Botan Nabe

I have been meaning to introduce this restaurant and this special dish to winter visitors to Kyoto for some time, but was lacking the photographs to do this beautiful and delicious cuisine justice. The other day, however, Kyoto photographer, Kosuke Okuda and I went to Hatakaku and enjoyed a hearty, Kyoto-style feast and brought back some great images.

Botan Nabe - The Peony Flower

Botan Nabe Cooking in White Miso Claypot

While wild boar meat was eaten by people in rural areas, this ‘backwoods’ food simply couldn’t be accepted by the refined and elegant Kyotoites. Wild meat such as boar, venison, bear and so on was originally eaten in a very primitive ‘suki-yaki’, named after the metal shovel or spade it was cooked on. The founder of Hatakaku lived in Kumogahata, in the mountains above Kyoto where the imperial hunting grounds were located. Employing his knowledge of local customs and the standards of the ancient capital, he decided to bring this nutritious and flavorful meat to Kyoto and serve it in style.

The fatty meat of the wild boar would be sliced thinly and arranged to create a visually compelling and elegant flower. Now this might bring in some sophisticated customers! Next, he used Kyoto’s famed ‘Saikyo’ white miso and dashi stock for the soup. Three generations later, Hatakaku is still a popular culinary destination in Kyoto. Many restaurants around Japan serve botan nabe, but only Hatakaku can say they are ‘ganso’, or the originator of this cuisine.

Botan Nabe - The 'Fat' Flower

Hatakaku is steeped in tradition, and each private room is uniquely furnished. Perhaps the most delightful part of the experience is sitting at the irori, or traditional Japanese hearth, which is recessed into the tatami mat floor in the center of the room. The clay pot nabe is propped up on iron spikes on a bed of rice straw ash and traditional ‘kunagi’ sawtooth oak charcoal, the same used to boil the water for the Japanese tea ceremony. The orange glow and warmth radiating from the charcoal creates a delightful rustic feel, while the ancient capital aesthetic is expressed in the presentation of ingredients, the subtleness of the soup, the flavor of which develops and deepens as the ingredients simmer.

Hatakaku Private Dining Room Interior with Irori

Hatakaku Charcoal in Woven Bamboo Basket

Hatakaku Third Generation Proprietor Shinzo-san

Finally, diners are offered the final course: rice. Rice can be added to the remaining broth and cooked down into zosui rice soup in the nabe pot — a Japanese favorite. The proprietor, Shinzo-san decided that we both preferred the other option: to simply pour the thickened botan nabe soup over the rice instead.

If you are in Kyoto during the winter months, sampling this marvelous dish is a must! Botan Nabe at Hatakaku will cost about 10,000 yen per person, which is about average for fine dining in Kyoto.

See Wild Boar Botan Nabe Stew Specialty Restaurants and Butchers in Kyoto topic at Kyoto Support Forum for more about Botan Nabe in Kyoto.

photography: Kosuke Okuda

＊Note: Botan Nabe is a winter delicacy and is only served at Hatakaku from mid-November to mid-March. Seasonal kaiseki cuisine is served during the rest of the year.

Hatakaku in English
English Menu: no (but there is really no menu, only one dish served)
English Website: none
Reservation: Ask your hotel concierge or Japanese friend to make a reservation for you if you don’t speak Japanese.
Service: friendly
Hours: 12noon – 9:30pm (Closed Mondays)
Address: Kyoto-shi, Kamigyo-ku, Goryomae Karasuma-dori, Nishi-iru, Uchikamae-cho 430 (京都市上京区御霊前通鳥丸西入内構町430)
Telephone: 075-441-0610

Map

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

I don’t think that Lil was known on Facebook or in the blogosphere, so I want to mention her here today. (Her occupation was that of a typist, she worked long before word processors and computers became commonplace in the office.)

Lil was my maternal grandmother and she died suddenly this morning at the ripe old age of 95. The last time I saw her, in the middle of the cold Minnesota winter, she was still going for a walk everyday. Wow, now that is healthy!

Delmonico's Italian Foods

She must be one of the last Italian Americans of her generation. She made wicked good homemade ravioli, which she taught my father and I to make last time I was back home. My mother and father divorced when I was about 5 years old and my father and Lil still kept in contact over the years. I will never forget the smiles and the sparkle in their eyes when they reunited. Lil was pretty crazy about my father. Once when I was staying at her house in San Jose, before she moved back to Minnesota, she told me that she liked my father more than her own children. Now that is a ringing endorsement!

