Yoshimi Tanigawa is an inspired master of Kyoto cuisine who has dedicated his life to food as an art and near spiritual experience. He teaches his students both taste and discipline. He creates pure Kyoto cuisine, without the excessive decoration that has been added in recent decades. At Tanigawa’s Kichisen, in addition to one of the greats meals of a lifetime, patrons are able to get reacquainted with authentic Kyoto cuisine. Tanigawa’s cuisine is unsurpassed Kyoto Kaiseki that draws on the four genres of Kyoto Cuisine; Yusoku Ryori (court cuisine), Kaiseki Ryori (tea ceremony cuisine), Shojin Ryori (temple food) and Obanzai (household food). If you are going to be in Kyoto and you like fine dining, make a reservation at Kichisen.

Yoshimi Tanigawa
We been trying to we had been trying to interview him for about 6 months. We had exchanged telephone calls, faxes and had some 5 meetings but could never close the deal. Finally when I went to return a book that we had borrowed from him he suddenly said that we ought to do an article on his Osechi Ryori. This is it!

Over the past few weeks I have spent some time at Kichisen getting to know Tanigawa. He has given us radishes, new rice, squid and some invaluable pointers on how to make excellent tsukemono, shiokara and dashi. Though Kichisen was reviewed in the New York Times 20 years ago and defeated Masaharu Morimoto on the Iron Chef television program in 1999, it is a real honor to have to opportunity to tell the English speaking world a bit more about this remarkable, dedicated and inspiring person.

Ikamaryu Shikibocho (Court Knife Ceremony) Master

Humble Beginnings in Rural Hyogo
Tanigawa grew up in rural Hyogo Prefecture, near Kobe. He lost his father when he was 4 years old and this painful experience caused him think deeply about life and become interested in religion.

His mother was often in poor health and from the time he was 9, he cooked for his mother and older brother. While the young Tanigawa had meager resources to make a bento lunchbox with, he had pride and did not want he or his brother to appear poor at school. Over a weed fire, he experimented and perfected techniques adding water and flour to eggs, appearing to have an overflowing bento box, unmatched in the school lunchroom. Tanigawa’s ambition and inventiveness was starting to develop.

Change of Plans
Since junior high school Tanigawa had intended to become a primary school teacher. This was the time that socially and culturally Japan really began to change, he sensed that many people would loose their way and wanted to be a teacher so that he could lead children in the right direction and help them find their way.

Tanigawa set his mind on going to a certain high school known for producing excellent teacher but much to his dismay he wan unable to enter this school. It was the only school that he wanted to go to and as he was able, he decided not to go to high school at all.

Ikamaryu Shikibocho (Court Knife Ceremony) Master

Arrival in Kyoto, Entering the Culinary World
At age 15 Tanigawa arrived in Kyoto. His older brother was working at a sushi restaurant in the city and arranged work at an average restaurant for the younger Tanigawa. Tanigawa said that even at a young age he knew that he was ambitious and always had the desire master what he was learning. He worked his way up and in several years was working in one of Gion’s finest restaurants under renowned master chef Toraichi Takibata.

Learned from the Master: Sunao
While under Takibata’s instruction, Tanigawa mastered the other traditional arts related to cuisine; flower arrangement, the tea ceremony and calligraphy. Tanigawa said that from his master he learned the importance of integrity and straightforwardness towards his cuisine, the customer and himself. (素直な料理、素直な味、素直な人間)

The word he uses, sunao (素直), is difficult to translate literally into English in this case. Some of the applicable meanings in the dictionary are: gentle, mild, obedient, frank. Tanigawa’s cuisine and traditional Kyoto cuisine are sunao.

Ikamaryu Shikibocho (Court Knife Ceremony) Master

Kyoto Kaiseki Restaurant: Kichisen
At age 31, Tanigawa built is own restaurant on Shimogamo Hondori Street, on the south-west side of Shimogamo Shrine. Shimogamo Shrine is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is older than Kyoto.

Kichisen Gate

Kichisen Entry: Master Tanigawa and Kyosaku ‘Encouragement Stick’

Notice the inscribed wooden slat on the wall, it is inscribed by the high priest at Jukoin, a sub-temple at Daitoku Temple. The inscription is called zengo, literally, ‘Zen word’ is a poem. This poem was composed specifically for Kichisen. The ‘encouragement stick’ is used to lightly hit drowsy meditators on the shoulder during Zen meditation sessions. The kyosaku, also known as keisaku, shall we say sets the tone for Tanigawa’s students.

Zen Kyosaku – detail

Signature of Zen master.

Kichisen ‘Sign’

Modesty

Kichisen Interior

Alcove with Ikebana

Dining Room

Large Dining Room

Kichisen Neighborhood: Shimogamo Shrine

Kichisen Surroundings: Shimogamo Shrine Gate

Kichisen Surroundings: Shimogamo Shrine and Tadasu Forest

Links

Iron Chef – Battle Pike Eel (1 of 5)
Iron Chef – Battle Pike Eel (2 of 5)
Iron Chef – Battle Pike Eel (3 of 5)
Iron Chef – Battle Pike Eel (4 of 5)
Iron Chef – Battle Pike Eel (5 of 5)

Kyoto Ryokan: Kyoto Summer Hamo Cuisine at Gion Hatanaka – part 2 (鱧料理)

Hamo ryori is served! Hamo is served five different ways; sashimi, broth, sushi, tempura and grilled. While eating is essential to the ryokan experience, a ryokan is not a restaurant.

Everything in a ryokan is natural; the walls are earthen stucco, the floor is woven grass tatami mats, doors and screens are plain wood and paper, even the ceiling is wood. Artwork and flower arrangements are all seasonal and usually evoke the coming season.

The views outside are either into a well manicured garden that is a summary of the natural world, or in the case in a rural area, with a view focused on mountains, rivers, lakes, the sea and so on.

In this natural setting, the kaiseki meal is enjoyed. The meal itself is a work of art and has numerous references to nature, the seasons and even poetry.

Hatanaka Guest Room – Kaiseki Served with View of Garden

Before feasting our eyes on Hatanaka’s hamo kaiseki lunch, here is a bit about Japanese inns.

Ryokan (旅館)
Staying at a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan is, like much else in Japan, highly ritualized.

Upon arrival, guests are shown to their room and served tea and wagashi or senbei crackers usually with a small garden in view.

After relaxing a bit comes changing clothes. Guests change into more comfortable attire such as yukata, a light, cotton kimono, sometimes called a ‘summer kimono’. These are provided by the ryokan and usually have the ryokan‘s insignia or some local natural motif dyed on it.

