, a dusting of chestnut starch, then into the egg and spinach batter. (Any kind of starch will do)

Fry until golden brown

Garnish with some greens — this was really a treat!

Iwashi (Sardine) Sashimi
Iwashi (鰯) is a sardine. Iwashi is often pickled and one of my favorite renditions is fried whole with shoyu and grated ginger.

Cleaning the iwashi was the most time consuming and laborious part of the aozakana feast preparations.

The meat of the iwashi is very soft, especially the belly area. The chinese character for iwashi is; 魚 fish, 弱 weak.

Start with some myoga (茗荷), a ginger-like Japanese yakumi (薬味) flavoring. Myoga and shiso are often served with raw fish to cover any overly fishy odors or tastes. That is the original purpose of wasabi as well.

Start with gutting.

These are going to be eaten raw, the inside is washed very well. The weak belly meat is easily damaged and frayed.

Split them in half and pull the bones out. (The bones are saved for another dish)

Finally, pull the skins off.

Grated ginger is another yakumi.

There are four dainty fillets for each person’s serving. This is served on a bed of sliced myoga and shiso, the grated ginger on the left is generously added to shoyu, for dipping. Iwashi sashimi offers one the most ‘blue’ tastes of the aozakana clan.

Honesenbei
Honesenbei, literally ‘bone’ ‘cracker’ (cracker as is Ritz cracker, rice cracker) is a popular treat that goes especially well with beer. Bones such as that of the iwashi, when deep-fried are easily chewed and are an excellent source of nutrition. Eel bones are probably the most popular honesenbei in Japan.

Here we just deep-fried them and served them with a bit of salt.

Excellent!

Sabazushi
Sabazushi was discussed in depth in the ‘Hanaore‘ post. Again, I was not present the day before when the sabazushi was prepared. Being a slightly pickled dish, sabazushi is best enjoyed a few days after it is made, giving it a chance to ‘stew’.

Notice the kombu (kelp) on top of the mackerel.

Deepfried Satoimo Crab Ankake
Ankake is a wonderful dish. It is a soupy, dashi-based gravy boiled with lots of starch and then poured over something else. In this case, satoimo. Satoimo is a kind of Japanese potato (taro), that is very, very soft after cooking. Here, after being cooked and steeped in dashi soup stock it is deep-fried. This is very unusual in that the satoimo is rolled in poppy seeds before being deep-fried. Poppy seeds are unusual in Japanese cuisine. The ankake soup is heavily laden with crab meat, another winter favorite in Japan.

Satoimo after being simmered and cut.

Dip the satoimo in egg white, then roll in starch, then poppy seeds, prior to deep-frying.

Deep fry

Crab meat, getting ready with starch mixture on the right.

Pour in

Stir

Ladle over the deep-fried satoimo. Quite an imaginative series of contrasts and layers in this dish!

Seasonal fruit

Persimmon and nashi (asian pear)