We are planning to do this even again and if you are in Kyoto, you have got to come and chow this dinner!

Coppa Broth Ramen (With Soy Milk and Heavy Cream Garnished with Candy Sprinkles)

The Homemade Coppa - Finally Gets Cut

First Taste of Coppa

Mame Kid Trying the Coppa - and Liking It!

Mame Boss - Mamezen Owner Chef Yonegawa

Ramen Chef Warrior - Michael (Creator of KyotoFoodie)

Chef Dylan Impressing Some Customers with Our Dinner

Coppa Broth Ramen and Kumiage Yuba Donburi

Fresh Grated Wasabi for Donburi

Chef Dylan Propositioning Hottie Customer (You can't imagine what he just said to her!)

Mamezen Soba: Soymilk Ramen

Mamezen is the creation of a young Kyoto chef named Minoru Yonegawa. His family owns a very nice yudofu (simmered tofu hotpot) restaurant in Kyoto called Toka. Toka make their yudofu in a soymilk-based broth, which is very unusual, creating a very ‘Kyoto’ luxurious and rich broth with which to simmer your tofu in.

Chef Yonegawa worked at his family’s restaurant for several years and noticed that local Kyotoites really don’t come to yudofu restaurants, even if you make your broth with soymilk! He wanted to serve food that was in keeping with his roots, being based on soy but also something that would appeal to Kyoto people. Of course travelers are welcome too. While he had never seen or heard of tonyu (soymilk) ramen, he thought that he ought to be able to pull it off and that Kyoto people would like to eat it regularly. He was right, he started out serving it privately just to friends and then soon realized that he had to open his own restaurant!

Mamezen Soba: Soymilk Ramen - detail

Mamezen Soba: Yuba Donburi - detail

Developing Soymilk Ramen Recipe
When Chef Yonegawa was developing his soymilk ramen recipe his wife was pregnant with their first child and the recipe is quite informed by that time in their life.

Japanese ramen is usually very salty and very high in calories. It is often said that you should not drink the soup after you finish the noodles. Children, pregnant women and elderly are told not to eat ramen as it is really not very healthy and their bodies cannot take the extremes of the dish. Mamezen Soba, on the other hand is made with a deeply flavored but gentle Kyoto dashi broth and rich, healthy soymilk, so drink it up!

Mamezen Soba: Ramen or Soba?
Ramen comes from the Chinese, la mian. Soba is an indigenous Japanese word. Originally, in Japan ramen was called chuka soba, lit. Chinese noodle. Today, ramen is the most common term for this dish in Japan, but chuka soba is still quite common. Ramen and chuka soba are the same dish.

I have only been to Mamezen for lunch but they do offer a dinner menu that includes the Mamezen Soba dishes and a limited number of soy-based a la carte yummies as well and quite a good selection of Japanese beer, shochu and sake, among others. Refreshing Chinese tencha is served. Tencha is the Japanese name for this tea which is made from rose buds. It has a subtle sweetness but is only very slightly flowery.

I ordered the set lunch that includes Mamezen Soba and a donburi of yuba and ankake over rice. The donburi was quite good and unlike the kumiage yuba donburi that I am familiar with.

Mamezen Soba: Soymilk Ramen - detail

Mamezen Soba: Yuba Donburi

How Did Mamezen Soba Taste?
Very good! I hadn’t been to Mamezen for quite awhile, about a year, and realized that I would be going there more often now.

Soup: This being Kyoto, we must be dashi crazed and Mamezen is right on target. Chef Yonegawa starts by making a very rich katsuo dashi broth and then adds soymilk and simmers it down until it is thick, rich and silky. It is a very unique soup for Kyoto. I recall the soup being lighter in flavor previously. I asked the boss about it. He said that he might be simmering it longer as it thickens up the taste and density. If you like your soup stronger and richer, just ask for ‘koime’. The overall taste and feel of the soup is wonderful, I can’t think of a dish that combines the rich and pungent (dashi) with silky smooth (soymilk).

Noodles: The noodles used are very thin, something like angelhair pasta. They contain egg but I couldn’t really taste that. Personally, I am not really into thin noodles, I like them thicker and meatier. Chef Yonegawa’s choice of thin noodles is to be subtle and delicate, like Kyoto. Though not my fav, I have to agree with his choice. He might offer customers a choice to thick or thin.