Ofuro (お風呂)
Next comes a quick bath, or ofuro (お風呂). Ryokan are synonymous with not just eating, but also bathing and Japanese are bath aficionados.

Kaiseki Meal, Course After Course
Dinner is served in the room and is a procession of exquisite kaiseki courses that can easily last 2 hours!

After much eating and probably plenty of drink too, it is time for a long and relaxing soak in the bathtub.

An upscale ryokan will often have a private bath attached to each room. A large communal, segregated bath is usually the case with a more budget ryokan. Many ryokan offer both.

Hinokiburo (檜風呂)
Bathtubs are often made of hinoki (檜) wood, the Japanese cedar gives off a wonderful fragrance in the hot, steamy air of the bathroom. (note: Gion Hatanaka’s baths are made of koyamaki (高野槙) wood, which is said to be better than hinoki.)

When families stay together at a ryokan, it is not uncommon for the whole family to bath together.

Soap and shampoo is NEVER used in the bathtub. All washing is done before entering the bath, therefore the water can be used by several people. In Japanese homes water is sometimes used for several days and can be reheated every night with the push of a button. Also, bathing at night, rather than in the morning means cleaner bedding.

Onsen (温泉)
Many ryokan are located in mountain villages in onsen, or hot spring districts. Mineral rich boiling hot water naturally bubbles up from the ground in many of these areas. Japanese absolutely love onsen but Kyoto has no onsen. The water of Kyoto is still very good for bathing, never-the-less.

In an onsen village visitors often go out and walk around the village in their ryokan issued yukata after dinner and bathing in wooden clogs called geta (下駄). The unmistakable click-clack of wooden geta on the lanes can often be heard while finishing dinner. However, Kyoto is a large city and this is not usually done when staying at a Kyoto ryokan.

Hatanaka’s Ofuro and ‘Beauty’ Water
Hatanaka has both private baths attached to each room and a large communal bath. The water comes from deep underground and is the same water as Yasaka Shrine’s, called bijin-no-yu, literally ‘beautiful woman water’.

There is even a ‘bijin’ shrine inside Yasaka Shrine. This shrine is a popular destination for the maiko of Gion.

Hamo Kaiseki Lunch

Hatanaka’s Hamo Ryori Kaiseki

Tempura, sashimi and sushi ready to be served.

Hatanaka’s Hamo Ryori Kaiseki Served

The tables in the room is a traditional Japanese lacquer table. The black streaks are not painted on, they are a layer exposed from beneath the red that has been revealed by laborious polishing.

Hamo Otsukuri (Sashimi)

Of course, otsukuri (sashimi) is raw fish and hamo must be blanched, yet it is still called otsukuri and thought of as, served and eaten like sashimi. Notice that it is served on a bed of crushed ice with shiso leaf physically separating it from the ice. The other leaves and sea vegetables can be added to the shoyu prior to dipping the hamo.

Hamo Otsukuri and Dipping Sauces

On the left is a sauce made of umeboshi, pickled plum and on the right is shoyu.

Hamo Suimono (Soup)

The red spot on top of the hamo is also umeboshi paste.

Hamo Kyoto Vegetable Tempura

The long, golden brown piece of tempura is the eel spine, deep frying it makes it crunchy. It is called hone senbei, literally ‘bone cracker’. The hamo tempura is very white and under the hone senbei and red pepper.

Hamozushi (Hamo Sushi)

There are a lot of visual puns in traditional Japanese culture, here the sushi is served on a maple leaf shaped plate with a green maple leaf as decoration. Often, the coming season is hinted at, and of course, ‘maple’ means autumn in Japan.

Hatanaka Guest Room – Interior

Hatanaka Guest Room – View of Garden

Hatanaka Guest Room – Kaiseki Served with View of Garden

Very sorry: We did a video interview with chief chef Yoshihiko Yano while I sampled the dishes but the sound level turned out to be too low to use. Hopefully we can interview him again in the future.

English:
English website: yes
English speaking staff: yes
Location and Access: Located immediately south of Yasaka Shrine, about 3 minute walk from the intersection of Shijo Street and Higashi-oji Street in Gion.
Address: Kyoto-shi Higashiyama-ku Yasaka Jinja Minamimon Mae (京都市東山区祇園八坂神社南門前)
Telephone: 075-541-5315
Gion Hatanaka website
Map

View Larger Map

Disclosure: Paku was once employed by Gion Hatanaka Ryokan.

Hannari Brand Umeshu: The tastes of Kyoto are subtle and refined, this umeshu was designed to be hannari, or delicate. In addition to classic umeshu, there are four imaginatively ‘Kyoto’ flavored versions; cinnamon, yuzu, green tea and shiso.

As foodies well know, fine ingredients make for fine tastes. Kitagawa Honke produces its own rice shochu for its umeshu. The shochu, straight out of the still is 35.5% alcohol, shochu sold retail is 25%. As the ume extract and sugar will significantly lower the alcohol content of the finished umeshu, 35% is considered the minimum. The finished product will be about 15%. Lower alcohol content can allow fermentation and spoil the liqueur.

Kitagawa Honke Hannari Brand Umeshu

Hannari Umeshu (はんなり梅酒): Hannari umeshu is made with rice shochu that has been aged 2 years, then after steeping nearly ripe ume fruit for 9 months, the umeshu is aged for 1 year. This process produces umeshu that is complex in flavor and mellow.

Yatsuhashi Umeshu (八ッ橋梅酒): Yatsuhashi is a popular Kyoto omiyage (souvenir). It comes in a myriad of forms and flavorings, but it always includes sweetened mochi that has been flavored with cinnamon, which was a very unusual spice in Japan. This umeshu is flavored with cinnamon! We have never heard of this before. Wow, this is not only clever and imaginative, it tastes very good too!

Nigori Yuzu Umeshu (にごり柚子梅酒): Yuzu, the lemony Japanese citron we have talked a lot about on KyotoFoodie quite a bit last winter. Here the yuzu juice is nigori, or cloudy, unfiltered. (Unfiltered sake is called nigorizake.) Yuzu umeshu is fairly common and this is best rendition I have had of it. Very, very nice!

Uji Gyokuro Umeshu (宇治玉露梅酒): Now here is a masterpiece! Gyokuro is very high quality green tea which Uji, in the south of Kyoto produces. Gyokuro flavors the umeshu which is blended with umeshu made from sake, not shochu. The umeshu is a very gentle background taste with an unbelievably astringent gyokuro green tea flavor raging above it. I have had green tea umeshu before, it was sweet and juice-like. I was stunned when I first tried this umeshu. It is not unlike maccha! As an aperitif or digestif, this is sure to blow guests away! This is a DO NOT miss if you are in Kyoto.