When I was a kid, my father used to tell me stories about when he was dating my mother. He would go to her house in North Minneapolis most Sundays for Italian dinner and feast on Lil’s pasta, lasagna, ravioli and so on. He said that Diamond Lil, as he always called her, would keep serving you food until you were down for the count, literally. Of course you could and would decline more, but she would just nod sympathetically while dishing up your third or fourth serving. I experienced this too. My father told me that he would sometimes just end up laying down on the floor behind his chair at the dinner table when he could no longer keep himself vertical. As a little boy, I vaguely remember a few frames from a few of these feasts.

When I became a teenager, I began to realize that while Lil’s Italian food was great, it wasn’t completely authentic Italian, and it wasn’t so refined. (Yes, I was already into authenticity and on my way to becoming a refinement hound. I guess that is why I ended up in Kyoto.) But, there is a difference between Italy and Italian America.

But, did you know that Italy can (probably) thank America for pasta carbonara?

I can’t recall Lil ever cooking anything that wasn’t red — like red meat sauce — loaded with spicy Italian sausage. The sausage would have come from Delmonico’s Italian Foods in North Minneapolis – the Italian ghetto of Minnesota when she lived there. In fact, the little Italian grocery that is now Delmonico’s was started by her father, my great-grandfather.

After some reflection today, it dawned on me that I owe grandma Lil more recognition as her hearty home cooked cuisine was the first ‘real’ food I had experienced. The kind that is not so common in American households these days. Even my mother, who can really cook, pretty much just makes ‘quick and convenient’ food now.

But there was one dish Lil made that was so good it caused family feuds: marinated roasted red bell peppers. And, oh my goodness were these sublime!! Grandma Lil lived in San Jose and her sons and daughters lived in Minnesota. One sibling would go out to Cali to see her and come back to Minnie with a few quart Mason jars of her marinated peppers. They were under strict orders to pass them out to the other siblings. However, when I was a kid, I recall stories, overheard phone calls and direct accusations of holding out or maybe feigned forgetfulness and just plain old paranoia about not being given one’s due with regard to these marinated roast peppers.

Lil would get bushels and bushels of ripe red bell peppers and spend days roasting them over charcoal. Then, they would go into bags to steam in their own heat. Once handleable, their skin burned black would be meticulously pulled off. Next they would be sliced and cooked in olive oil with maybe a little bit of spice and then canned in Mason jars.

When I was a kid, I never understood what all the fuss over them was. Once I grew up, I did. So much that I asked Lil for her recipe — which didn’t exist. (I understand that now too.)

Once, back at home from college one weekend, I decided to give them a try one night after searching the fridge for a snack. I had bread that gloriously thick and heavy sourdough bread from the French Meadow Bakery on Nicollet Avenue in South Minneapolis. I doubt I was eating real butter then, so it was probably I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter (what a perfectly horrible product name for a perfectly horrible product!!). I slathered it on thick, laid on the pungent, oily burgundy colored roast bell peppers and Oh My God!! It was an epiphany!! I was in love. Worth feuding for!

The next autumn I went to the farmers market in Minneapolis and purchased 8 bushels of red bell peppers from a Vietnamese immigrant farmer. I spent all of a Saturday grilling peppers over charcoal in front of my apartment near MCAD and all of Sunday canning the peppers. Mine tasted pretty ok, I guess. But, somehow they didn’t look so good. That was the last time I made them as they last a long time and I moved to Kyoto a few years later.

Someday, I promise myself that I am going to make the best dang marinated roasted red bell peppers in the whole wide world. Gonna be epic and dedicated to Lillian Minerva. Thanks grandma!

Delmonico's Italian Foods

Delmonico's Italian Foods

image credit note: I did not take the photos used in this article. I found them on Google+ and was unable to figure out who the copyright owner is. I would really appreciate being able to use these photos here. As I am on the other side of the planet, I am unable to pop over to Delmonico’s and take some photos myself.

Shibugaki Persimmons with Stems

Best of all, making hoshigaki is really easy, and it is fun. Gather some friends or family and make a big bunch of them and give some out to people for year end presents!

Any kind of persimmon can be used but the two most popular, I think, are the hachiya and shibu varieties.

The Fruit
When harvesting or purchasing persimmons for drying, the ones with a bit of the branch and stem still attached will make it easiest to securely attach the string. However, wooden skewers and so on can be improvised.