Garnish: The dish is garnished with scallions, nama yuba, simmered shiitake and a bit of umeboshi. In the winter and spring, when nanohana (rape blossom) is in season, Chef Yonegawa uses it too.

Donburi: The donburi rice bowl was very interesting because it features a thick ankake sauce that is made with, you guessed it, Kyoto dashi and starch for thickening. Several sheets of namayuba is layed on top of the rice and then it is smothered in ankake with some ground fresh ginger on top.

This was a very interesting take on yuba donburi for me, which I liked very much. However, I like kumiage yuba donburi perhaps a little better. I would love to see how Chef Yonegawa would do that dish.

Veg or Vegan: The dish does use katsuo (bonito), that’s a fish, in the dashi. The noodles contain eggs. By request the dashi can be made without katsuo. Of course the egg cannot be removed from the noodles.

Do Not Miss: I have added Mamezen Soba to my Do Not Miss list in Kyoto. Rich and pungent (dashi) and silky smooth (soymilk) is something not to be missed! However, I do have a caveat. It might be a bit too ‘Zen master’ for those who are not really into Japanese and soy cuisine. The restaurant is a bit out of the way and if you really just want a delicious, but more ‘meaty’ ramen, you would probably be more satisfied with the restaurants on our Great Ramen Shops in Kyoto list. If you are sure you are into the kind of taste described here, by all means, make the trip to Shimogamo! (Twenty to thirty minutes from the city center by bus.) Also, the restaurant is closed often, call first to confirm that they are open when you plan to go.

Mamezen Interior - Counter

Chef Yonegawa, also a Shakuhachi Bamboo Flute Master

Some headgear there! It makes Devo look uninventive. His flute master name is 菊水流尺八道準師範米川翠月. That is a long name indeed! And, many Japanese probably can’t read it.

Owner Chef Yonegawa at the Mamezen Gate

Me at Work on a Sunday Afternoon

Mamezen is located in the historic Shimogamo neighborhood of Kyoto, a bit north-east of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shimogamo Shrine. Mamezen is a very small and personable restaurant. Owner chef Yonegawa is a really, really nice guy. His wife helps run the restaurant and his two beautiful young children poke their heads in regularly. In addition to being a chef, Yonegawa is also a bit of a Zen master and is a master of the Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute.

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Mamezen in English
English Menu: yes
English Website: none
Service: Warm-hearted and friendly
Price: 1,000-1,500 yen
Hours:
lunch: 11:30-3:00 pm (2:30 pm last order)
dinner: 7:30-11:00 pm (10:30 pm last order)
closed: Wed, Thurs and some other days (Zen master chef isn’t a salary man), call the mobile number listed below before you go.
Location and Access: Shimogamo neighborhood. Best accessed by bus, taxi, bicycle or on foot. Nearest bus stop is on Kitaoji Street.
Address: Kyoto-shi, Sakyo-ku, Shimogamo, Higashi Takagi-cho 13-4 (京都市左京区下鴨東高木町13-4)
Telephone: 075-703-5731
Mobile: 090-1153-5297
Near Sightseeing Spot: Kamigamo and Shimogamo Shrines, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These shrines are older than even the ancient capital!

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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!

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi - Served

Udon for Summer: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi (綱道のざるとろうどん)
This is a true gourmet masterpiece, country-style. It is just the right meal for Japanese summer!

Noodles: Dense, thick udon noodles, somehow both soft and firm, with lots of earthy, wheaty flavor served cold on a woven bamboo zaru (sieve) inset in a lacquered tray.
Dipping ‘Sauce’: The noodles are dipped into a mixture of grated yamaimo (Japanese mountain yam), raw egg, chopped scallions, fresh grated (real) wasabi and tsuyu. Tsuyu is a mixture of dashi, soy sauce and mirin.

Tsunamichi’s dipping sauce mixture is quite special, it is surely the richest I have had. The grated yamaimo is called tororo and unlike the very gooey (and cheaper) nagaimo usually used for tororo, it is extremely thick. The raw egg adds a luxurious creaminess, the fresh wasabi adds plenty of zing and the tsuyu is quite salty owing to plenty of soy sauce used.

The combination of this heavy, creamy dipping sauce and the heavy-duty country style noodles far surpasses any zaru udon or zaru soba dish I have encountered.