Ohara Shiso Umeshu (大原紫蘇梅酒): In the North Mountains above Kyoto, the village of Ohara is famous for its production of shiso that is usually used in tsukemono, Japanese pickles. Ripe shiso, which is a reddish purple adds a delicious taste and vibrant color to this umeshu. At a recent party at my house, the gals finished a bottle of this umeshu in a flash. I guess this is one of those flavors that is especially popular with ladies.

‘Kiki’ in the Lab

Kiki – Shochu Tasting with Tashima Toji (Brewmaster)

Tashima Toji gave me two kinds of shochu to taste. One is fresh out of the still, this year’s production and the other is aged 3 years. The fresh stuff was pretty rough around the edges, but the aged shochu, though high-powered was drinkable straight at room temperature. The difference that aging makes was obvious to me.

Reference: Green Ume

These were in the lab, they are the typical unripe, green ume. These are from Joyo, a suburb south of Kyoto. I think that they are planning top secret 梅酒R&D with them. Green ume typically produce umeshu that it sweet, but not especially complex.

Over at Okinaya

Kitagawa Honke operates this small store on the main street, next to the river where their sake and good rice can be purchased. We introduced this store in this article about learning to make sake. (map and photos at the bottom of the post)

Ume and Umeshu Lineup

On the left is a bag of ume that was used to make umeshu. These make great snacks! In the middle, the jar contains a generous amount of ume and umeshu. The small jars on the right are about a single serving of umeshu and contain no fruit. These are all Hannari brand.

Ume in Umeshu

Ume in jar detail.

Hannari Umeshu

This is the classic, unflavored umeshu, available in 1.8 liter and 720ml bottles with no fruit.

Hannari Umeshu ‘Kyoto’ Flavors

From left to right; yatsuhashi (cinnamon), yuzu, gyokuro (green tea) and shiso.

The Series
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 1
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 2

Umeshu: Japanese plums, called ume (梅) are mainly used to flavor alcohol and vinegar and to make the incredible umeboshi, pickled plum. In early summer, it is popular to make ume flavored alcohol, called umeshu (梅酒) at home, but we were fortunate enough to get to learn from the pros this year.

Our friends and KyotoFoodie fans at Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery showed Peko how they make their one-of-a-kind, Hannari (はんなり) brand ‘Kyoto style’ umeshu.

Umeshu (梅酒)
To make umeshu, the ume fruit are steeped in shochu (焼酎) for 6-9 months. The shochu is quite strong, 35% alcohol, but the finished umeshu is usually less than 15%. The shochu draws out the ume extract, ume extract combined with the sugar halves the alcohol content. If steeped longer than 6-9 months, the shochu will start to leach out the bitterness of the ume pits. After removing the fruit, umeshu can then be consumed or aged.

Umeshu is not fermented, therefore it is NOT ‘plum wine’. It is a liqueur.

The steeped ume fruit can be eaten and are sweet and tasty, yet quite intoxicating. It is common at New Year’s and other family gathering occasions in Japan to see some children red-faced and buzzing thanks to Grandpa fishing a few ume out of the jar for them to eat.

Now there are many kinds of umeshu available, many combining novel ingredients but it is always sweet and plum fruity. In the winter umeshu is excellent served with hot water and in the summer on ice or with soda water.

Umeshu is often made of the green ume fruit, however Kitagawa Honke uses fruit that are slightly more ripe, being more yellow in color. This creates a mellower and more full-bodied, complex flavor. (More about Hannari brand umeshu in part 2, and the recipe in an upcoming homecooking article.)

Umeshu Production Process
The process for making umeshu is quite simple.

1. De-stem the ume fruit.
2. Check quality, remove any overly ripe or rotten fruit.
3. Wash
4. Place in container with sugar and alcohol (35% by volume).
5. Seal container and place in a cool, dark place for aging.

Ume Season
The ume is in the plum family, but it is actually more closely related to apricot than what Westerns would usually think of as a plum. In the Kyoto region ume blossom in later winter, usually February. If you are lucky, you can see ume blossoms in the snow! The fruit is mature by early summer and often used when green and unripe.

Wakayama Prefecture, to the south-east of Kyoto produces the best ume in Japan. Vitually any high quality ume product in Japan uses ume from Wakayama, or Kishu (紀州) as it was once called. Kitagawa Honke selects ume from Kinan (紀南), which is the southern most part of Wakayama. The warm, mild climate makes for excellent ume.

Sake is made during the cold months so the brewery is not so busy in the summer, however in mid-June, when the ume are in season there is a 10 day flurry of activity when umeshu is made. Early every morning several tons of ume arrive and the fruit are sorted and de-stemmed. In addition to the kurabito (brewery workers) crew, the warehouse crew and the employees that work in the office walk down the street to the brewery and help out. All of this work in finished in the morning. After lunch, the kurabito crew wash the ume and place them in tanks with shochu and sugar.

Shochu
In Japan there are numerous kinds of shochu. The most common shochu are distilled from sweet potato, barley or rice. Many other ingredients are used now; soba, black sugar (kokuto 黒糖), sesame — even milk!

Kitagawa Honke makes the shochu that is used in their umeshu, and as they are a sake brewery, they make it from rice. Rice shochu is fairly close to vodka in taste.

As I approached the brewery this morning, the fragrance of ume fruit was heavy in the neighborhood!

Making Umeshu at Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery

Crates of Nicely Ripened Ume

All Hands on Deck

70 Crates of Ume

Seventy crates of ume today to sort and de-stem.

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

Everyone in the company joins in, even the ‘suits’!

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

De-stemming Ume – Before and After

The stems are plucked out with a simple needle-like metal instrument.

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

The ume on the left are ‘B’ quality, they have some bruises and blemishes, the ume on the right are ‘A’ quality. When the umeshu is finished, the ‘A’ quality ume will be added to bottles or bagged and sold separately for eating. ‘B’ quality ume taste just fine. (see part 2)

Weighing Ume

The de-stemmed and sorted ume are carefully weighed in preparation to adding to the tanks.

Hues of Ume

From green to yellow, orange and even red, this variety of color produces a more complex flavored umeshu than the usual unripened green fruit. More precision and labor is required, but the quality of the end result is obvious.