I am not a fan of Tsunamichi’s soba, it is very rough and thick and for me somehow lacks much taste. If you live in Kyoto and can visit Tsunamichi easily and like soba, by all means give it a try and tells us what you think in the comments section below. If you are just in town for a few days and want to try Tsunamichi, I highly recommend the udon over the soba.

Zaru toro udon costs 850 yen – and is quite filling.

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi - Pouring on Tsuyu

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

Cold Summer Noodles: Zaru Toro Udon at Tsunamichi

All Gone!

More about Tsunamichi and Udon Country
It is mid-summer and hot, hot, hot in Kyoto now. The Gion Festival is over and that means the rainy season is over too. (The rainy season never fails to end the day or so before the Gion Festival Junko (procession) on the morning of July 17.) This is the season for cold and cooling meals.

Back in February of 2008 Miwa and I reviewed Tsunamichi’s very popular winter dish, piping hot miso simmered udon, (miso nikomi udon) and I eat it quite often in the cold months. As much as I like that one, I realized that I like this summer even more, much more.

Tsunamichi doesn’t make Kyoto-style noodles, no, there are thick, heavy and quite rough hewn, actually with more than a few noodles being too short or too thick. Never mind that, the taste is way over the top! Surely this is a dish for foodies not available abroad, not even available most anywhere in Japan!

Tsunamichi is a noodle shop run by a man from Kagawa prefecture in Shikoku. Sanuki is the classical name for this region and Sanuki is udon country! And the proprietor makes his udon, called undon in his dialect, by hand! (His soba too.)

Our previous ‘Udon for Winter‘ article about Tsunamichi has lots more information about udon culture in Shikoku so be sure to check it out!

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English:
English menu: none
English website: none
Service/Staff: Friendly
Price: 700 – 1,300 yen.
Location and Access: Bus, Subway. Tsunamichi is located about a 3 minute walk east from Kitaoji Bus Terminal, Kitaoji Subway Station and Kitaoji Vivre Shopping Center.
Address: Kyoto-shi Kita-ku Kitaoji-dori Karasuma Higashi-hitosuji Kita-iru Kitakamifusa-cho 39-2 (京都市北区北大路通烏丸東一筋北入ル北上総町39-2)
Telephone: 075-492-7860
Near Sightseeing Spot: Daitokuji Temple (10 min. bus)

Map:

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Kyoto Mountain Wild Boar ‘Inoshishi’ Ramen いのししラーメン 京北町
The North Mountains around Kyoto are home to numerous wild boar, deer and bear — wild boar are especially prolific — and these animals sometimes find their way into Kyoto cuisine, usually in nabe. There are several shinise restaurants in the north of the city that specialize in wild boar nabe, see this Kyoto Support forum for details. However, wild game is not very ‘Kyoto’ food, it is ‘mountain’ food.

Today I was up in the mountains researching a new business project and at lunch time my hosts took me to this most unusual ramen joint. The shop is called Inoshishi Ramen Captain. It looks like any other roadside ramen joint in Japan, the kind of place frequented by truck drivers, lowbrow and seedy, with damn good ramen.

Wild Boar Ramen

Wild Boar Ramen

How did it taste?
A ramen dish called Inoshishi Ramen is made with real wild boar meat. It is available in salt, shoyu or miso soup. I chose miso because wild boar nabe uses a miso based soup.

At 1,250 yen, this is rather pricey ramen, but it is novel and tasty. If you are in Kyoto from abroad, sightseeing, I would definitely NOT recommend making the trip all the way up to Keihoko-cho for inoshishi ramen. If you live in Kyoto, have a car and are really into ramen, then, I think that you might put this shop on your list of places to go, sometime. If you are a ramen fanatic, well, then you are going to have to make a trip up to the North Mountains to try wild boar ramen!

Inoshishi Ramen Sign

Inoshishi Ramen Shop Storefront

Coca-Cola and Inoshishi Ramen Sign

I love this sign! Coca-Cola and Inoshishi Ramen!

Inoshishi Ramen Captain (いのししラーメンのキャプテン)
No English menu or service
tel: 0771-52-0489
Kyoto-shi, Ukyo-ku, Keihoku, Hosono-cho(京都市右京区京北細野町)

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This morning, once again, Tanigawa-san from Kichisen called and asked me to accompany him on a little culinary adventure up to Kibune. Kibune is a village in a mountain gorge in the north mountains above Kyoto, it is a top foodie (and date) spot, especially in the sweltering Kyoto summer. In Kibune they put deck-like constructions with tables over the mountain stream and people enjoy a wonderful meal of river fish while sitting atop the cool, gushing river.

I was out back in my new garden planting habanero peppers when Tanigawa-san showed up at my place in his 1988 Mercedes Benz 560 SL convertible — with the top down, wearing Ray Bans and this really horrible gangsta rapper t-shirt (see photos below).

We zoomed up to Kibune at top speed chatting about European brands, the size of the engine in his car (compared to that of the other Mercedes Benzs that we pass), business and food and then somehow I was made to give an recounting of my girlfriends and relationships since I came to Japan. (Five in ten years really isn’t that many but he seemed somewhat incredulous. Not that Tanigawa-san is in a position to be envious, his wife is extremely HOT.) As we zip up the the mountain road nearing our destination I ask him why we are going to Kifune. He corrects me: Kibune. (Officially it IS Kifune, but ‘real’ Kyoto people say Kibune, or so it has seemed to me over the years.)

Kifune Kawadoko, literally ‘River Floor’

Kifune Kawadoko

Kifune Kawadoko, The Mountain Lane and Tourists

Kibunejaya Entrance

Kibunejaya – We Have River Trout Tempura

Kibunejaya – Interior

Kibunejaya – Interior

Kibunejaya – Interior

Kibunejaya – River Fish Holding Tank

Kibunejaya – River Fish Holding Tank

Kibunejaya – Tanigawa-san, Okami-san and Deshi Kid

So, we get up to Kibune and pull into this kawadoko restaurant called Kibunejaya and one of his students appears from the kitchen. The last time I saw him he was being dropped off at Tanigawa-san’s friend’s stall at the Kyoto Wholesale Food Market to clean fish all day. The time before that he was literally beaten out of the kitchen by Tanigawa-san for scooping rice the wrong way, or some other little minor infraction. Minor to me, at least.

I was glad to see this kid up in Kibune. I sensed that Tanigawa-san was starting to believe that he just might amount to something.

Kibunejaya – Tanigawa-san and Okami-san

Kibunejaya – Cold Somen Noodle Lunch with Tanigawa-san

We had a quick lunch and I made friends with the family that runs the restaurant. They invited me back to do a proper interview and photoshoot for KyotoFoodie. I just have to make sure that I go on a sunny and warm day so that we can get some photos of people on the kawadoko. Kawadoko literally means ‘river floor’.

Kibunejaya – Cold Somen Noodle Lunch

Kibunejaya – Cold Somen Noodle Lunch

Kibunejaya – Cold Somen Noodle Lunch

Kibune is about 30 minutes by train up into the north mountains from the city. It is a little village with an ancient shrine, a beautiful stream gushing through it and numerous restaurants.

The restaurants are unlike anything you can find in other regions of Japan, or so they say. Even my professor of urban design in graduate school told me that by law placing restaurants, or any other constructions over rivers is prohibited in Japan. The restaurants have deck-like constructions right over the top of the cool, gushing river stream. See, Kyoto is pretty hot and steamy in the summer. People go up to Kibune, sit atop this stream and are literally cooled by the temperature and the sound of the running water.

It really is chilly up there. We turned toward Kibune at the intersection for Kibune and Kurama and it was instantly colder. Tanigawa-san said 5 degrees (centigrade).

People in Kyoto love to go up to Kibune and have lunch or dinner atop the river and enjoy the refreshing chill of the water and breeze while enjoying mountain vegetable and river fish cuisine.

Kifune Shrine

On the way home, we zoom down the mountain a few hundred meters then Tanigawa-san parks. Where he parks isn’t a no parking zone, it isn’t somewhere that anyone would even consider parking, it is the entrance of a shrine! We climb the very steep stairway to the top and pray.

Kifune Shrine

Kifune Shrine Water – Take Out

Kifune Shrine – Mitarashi

This is where you wash your hands and purify yourself before entering the shrine proper.