Final Check

Two tanks, differing in size will be filled today. Brewmaster Tashima (left) oversees the final check of the recipe and crate count for each tank. The shochu and sugar has already been added.

Washing Ume

The ume absorb water which will affect the taste of the umeshu, so they have to be washed quickly, and of course, thoroughly. Kitagawa Honke uses rather ripe ume fruit, so they are easily bruised by the mechanical brushes in the washing machine. The ume are washed for just 35 seconds.

Washing Ume

As the ume spin on the cylindrical brushes, one of the crew hoses them with Fushimi water.

Washing Ume

After washing, the ume are returned to clean crates then allowed to drain but not quite dry for about 20 minutes. Excess water can cause the umeshu to spoil later.

Steeping Ume

The ume are lifted with the forklift then unceremoniously dumped into the tank.

Steeping Ume

Steeping Ume

I love this shot! And, I got splashed taking it!

Steeping Ume

The ume are all submerged in shochu and then the tank is covered. See you in the springtime, ume.

The Series
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 1
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 2

We were privileged to visit one of our favorite Kyoto restaurants, Honke Owariya that is among the oldest restaurants in the world, and learn how to make their incredibly delicious ‘dashi‘ broth for soba noodles. Having about 540 years of experience to draw upon is a fantastically delicious thing!

When I first sat down with the 15th generation owner and president of Honke Owariya, Denzaemon Inaoka to take about this article, I told him that we wanted to learn about Owariya’s wonderful soba, i.e. the noodles. He said that more than noodles, we needed to learn about dashi. And, the water of Kyoto.

Sound familiar? Kyoto water makes great dashi, sake and tea.

Honke Owariya, like a lot of other folks in Kyoto, is very, very particular about the water that they use. They won’t open a restaurant in Tokyo because the same dashi cannot be made with Tokyo water. When they opened their Shijo Teramachi branch which is in a department store, one of their terms was that they would drill their own well for water. In the new Shijo Kawaramachi branch (on the 7th floor of Takashimaya Department Store) a well could not be dug, so dashi is made every morning at the honten (main store) and laboriously transported over!

Making Dashi

Mr. Yoshida, the chori-cho (head chef), showed us how to make dashi the Honke Owariya way.

ingredients:

• water
• Rishiri Kombu (Rishiri Kombu is a high quality kelp from Hokkaido)
• 3 kinds of shaved fish flakes
• saba-bushi (dried mackerel flakes, さば節)
• urume-bushi (dried round herrings flakes, うるめ節)
• mejika-bushi (dried bullet tuna flakes, めぢか節)
• sugar
• shoyu

preparation:

1. Soak kombu in water overnight (if possible). Should be refrigerated.
2. Simmer kombu for 40-50 minutes at 70°C. (time varies depending on season and air temperature)
3. Remove kombu
4. Simmer shaved fish flakes for about 25 minutes. Do not boil and skim the foam (aku, 灰汁) that gathers on the surface.
5. Remove heat
6. Adequately strain the broth and return to pot.
7. Add sugar and shoyu

Simmer the Kombu – Start

Starting to heat the water.

Simmer the Kombu – Start

Simmer the Kombu – Checking Progress

After 40 minutes or so, Yoshida Chori-cho checks the softness of the kombu with his thumbnail. When it has softened to the right degree, it is done.

Simmer the Kombu – Remove the Kombu

When the kombu has softened and lent it’s wonderful taste to the dashi, it is removed.

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Add Fish Flakes

Adding the three kinds of shaved fish flakes.

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Aku-tori

Aku-tori (灰汁取り), literally take ‘foam/scum’. Immediately a heavy froth of aku appears and is removed.

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Aku-tori

Wooden paddles are uses to collect and scoop out the aku, which is pitched down the drain on the floor.

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Aku-tori

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Aku-tori

Simmer the Shaved Fish – Tasting

Yoshida Chori-cho samples the dashi.

Strain the Dashi

A bamboo strainer basket is placed atop and bucket and cotton cloth is laid over the basket.

Strain the Dashi – Pour

Pour the dashi out and through the strainer.

Strain the Dashi

Scoop all the ‘bushi‘ shaved fish flakes out.

Strain the Dashi – Shaved Fish Flakes Detail

Add the Sugar and Shoyu

Sugar has been added and dashi is poured back in, dissolving it.

Add the Sugar and Shoyu

After all the dashi has been return, the shoyu is poured in.

Add the Sugar and Shoyu

Yoshida Chori-cho checks the amount with a notched bamboo pole.

Add the Sugar and Shoyu – Tasting

A final tasting.

Add the Sugar and Shoyu – Final Aku-tori

The sugar produces a small amount of aku which is also removed.

‘Serve’

A large pot from the kitchen is washed out (I don’t think it was really dirty).

‘Serve’

And the finished dashi is poured out. This is then taken to the kitchen and broth is ladled out for Honke Owariya’s signature soba dishes.

Kyoto Water

Why is Kyoto water so great? We hope to examine this subject in detail in the future, just as soon as we can locate the appropriate expert to interview, but a simple explanation is as follows. Kyoto is in a basin, when it rains water is filtered down through the mountains. The aquifer flows under the city from north-east to south-west. Honke Owariya Honten (honten means main/original store/restaurant), and the Imperial Palace is located right in the center of this aquifer.

This aquifer holds a tremendous amount of water. The largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa, just over the East Mountains, contains only slightly more water than the aquifer flowing under Kyoto.

The natural filtering and mineral content causes the water to be balanced, not too hard, not too soft. This is an essential factor in the culinary culture of Kyoto.

The sakura zensen, or ‘Cherry Blossom Front’ is moving up Japan from south to north and is now passing through the center of the country where Kyoto is located. The delicate sakura blossoms don’t last long though, just a few days. It has already begun ‘raining’ cherry petals here and tomorrow ought to be a downpour.

The sakura is an important symbol for the samurai, and why so is a deep subject. Amid contemplating the sakura blooming, fading and disappearing on a momentary gust of wind, a foodie may ask, “ah, but what to eat?”

Sakura!

Sakura Noodles
Paku came home with sakura udon and sakura soba last night and we made the udon, which was fresh and delicate.

While it is still rather chilly in Kyoto, especially at dinner time we had hiyashi (冷やし), chilled udon. The sakura flavor of the noodles is very subtle and delicate so a light and simple tsuyu (dashi-shoyu based dipping sauce) is all that is needed.

We enjoyed this as ‘tsukemen‘, literally ‘dip’ ‘noodle’. A bit of grated ginger is added to the tsuyu and the noodles are dipped in it and slurped up. Very simple and delicious.