Kifune Shrine – Going Home: Strike a Pose

Kifune Shrine – Going Home: Strike a Pose

Kifune Shrine – No Parking

Kifune Kawadoko: So Kyoto

This is the most elegant, famous (and expensive) restaurant in Kibune. This is the epitome of Kyoto to me. You are offered just a glimpse of the rushing river down this stone stairway and under a intimately scaled bridge-like passage way. Of course as you walk down the lane you can easily hear the rush of the river anywhere in the village, even if you cannot see it. The glimpse is so Kyoto.

Japan’s Answer to ‘Cookies and Cream’ Ice Cream: Soba boro is a crunchy cookie made of soba flour, sugar and egg, a little bit like a Japanese version of biscotti. Chibeta makes a delicious ice cream flavored with soba boro.

In Japan, soba boro is something like a graham cracker or sugar cookie in Western culture, one of the slightly prosaic, common, cheap sweets that taste pretty good.

Soba boro is made with the same buckwheat flour used for soba noodles, you might not think of it as an ideal flavoring for ice cream, but the soba boro is a nice flavoring for ice cream. This flavoring is pretty clever (though not unheard of) and originally might have been a riff on cookies and cream, which is a very popular Häagen-Dazs flavor in Japan.

Soba Boro Ice Cream

Notice the bits of broken soba boro in the ice cream, those darker bits.

Trypical Soba Boro Package

Soba Boro ‘Cookies’

Soba Boro – detail

Chibeta Soba Boro Ice Cream Package

Soba Boro Ice Cream Served

Kyoto Handmade Ice Cream Shop Chibeta
Chibeta is located on in the Nishijin district of Kyoto on Senbon-dori, just south of Imadegawa-dori. From the intersection of Senbon and Imadegawa Streets, you just go three (short) blocks to the south and Chibeta is located on the east corner of Senbon and Sasayacho Streets intersection.

Chibeta Storefront

Chibeta Interior

Sobo Boro Ice Cream and ‘Cookies’

The presentation in the ice cream case at Chibeta is great, they have whole soba boro cookies on top of the ice cream.

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Sake Kasu Ramen: Yesterday I stopped in at Genya Ramen in Fushimi to try their famous sake kasu ramen. Sake kasu is the ‘lees’, what is left after pressing sake mash. Fushimi is the second largest sake producing region of Japan, so there is plenty of sake kasu around town. Sake kasu is often used as a soup base too. Sake kasu in ramen is something that I hadn’t heard of before. It is a very unique dish!

Sake Kasu Ramen: Great Concept, Pretty Good Ramen
I had wanted to try this restaurant since I heard about it and finally made it. I thought that the concept is really great because Fushimi, in south Kyoto, is the second largest sake producing region in Japan so Genya made a ramen dish on that theme. Unfortunately I thought that the taste was just ‘good’, not great. I was hoping for ‘great’. That said, I guess that I would still recommend it; if you are into ramen and/or sake, Genya is a nice place for a novel ramen lunch. The service was good, polite and quite friendly. The restaurant was bustling at lunchtime the weekday that I was there.

Sake Kasu Ramen – served

Sake Kasu Ramen

Sake Kasu Ramen and Abura Age

This deep-fried tofu, abura age, is the wrapping for inarizushi, Fushimi’s famous ‘sushi’. Another local, and clever touch.

My Two Complaints
1. If I hadn’t known that the soup included sake kasu, would I have realized it just from the taste? I don’t think so. That was my main disappoint. I want to taste the ingredients, not just ‘know’ they are in the dish. (This is fairly common in Kyoto. Light, subtle taste equates to sophistication in Kyoto. But this isn’t subtle, it’s just too light. If you can’t taste it, what is the point? Is it even there?) Ramen isn’t exactly subtle or sophisticated food anyway. So, I say, bring it on! Mainly I could taste the pork in the soup. It just tasted like old-fashioned ramen soup, the taste in Japan from like 80 years ago. Some people like it, I guess I am looking for something a bit more out of the ordinary.

When you have kasu-jiru (kasu soup) in Japan, you can definitely taste the kasu. I mean, you can get a buzz from it sometimes. So, I feel justified in expecting to taste the kasu. OK, I rest my ‘kasu case’.

2. The noodles. The quality of the noodles also disappointed me a bit. They were really run of the mill type ramen noodles. Sake kasu ramen is special, or at leas tought to be, and I was expecting that the noodles would be pretty good.

Minor Complaint
No sake on the menu. Come on! This is fushimi, this is a sake kasu ramen shop, offer me some sake!

Genya Ramen Interior

Genya Ramen Interior – Sakagura Cash Register

The cash register ‘facade’ looks like a traditional Fushimi Sake Brewery! Never seen one of those before!

Genya Ramen Storefront

Genya Ramen Storefront

Genya Ramen Storefront – Sake Barrel ‘Sign’

Genya Ramen Storefront – Handwritten Menu

Genya Ramen Storefront – Noren Shop Curtain

– location coming soon –

Itadakimono: A few days ago I was given a large bunch of karami daikon by Iron Chef Defeater, Yoshimi Tanigawa, the owner and chef of Kichisen. Karami daikon is generally quite small and is grated and eaten with soba noodles. It is hot and bitter, a little goes a long way.

Karami literally means ‘hot taste’ in Japanese. Karami daikon is hot like wasabi or horse radish, not spicy hot like chili pepper.

Grated Karami Daikon on Soba

Karami daikon can usually be found in higher-end grocery stores but it is rather rare. I don’t think I have ever seen it in a reasonably priced soba restaurant. I have only had it at a monthly soba making gathering of fellow soba connoisseurs and at Kichisen.

Wasabi is commonly served with soba but I prefer karami daikon as daikon seems more suited to soba and dashi to me.

Karami daikon is simply grated and a small bit is placed on top of the soba, usually with chopped scallions. Grated daikon, very commonly served with grilled fish in Japan, has a good deal of water content, karami daikon has very little, after grating, no water gathers at the bottom of the plate or bowl, as happens with daikon.

If you cannot get karami daikon but want to try something similar, the very top of a regular daikon, the ‘neck’, especially if it is green can be quite hot and bitter. (Not always though.) Just grate that and squeeze out the water content.

Karami Daikon

Karami daikon comes in several sizes, all small, these were the smallest that I have seen, they were about the size of a ping pong ball.

Fresh and Peeled Karami Daikon

Peeled Karami Daikon Radishes – Detail

I peeled mine before grating, but some people simply wash it and grate. Unpeeled is said to be hotter. The hot ‘karami’ will lessen with time, so it should be grated right before eating. You can grate it while the soba boils.

Karami Daikon and Scallions

Peeled Karami Daikon

Grated Karami Daikon

Notice there is little water content in karami daikon.

Fresh ‘Nama’ Soba

‘Nama’ means fresh, or raw in Japanese. This type of high quality, undried soba can be found in most grocery stores and is worth paying an extra 100 yen or so for. This soba is quite thick, country-style rather than Kyoto-style.

Grated Karami Daikon and Chopped Scallions on Soba – Served

This amount is actually quite a bit. Don’t start out with too much, you can always add more. You want to be sure to stir it into the dashi well before eating, however, mixing too much is not cool in Japanese culinary culture.

Grated Karami Daikon and Chopped Scallions on Soba – Detail

Allyl isothiocyanate is the compound that makes karami daikon (raphanus sativum), hot, hot, hot!

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

A bowl of udon with only two noodles? Is it a rip-off or a find? Though Tawaraya’s famous udon dish is a bit gimmicky, it does have that special and refined ‘shinise’ taste. This is a dish that has been enjoyed, across the street from an ancient shrine, by several generations of locals and pilgrims.

Today I visited another Nishijin restaurant that I had only heard about but had never been to: Tawaraya.

Tawaraya ‘Two Noodle’ Udon

Tawaraya is located just down the street from the main gate of Kitano Tenmagu Shrine in a very old and beautiful Nishijin Machiya. Tarawaya’s famous ‘meibutsu’ dish is called Nihon Udon, literally two noodles udon. You only get two noodles, so you know that they have to be substaintial. Tawaraya’s udon isn’t just thick, or even really thick, it is unbelievably, ginormously thick!

In Japan, you normally slurp noodles, but not there. Of course you still eat them with chopsticks but instead of slurping up a mouthful at a time, you bite off a mouthful at a time, from a single noodle!

Nihon udon is served with a very rich and rather salty dashi broth and shredded ginger, which you add yourself. I only used about half of mine.

The noodles of course taste like udon, but the feeling is more like eating mochi, very interesting.