Fresh Sakura Udon and Sakura Soba

Paku got these at Meiji-ya on Sanjo Street. It will only be on the shelves for a very short time.

Fresh Sakura Udon

Fresh Sakura Udon — detail

Sakura Udon — Boiling

Notice the dark bits in the noodle. That is the sakura leaf. The leaf probably has more ‘sakura‘ flavor than the flower.

Sakura Hiyashi Udon (Tsukemen) Simply Served
Take a bit of grated ginger (left) and place it in the tsuyu (right), then dip the noodles and slurp! Tsuke = dip and men = noodles.

Buri-zanmai Series (Part 2): Winter is the time for buri, or yellowtail. The meat is laden with oil and rich flavor. Here we make a classic, Buri Daikon.

Buri-daikon is a much loved winter dish in Japan. It combines chopped yellowtail (buri) heads with daikon radish and ginger, slowly simmered in water, sugar, sake and shoyu. Simmering the buri heads produces an unbelievably gelatinous saucy dashi. Everything is covered in this delectable sauce and the chunks of slow simmered buri meat that is teased away from the bone is creamy soft and sweet and the daikon is impregnated through-and-through with buri-dashi.

About Buri-daikon
Actually, this dish isn’t gross. There is lots of meat in there and it is very tender and tasty. It is a lot of fun to make, serve and eat. This dish could be the life of a foodie dinner party. If you can obtain buri head and yuzu, definitely give this dish a try. This dish might change how you think about food.

Buri-no-ara (chunks of yellowtail head), like tai-no-ara (chunks of red snapper head) is popular among Japanese for simmering in sweetened sake-shoyu broth. We procure ours down at Nishiki Market. Hon-buri (wild yellowtail) is the real deal.

The density and rich taste of the gelatin produced from the fish heads is astounding.

This is a classic Japanese dish, a few seasonal and fresh ingredients are combined in a novel way producing a juxtaposition of flavors for not just the palette, but the eyes too. Even the mind!

You’ve got to try this dish!

Ingredients:

• buri (yellowtail) heads chopped into large chunks. About two heads, one head should yield 6 to 8 chunks. (Similar large fish head may be substituted. Salmon will work too. Consult your fish monger.)
• daikon radish (big one)
• shoga (ginger)
• sugar 3 tablespoons
• sake 1 cup
• mirin 3 tablespoons
• shoyu (soy sauce) 1/2 – 3/4 cup
• yuzu

＊As with all home cooking recipes here on KyotoFoodie, we trust that our readers are fellow foodies and will be able to ‘wing’ the recipe and even alter and improve it.

Preparation:
Buri: If you cannot obtain buri-no-ara you can easily chop the some yellowtail heads yourself, or better yet, ask your fish monger to do it for you. It does take a great, big knife! ＊BE CAREFUL!!＊

Scald: Take the chunks and give them a good rinsing down in a colander then pour on a large pot of boiled water. In Japan, where fish is usually extremely fresh, buri-no-ara sometimes isn’t quite as fresh, so this scalding washes away any yucky bits and fishiness.

Veggies: This is all going to be simmered for an hour or so, at least. So the daikon and ginger have to hold up to a lot of cooking, so chop the pieces accordingly. The ginger should be about 5mm thick and the daikon about 3cm.

Simmer: Places the scalded buri-no-ara chunks, daikon slices and chopped ginger in a large pot, cover with water and begin to heat. Bring to a brisk boil and after 15 minutes reduce to simmer and add sugar, mirin and sake.

Cover and gently simmer for about 45 minutes. If you have a otoshibuta (wooden cover/weight) as seen in the photo below, place that over the ingredients to keep them covered in the soup.

Add the shoyu. Shoyu varies in strength and thickness. Adjust amount accordingly and to your taste.

After adding shoyu, cook for approximately 15 minutes more. Test daikon to be sure that it is cooked thoroughly. This can be done by piercing with a chopstick or slicing open with a knife.

Again, you are all foodies, so cook according to your taste and judgment.

Note: ‘Modern vs. Traditional’
Peko says that Japanese cook vegetables ‘to death’ and thinks that in this recipe the center half of daikon chunks should be cook thoroughly, but not yet be impregnated with dashi. The outer half is well steeped in shoyu-based dashi (brown), yet the center is still ‘daikon‘ (white). Paku now says that she agrees that this is also really good, but she had to be convinced. Japanese love daikon to have completely absorbed the dashi stock, like a sponge. Daikon also releases it’s own juices that further flavor dashi. The more you cook, the more daikon flavor into the dashi. You decide and tell us what you think!

Serving: Another Dilema Cold or Hot?
Like any stewed dish, buri-daikon tastes even better the next day. You may want to make this dish the day before you are going to serve it.

Buri-daikon can be served cold or hot. At about room temperature though the dashi-sauce ‘melts’ loosing it’s wonderful gelatinous quality. Served hot or warm, the dashi is a wonderful soup. Served a bit cold, or just below room temperature, it is thick and jelly-like. We both like the thick gelatinous quality of the dashi-sauce, but if it is served too cold, the full flavor of the fish doesn’t come out. Kyoto houses are cold and we are on celicius here, but in the US probably about 55-60° F might be about right.
This recipe yields leftovers so you can surely try both.

When we have cooked this dish for guests, we prepare it the day before and let it sit in a unheated room in the house until about an hour or two before serving. Then, bring it into the kitchen to take the chill off. (Don’t set it on the stove though if you are cooking other dishes as the radiant heat may completely melt the dashi.)

Add the yuzu peel and serve (see photo below). Lemon zest is a fine substitute. Peko likes to add some yuzu peel to the broth AFTER it has cooled down and let it ‘stew’ with the ingredients then add some fresh peel to garnish when serving. Lemon peel is probably too bitter to add to the broth.

Enjoy!
Buri-no-ara (roughly chopped yellowtail heads)

Start with chopped yellowtail heads (buri-no-ara), we procure ours down at Nishiki Market. Hon-buri (wild yellowtail) is the real deal.

Step 1: Pour on Boiled Water

Pour boiled water over the buri-no-ara.

Step 1: Pour on Boiled Water

This step washes away the clots of blood and any other yucky stuff.

Step 2: Simmer

Place buri-no-ara in a large pot with water and add rough sliced ginger and hit the gas.

Step 2: Simmer

Peel and cut the daikon radish into large pieces.

Step 2: Simmer

After the buri has started to boil, reduce heat a bit and add the daikon radish.

Step 2: Simmer

After the daikon radish has begun to cook and soften-up add sugar.

Step 2: Simmer — The Wooden Cover Dilemma
Paku: “Need wooden cover to keep everything submerged in the broth.”
Peko: “Oh, come on! Just put the cover on the pot. It will cook down just fine. ”

Step 2: Simmer

Simmer 20 to 30 minutes. The water content of the daikon radish is drawn out and deepens and complexifies flavor for the broth.

Then, add the shoyu mixture (sorry, not photo from cooking process).

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

This is the gelatinous broth after cooling. It is jelly when cool.

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

If you can obtain yuzu, thinly slice the mildly flavored peel from the fruit.

＊Actually, this photo is bad reference. There is too much white pith remaining. Slice it in narrower strips and a bit thinner. Unlike lemon peel, yuzu peel is very mild. If well cooked, the full thickness of the peel is fine, however we like it sprinkled on after being removed from the heat, so it is about half cooked, so you might prefer more thinly sliced yuzu peel.

Step 3: Garnish and Serve

The dashi has melted in this picture due to the bright lights.

Step 4: Eat and Enjoy!

This is a dish probably most efficiently enjoyed with chopsticks (o-hashi). The tender bits of sweet buri meat are gently removed, bit-by-bit and enjoyed with well stewed chucks of daikon radish. The ginger chucks are well cooked and can be eaten too.

Step 4: Eat and Enjoy!

There is actually much more meat here than you might expect! And very tasty!

We didn’t eat the skin and did remove the eyes from the cooked buri before serving. Large fish eyes are highly nutritious and enjoyed by some, mostly older Japanese. Paku and Peko love Japanese food, and some of the more challenging dishes, but we think that we will never eat fish eyes.

The cartilage (even the lips) is melted away into the broth — hence the gelatin. Yum! Super yummy, actually!

What do you think, foodies? Gross?

Buri-zanmai Series (Part 3): Winter is the time for buri, or yellowtail. The meat is laden with oil and rich flavor. Here we make a quick and simple rice dish, Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi.

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi:
Donburi is a popular ‘rice bowl’ dish in Japan. Here we make a decidedly nouveau, winter-themed donburi. Just fresh buri sashimi, finely chopped shiso leaves, shoyu, wasabi and a squeeze of sudachi all on a bed of warm rice makes this a quick and healthy meal!

Ingredients:

• buri (yellowtail) sashimi
• shiso leaf (10-15 per serving)
• shoyu
• wasabi
• sudachi

＊As with all home cooking recipes here on KyotoFoodie, we trust that our readers are fellow foodies and will be able to ‘wing’ the recipe and even alter and improve it.

Rice: Cook as usual for white rice. For a serving of two, use about one and a half cups of rice. Try to use Japanese-style short grain rice, ‘California rice’ is just fine.

Add dried kombu or sake for additional flavor.

We like mugi-gohan for this dish too. Add half a cup of pressed oats (oshi-mugi) if you like.

Preparation:
Preparation for this dish is quite simple. While the rice is cooking, the other ingredients can easily be prepared.

Shiso: Wash the shiso leaves and chop finely.
Wasabi and Shoyu: Grind fresh wasabi root if available. If not, use preserved wasabi paste. Mix wasabi paste with shoyu.
Sudachi: If fresh sudachi is available, simply cut in half and remove seeds.

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl and allow to cool somewhat for 1 to 2 minutes. Place the chopped shiso atop the rice. On the bed of shiso, place the sliced buri sashimi. Spoon on about 2 tablespoons of wasabi-shoyu over to the sashimi. Next squeeze on half a sudachi. If not obtainable, lime or lemon is a fine substitute. Bottled sudachi juice is also fine.

Enjoy!

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi — Served

Buri Sashimi and Shiso Donburi — chopping Shiso

Ryuen specializes in a simple and elegant wagashi that combines a center of candied kuri (chestnut) embedded in koshian (sweet azuki bean paste) with a coating of sugar and kuzu (arrow root starch), some with the addition of sugary green tea powder (maccha).

Ryuen‘s wagashi is decidedly classical in look and feel, expressing the aesthetic of wabi-sabi and is popular with many of the Kyoto temples that are closely associated with the tea ceremony.

Ryuen is a shinise (an old and long-loved store) in Kyoto that is just down the street from the Imperial Palace (Gosho) and creates a series of wagashi that one could easily imagine as a purveyor to the imperial court for a millennium. (Actually, Ryuen’s history only spans some 60 odd years.)

Ryuen’s wagashi is considered by many to be to well express the ancient Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi, a beautiful and natural expression of imperfection. Wabi-sabi is of course deeply associated with the tea ceremony, as is wagashi. Ryuen’s wagashi is used by such temples as Ryoan-ji and Myoshin-ji.

Ryuen’s Meibutsu: Rakuseki
All of Ryuen’s wagashi are pressed into shape in wooden forms. This one of the classic wagashi. The basic shape and ingredients remain the same but various design motifs are available. Many are related to the seasons, flower blossoms and so on. Others are symbols adopted from ancient Chinese culture and also Kyoto’s architectural heritage.

The confections, especially the white one, with the azuki brown of interior showing through in a most irregular way, have a pronounced rough-hewn quality. This is wabi-sabi — in food. Looking at these confections in the showcase, one immediately realizes that no two are alike.

Raku (楽) Seki (石), literally means ‘happy stone’. The chinese character, raku ‘楽’ (‘樂’ is the classical way to write the character and the form that appears on rakuseki) can be seen on the top of the confection. And seki (stone) comes from the shape of the confection.

There are two varieties, sugar and maccha.

Meibutsu: Rakuseki

Meibutsu: Rakuseki

Here the interior is exposed. The candied chestnut is the yellowish center. Notice the thickness and granular quality of the green maccha rakuseki as compared to the white.

Ryuen Storefront

The white noren, or shop curtain has the shop name whiten in brush and ink. The art of the noren is another subject that an entire blog could easily be devoted to. Originality and beauty, right down to the quality and beauty of the fabric is fascinating.

Notice the flower arrangement (ikebana) in the window on the right.
Ikebana

Ikebana flower arrangements are ubiquitous to the ‘nice’ shops and restaurants of Kyoto. The wooden plaque on the right states the name of the ‘school’ of ikebana and the master’s name.

These flower arrangements change every few days and invariably express the season. Here are plum blossoms and the green leaves are nanohana (rape blossoms), a popular, attractive and tasty late winter and early spring green in Kyoto.