Numerous other noodle dishes are available, but I didn’t try them. It looked like the other udon dishes are not served with the super thick udon, but ‘standard’ thickness udon.

Tawaraya Storefront

The machiya is especially beautiful, inside and out. The thick wooden columns and lintels are painted blackish brown. In the genkan entry there is a huge well with a bamboo cover. The floor is made of huge stone slabs, generously sprinkled with water. (Japanese love sprinkling water on pavement, stones and so on.)

While the price of 700 yen is reasonable for a tasty, shinise lunch in Kyoto, if you are a famished traveler the nihon udon probably would not be a substantial enough meal for you. The meal is classic Nishijin style, not a large serving but it is just enough to keeo you going for . If you want to try something novel and a Kyoto meibutsu that many Kyotoites haven’t sampled and you are visiting Nishijin or Kitano Tenmagu Shrine, this is a great place to lunch.

Lunch is quick here and it is not the kind of machiya dining experience in which you can really take your time and enjoy the atmosphere and the food.

Tawaraya Noren Curtain

Tawara means ‘straw bail of rice’, depicted in brush and ink on natural Japanese linen here on the Tawaraya noren curtain. ‘Ya’ means store, or shop.

Tawaraya Storefront ‘Menu’

This shows the other dishes available, having them all pinned to the traditional woodwork is rather unfortunate, not very ‘Nishijin’, too in your face.

Tawaraya ‘Two Noodle’ Udon – Served

The small plate on the lower right is grated ginger. You add as much as you like. For me, half was enough. I drank all my dashi, which you really aren’t supposed to do because of all the salt content. But, it was excellent!

Tawaraya ‘Two Noodle’ Udon

Tawaraya ‘Two Noodle’ Udon

Tawaraya Machiya Interior

This little room, off of the genkan entryway is for show and dipicts what a traditional Nishijin machiya room looks like.

Tawaraya Machiya Interior

Sorry, I didn’t have my usual camera today and was unable to get good photos of the interior.

Tawaraya Machiya Storefront

On the right side of Tawaraya is a small shrine where pregnant women come to pray for a safe delivery. If you are traveling in Japan, and pregenant, you can do lunch at Tawaraya and pray for a safe delivery! What a deal!

English and Service
Tawaraya たわらや
English service: No English menu, but the menu does have photos. You can just point. The staff is friendly and reports that foreign guests frequent the restaurant as it is right down the street from Kitano Tenmagu Shrine.
tel: 075-463-4974
Kyoto-shi Kamigyo-ku Onmae-dori Imakoji-sagaru Bakuro-cho 918 (京都市上京区御前通今小路下ル馬喰町918)
hours 11am-4pm (closed Tuesday)

Map

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Dashi broth, udon noodles, chicken, egg, mushrooms and shrimp tempura are all placed in a covered earthenware nabe pot and boiled vigorously over high heat for several minutes. This dish is called nabeyaki udon, it is served piping hot in the nabe pot that it was cooked in. Kakutani’s nabeyaki udon cannot be topped!

Nabeyaki Udon
Nabeyaki is served literally boiling hot and the heavy earthenware nabe holds heat. So, you will want to be very careful not to burn your tongue. I sprinkle on shichimi (seven spice chili powder) and just let it sit for a bit. This allows it to cool and the shichimi flavor to be absorbed. Next use the small ‘torizara’ bowl to serve small portions that will cool down quicker.

Nabeyaki Udon: Served

Shichimi is in the bamboo container on the left. You just pull out the peg and sprinkle it on.

Nabeyaki Udon: Shichimi Added

Nabeyaki Udon: Shiitake, Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Egg and Udon

Nabeyaki Udon: Shrimp Tempura and Udon

Kakutani Interior

Kakutani Restaurant
One of the first restaurants, maybe the very first, that I discovered after moving to Kyoto for graduate school some years ago was Kakutani. Kakutani is a shinise restaurant that has been in business since the late 18oo’s and is on the south side of what is now Kyoto University. Kakutani’s soba is excellent, their dashi broth is great, but in the winter, when it is cold, there is nothing that I like better for lunch than nabeyaki udon and Kakutani’s simply cannot be topped.

Kakutani is a very friendly, family run restaurant. In the winter I only order their nabeyaki udon. I walk in the door and they smile and say, ‘nabeyaki?’ I’m like, ah, yeah, how’d ya guess? This time, I hadn’t been there for like three years because I moved, and I didn’t think that they would remember me. But, without fail they did. They even remembered what I would be ordering! Now that’s service!