The Neighborhood: Sighting Spot

This is Shimo Goryo Shrine, right across the street from Ryuen. It is quite a delightful shrine and is no doubt the perfect place to sit down and enjoy some Ryuen rakuseki!

The Neighborhood: Shimo Goryo Shrine

Notice the pink plum tree.

The Neighborhood: Shimo Goryo Shrine

A plaque explaining the history of the shine. These are everywhere in this historic city, written in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean.

The Neighborhood: Shimo Goryo Shrine

Plum blossoms.

＊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!

＊Link Love: Are you a foodie blogger? Would you like a link from our Link Love page? Details right this way.

English:
English menu: none
English website: none | Japanese language website (nice photos)
Service/Staff: so-so
Price: 600 – 1,200 yen. (no sit down area, take-out only)
Location and Access: Ryuen is located on Teramachi Street just south of Marutamachi-dori (street), on the south-east corner of the Imperial Palace (Gosho) grounds.
Address: Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku Shimo Goryomae-cho 644-1
(京都市中京区下御霊前町644-1)
Telephone: 075-222-0500
Near Sightseeing Spot: Kyoto Gosho (Imperial Palace). Shimo-goryo Shrine, a small but delightful, and historically significant shrine across the street from Ryuen.
Map:

View Larger Map

Sentaro‘s kasutera (Castella sponge cake) is a real treat! It’s sophisticated in flavor, caramelly and very mochi-mochi (soft and chewy). Sentaro‘s manju, both soba (buckwheat) and wheat are excellent and unique.

Sentaro is a shinise (an old and long-loved store) in Kyoto that is a purveyor of fine wagashi (Japanese confections). The main store (honten) is located near Shijo-Kawaramachi on Teramachi Street.

About Sentaro
Sentaro, established in 1886 and maintains it’s own farm lands in the agriculturally rich area of Tamba (丹波). The Tamba region, in both current day Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures is well known throughout Japan for it’s black beans (kuro-mame 黒豆), chestnuts (kuri 栗), tamba-gyu (Tamba beef) and the incredibly priced matsutake (pine mushrooms). In the rich soils of Tamba Sentaro grows azuki beans, chestnuts, plums, shiso and so on. Plants that grow naturally on their property, cherry blossoms, yomogi and kinome are collected at various times of the year. The bounty of Tamba is used to make some of Sentaro’s signature wagashi.

Sentaro’s wagashi has a decided natural look to it, nearly everything in the showcase is shades of brown with occasional punctuations of green (yomogi) and pink (salted plum blossoms). Sentaro has a strict policy of not using any preservatives, artificial colors, or even much sugar.

Sentato’s Meibutsu: Manju and Kasutera
Here we review Sentaro’s popular kasutera and two kinds of manju. In Japanese, these are called meibutsu (famous, well-known, noted product or dish). Meibutsu is another important term to know, many of the great restaurants and shops in Kyoto (and Japan) have one or more meibutsu. Discovering the local meibutsu is always a good deal of fun and adventure!

Manju (饅頭)
Manju is an ubiquitous confection in Japan that was originally brought over from China and has been adapted and enjoyed by Japanese for some 700 years now. There are countless renditions, but it is an azuki bean paste filling with a flour (rice, wheat, soba, etc) shell.

Meibutsu: Soba Manju

Whole, roasted soba kernels cover the top of this manju.

Meibutsu: Wheat Manju

This manju is made of wheat flour and has two yaki-in (brand) on the top.

Filling: Soba and Wheat Manju

Notice the difference in filling. The soba manju (left) is filled with red azuki bean paste. The wheat manju (right) has a white azuki bean filling. Often, azuki is extremely sweet — too sweet. Sentaro’s is it not too sweet though, just right. Also, these manju are rather dry and even a little crumbly. Quite nice!

Filling: Soba and Wheat Manju – detail

A beautiful (and tasty) contrast!

Kasutera (カステラ)

Kasutera is another ‘Western’ food in Japan. It is based on the sponge cake that came over with Portuguese merchants and missionaries in the 1500′s. This is another much loved wagashi that has countless renditions and over the centuries has been adapted and refined to Japanese tastes.

Sentaro’s kasutera seems to have a bit of a cult following in Kyoto. Properly, it is known as “kome kara kasutera” (kasutera from rice) as it is made of rice flour.

The sugar quality and content and baking method of Sentaro’s kasutera produces a particularly delicate and caramelly kasutera.

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Opening the Packaging
Packaging and wrapping is very important part of Japanese culture and this package is quite wonderful and beautiful! A delight to open and discover. (米からカステラ: kome kara kasutera)

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Opening and Unwrapping

The top of the kasutera is gorgeous, moist and soft.

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Cutting into Slices
This kasutera is not pre-sliced. As this kasutera is extremely soft and mochi-mochi, the blade of the knife has to be wet well before cutting. It is a little tricky, so it does come with illustrated slicing instructions!

Meibutsu: Rice Flour Kasutera (Castella) – Served

Notice the caramelly top and bottom. The bottom is syrupy and gooey, but this layer is only about 2 millimeters thick. Sublime!

Sentaro Honten (Sentaro Main Store)
Located just down from Shijo-dori (street) in the bustling Shijo-Kawaramachi area in one of the two downtowns of Kyoto, Sentaro Honten is very accessible. (This is not a picturesque area of Kyoto.)

Sentaro Storefront

Sentaro Honten occupies a modern building on Teramachi Street south of Shijo where there are many stores that sell Japanese electronics, some have duty free sections.

Sentaro Storefront – Seasonal Wagashi Postings

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Various meibutsu manju

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Kasutera in at the back. Other meibutsu center-left.

Sentaro Store – Wagashi Showcase

Fresh, seasonal mochi.

＊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!

＊Link Love: Are you a foodie blogger? Would you like a link from our Link Love page? Details right this way.

English:
English menu: none
English website: none | Japanese language website (nice photos)
Service/Staff: So-so
Price: 500 – 1,000 yen. (no sit down area, take-out only)
Location and Access: Sentaro Honten (main store) is located on Teramachi Street about a 2 minute walk south from Shijo Street.
Address: 604-8032 Kyoto-shi Shimogyo-ku Teramachi-dori Bukkou-ji agaru Nakanomachi 576
(京都市下京区寺町通り仏光寺上る中之町576)
Telephone: 075-344-0700
Near Sightseeing Spot: Sentaro Honten is located in the center of Kyoto near Shijo Kawaramachi. This area has several department stores. It is the main shopping area of Kyoto. Shijo Karasuma is about a 10 minute walk.
Map:

View Larger Map

Fushimi, Kyoto still has some beautiful places and offers a glimpse into what Fushimi must have been like before industrialization. I took my camera around the neighborhood and visited Okinaya, a small shop run by Kitagawa Honke. Okinaya sells Kitagawa’s Tomio brand sake as well as very nice rice and some other interesting goodies.