Kakutani Showcase

Shinise style plastic food.

Kakutani Exterior

Kakutani is located in the Shogoin neighborhood. This is where Kyoto’s most well known wagashi and omiyage, Yatsuhashi comes from. In the neighborhood you can visit a number of Yatsuhashi shinise stores and try the countless variations of this simple confection that are offered.

For sightseeing, nearby is Heian Shrine, and on Yoshida ‘Mountain’ there is Kurodani Temple, Shinnyodo Temple and Yoshida Shrine.

English and Access
Kakutani 京都 かく谷老舗
English service: No English menu but you can see most dishes in the show case, just point to order. The owner/staff are all very friendly.
Website: www.kakutani-rouho.com (Japanese language only)
Hours: – (only open for lunch)
Location and Access: Kakutani is located just northwest of the Higashi-oji and Marutamachi intersection.
Address
: Kyoto-shi, Sakyo-ku, Shogoin, Sanno-cho 39 (京都市左京区聖護院山王町39)
Telephone: 075-771-2934

Map

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At Kichisen, they start shopping for ingredients for osechi in July. Most all shopping is done at the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market. After ordering seafood, Kichisen master Tanigawa heads over to the vegetable section to purchase the finest Kyo-yasai, or Kyoto vegetables for his Japanese New Year’s Osechi. On the way back to Kichisen, we stop in at a favorite ramen shop for breakfast and I get a lesson on how to eat ramen properly.

Master Chef’s Daily Routine
We continue our visit to the Kyoto Wholesale Food Market with Kichisen owner and master chef, Yoshimi Tanigawa. Part 1 is about morning prayers and selecting fish for osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Searching the Kyoto Vegetable Section

Kichisen Osechi: Kyoto Vegetable Section

Kichisen Osechi: Tanigawa Chats with Vegetable Vendor

In many shops, the kerosene stove is a popular destination for both staff and customers.

Kichisen Osechi:

Kichisen Osechi: Kuwai

Kichisen Osechi: Maru Daikon and Kintoki Ninjin Carrot

Kichisen Osechi: Saya Ingen

Kichisen Osechi: Ingen Mame

Kichisen Osechi: Mini Daikon

Kichisen Osechi:

Kichisen Osechi: Rape Blossoms, Nanohana

Kichisen Osechi: Red Turnip, Aka Kabura

Kichisen Osechi: Turnip, Kabura

Kichisen Osechi: Osechi Kyo-yasai, Ebi Imo

The nine boxes in the center ar filled with ebi-imo, literally ‘shrimp potato’.

Kichisen Osechi: ＠Young Bamboo Shoot, Waka Takenoko

Kichisen uses fresh, ‘winter bamboo shoots’ from Kyoto — we had never heard of these before.

Kichisen Osechi: Kyoto Fruit Section

Kichisen Osechi: Dried Persimmons, Hoshigaki

Dried persimmon are used in a New Year’s decoration called Kagami Mochi.

Kichisen Osechi: Kumquat, Kinkan

Candied kumquat are an important feature of osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Japanese Citrus, Yuzu

Kichisen’s osechi has candied yuzu peel in it, which we had never heard of.

Ramen Breakfast
We stopped in at a ramen shop near Kyoto Station for breakfast and there I realized that I had been eating ramen ‘the wrong way’ all these years. I always mix everything up before I start eating, but Tanigawa told me that the best way to enjoy the variety of ingredients is from the middle of the bowl, pull up the noodles with whatever ingredients happen to be on top. Interesting.

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

I asked if it was alright to take his photo eating ramen, thinking that it might be scandalous.

Kichisen Osechi: Ramen Breakfast

Back at Kichisen

Upon hearing the car horn while we passed by on the other side of the street, the students rush out and assemble to unload and clean the vehicle.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading

If you look down into the basement garage you can see the master’s punching bag and red Ferrari.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading and Accounting – Kumquats

These will go into osechi, they were ordered from southern Japan. The kumquats having the green leaves still attached is essential for osechi.

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading – Kyoto Ice

Kichisen Osechi: Unloading – Live Eels

These eels will be cooked for Tanigawa’s aging dogs.