This is part 5 of our sake series.

Fushimi, Kyoto an Historic Town

Remember, Fushimi is synonymous with sake and water. Water for transportation of goods (rivers) and for making great sake (groundwater). Fushimi is also a beautiful and historic town. Many of the largest breweries still have beautiful, historic buildings. Fushimi is a great place to spend a day exploring, taking in scenes of old Japan and trying sake.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

This brewery is the postcard image from Fushimi. The contrast of the traditional Japanese brewery architecture with the red brick (Western) smokestack and boiler room is quite compelling and speaks to it’s era, a time when Japan adopted necessary Western technology but retained it’s own character. This is on a riverbank so in the spring it is covered in verdant nanohana with yellow flowers.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Sign and entrance. Matsumoto Sake Brewery’s two famous brands are shown on the bottom of the sign, Hi-no-dezakari (日出盛) and Momo-no-shizuku (桃の滴).
Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the riverbank. The old brewery can still be seen.

Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the roof.

Traditional Japanese House

This house is beautifully maintained. The taller part on the right is the kura, or storehouse for the family treasures. Kyoto houses are made of wood — and burn. The kura have very thick earthen walls to withstand fire.

Old and New

A Japanese house with a bad neighbor. Japanese have yet to modernize their cities like Kyoto and retain harmony with the past.

Late Winter in Fushimi

This beautiful old house celebrates the approach of spring with flowers.

Late Winter in Fushimi

The pink blossoms are probably plum or peach.

Late Winter in Fushimi

These are probably Japanese quince and daffodils.

Late Winter in Fushimi

Camellia

Okinaya (おきな屋): Sake, Shochu, Rice and Other Goodies

Okinaya sells Kitagawa Honke Tomio brand sake, Hannari brand shochu and umeshu and some new and interesting creations. There is habanero shochu, shoyu and hard candies. Japanese food is not spicy hot but recently habanero peppers are being grown in one of the agricultural districts of Kyoto prefecture. Kitagawa Honke teamed up with some of the farmers out there to make these three products. One my favorite winter delicacies is sake kasu, this is the lees leftover after pressing. Sake kasu is used for all kinds of things; from soup stock to marinade for grilled fish to flavorings for wagashi. It is also enjoyed as amazake (甘酒), or sweet sake. Sake kasu is dissolved in hot water and grated ginger is added. It has little alcohol content and even children drink it at New Year’s.

Sake breweries ought to know all about rice, so this the place to get some great rice. Purchasing is quite fun because there are 8 wooden barrels full of brown rice. The customer selects the rice (by breed and region) and specifies the amount to be purchased. The clerk weighs out the rice and then mills it, making it white rice! Now that is fresh!

Many of Kitagawa Honke’s sake can be sampled at Okinaya.

Neighborhood Sign

Several of these handwritten signs on the walls and fences of the brewery tell the neighborhood about the latest sake available at Okinaya.

Okinaya Storefront

The storefront, facing Otesuji-dori Street.

Okinaya and the River

Okinaya and the river

Sake Kasu

A shot from the production process.

Okinaya Interior

In the foreground are the wooden barrels with brown rice. In the background sake and shochu can be seen.

Okinaya Rice Milling Machine

This is where the rice is milled.

Okinaya Rice Packaging

After the rice is milled it is packaged.

English:
English website: none
Service/Staff: friendly (no English)
Location and Access: Okinaya can be accessed from the Keihan Railway Keihan Honsen Line which is about 10 minutes from the center of Kyoto (Sanjo/Shijo). Just get off at Fushimi Momoyama Station and walk west through the shopping arcade. Walk a for more minutes after exiting the shopping arcade. Okinaya will be on the left side, if you cross the river, you have gone too far.
Address: 612-8369 Kyoto-shi Fushimi-ku Murakami-cho 370-6 (京都市伏見区村上町370-6)
Telephone: 075-601-0783
Near Sightseeing Spot: Fushimi Inari Shrine, Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Jyukkokubune/Sanjukkokubune (boat tours of Fushimi canals).
Map:

View Larger Map

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5

Buri-zanmai Series (Part 1): Winter is the time for buri, or yellowtail. The meat is laden with oil and rich flavor. Here we make Buri Kama Shioyaki.

Buri Kama Shioyaki:
Kama is the ‘collar’ of a fish, the area between the gill cover and the pectoral fin. This area and the head of the fish is said to have the most succulent meat, but it is difficult to remove. So in Japan, the kama of larger fish is grilled or simmered and the meat is gently teased out with chopsticks.

Preparation:
Preparation is simple. You just need some fish collars and salt.

Rub the buri with course salt and grill or broil. This can be done on a Western style charcoal or gas barbecue. This kama, as it is usually thick needs to cook thoroughly, so avoid too high a flame from the start.

In our Japanese gas range fish grill, this took about 15 minutes to cook. Paku says to start on the skin side of the kama. Don’t worry about burning the skin. The skin is not eaten and it will protect the meat from burning.

As the kama cooks, some of the salt will be lost to oil dripping off the fish. When you turn the fish over, you might want to add more salt to the ‘meat side’. Have a look and use your own judgment.

This is an easy dish to cook and if the kama is large enough, it can probably be eaten easily with a fork and knife as well.

I have heard the salmon collars can sometimes be had for free at a fish market or supermarket in the U.S. Try asking for the collar of any large fish that might be available, salmon, tuna, etc.

Try this dish for a dinner party, it will surely wow everybody!

Salted Kama and Other Parts

On the left is the mouth and on the right is the kama. The curved section is the gill area. The meat of the kama is the bottom side of the fish, the belly. The belly of the tuna is where the best toro is. It’s fatty, just like where bacon comes from on a pig!

Kama Shioyaki

On the left is the kama, skin side down.

Kama Shioyaki and Yuzu

A squeeze of yuzu or lemon goes well with any shioyaki, especially buri. Notice the color of the kama, the golden brown is not teriyaki or some other kind of sauce, but the natural color of well-grilled buri.

Kama Shioyaki – That’s a lot of meat in there!

Actually, there is a lot more meat in the kama than may appear to the eye. These few bits of bone and skin is all that is left.

Have you eaten fish collars? If so, where? How was it cooked? What kind of fish?