The fruit must be peeled, so you will want to select fruit that is firm and underripe enough to peel easily and handle easily.

Shibugaki Persimmons with Stems - detail

Peeling
Some people use a knife to peel, but I just use a general fruit and vegetable peeler — like you would use to peel a carrot. If you are doing a large batch of hoshigaki, you might want to have several different peelers on hand. I have found that new, very sharp ones are not as efficient to use as an older, somewhat dull one. A brand new sharp peeler seems to cut too deep the flesh.

I start at the top of the persimmon and go around it a few times, being careful not to hit and weaken the attached stem which needs to remain firmly in place during the drying process. Next, I peel the remainder vertically, from top to bottom.

The peels can be saved and dried and used to flavor tsukemono, if you make your own. Tsukemono is very easy to make with local vegetables and is healthy and tasty.

Peeling the Shibugaki Persimmons

After peeling, some people say to use hot water or distilled alcohol to sterilize the surface of the peeled fruit. I have done this by dunking them in a pot of hot water or a pot of shochu. I doubt this really sterilizes the fruit, and, once it is hung outside, it is going to be in contact with no shortage of germs, not to mention the odd crow, weasel, house cat and so on. I usually neglect the sterilized step and have not experienced any negative result. If it is your first time to make hoshigaki, to be on the safe side, maybe not skip this step. If you can’t get shochu, just use some cheap vodka or similar spirit.

"Sterilization" - A Quick Dunk in Hot Water

Stringing and Hanging
I prefer a thick, cotton string to string them up with. As the fruit hangs, one side will usually be in strong contact with the string, if the string is thin, it will cut into the fruit as it hangs. (To a certain degree, this is unavoidable.) Also, each string of persimmons will be quite heavy and as you move and hang the strings, your hands will appreciate a thicker string as it won’t cut into them.

Cut the string into about 1 meter lengths and tie off the two ends so they don’t fray. The number of fruit to attach to a string will depend on the persimmon’s size. As I have only made hoshigaki in Japan, I go with the local lucky number seven. I don’t tie knots around each stem, but just wrap the string around several times, as it will be easier to remove when done drying. Knots of course will make handling and moving the strings of fruit easier. However, I find it unnecessary.

Strung Shibugaki Persimmons Ready for Hanging (Note the thickness of the string)

Hang the strings of persimmons under the eave of a roof or some other place where they will get plenty of sun and breeze but be protected from rain.

Carefully hang the strings of persimmons and let Mother Nature take care of the magic that will transform them from inedible mouth puckering stringent horror to and angelic caramelly fruit delight.

Hanging Persimmons

Hanging Persimmons

Hanging Persimmons - Note How the String Cuts Into the Flesh (This string is too thin.)

Drying
After about a week, the persimmons will start to shrivel and the surface will begin to wrinkle. Every few days, you can gently kneed them. This will make them extra creamy and gooey inside. I have not always done this and I think the difference is noticeable. So, you shouldn’t skip this one.

As the fruit dries, a white substance will start to appear on the surface. That is sugar. Of course, rain will wash it right off and that would be a tragedy.

How long to dry depends on the size of the fruit and the environmental conditions. Three to 6 weeks is the average time span, I think. See the photos at the end of the post — that is the goal. (I will get some better photos of hoshigaki up as soon as this batch are done. The photos here are a little over-dried, I think.)

Hanging Hoshigaki - Can Be Done Indoors if Need Be (Outdoors is best though)

The Final Product - These are maybe over-dried. (Note the absence of sugar on the surface due to rain contact.)

The Final Product - Gooey Inside - A Gooey Caramelly Delight

I like to have my hoshigaki done before New Year’s so I can give them as presents to friends.

A final step that I am not going to cover here is to let the dried persimmons rest in rice straw for several days. I have done this twice and failed once because I left them in the straw too long and they got moldy.

The rice straw introduces microorganisms that, as I understand it, further reduce the water content and increase the volume of sugar and whiteness of the surface. I need to learn more about this, but the step is not essential, I think.

One thing though, if you can give friends or family a gift of homemade dried persimmons lovingly nested in freshly harvested rice straw, I guarantee they are going to be 100% blown away!!

How to eat hoshigaki?
When Japanese eat fruit such as apples and peaches, they always carefully peel and cut them into sections — eating a whole apple and just leaving the core is the domain of ‘dirty old men’ (as I have been instructed). As far as I can see, when Japanese eat hoshigaki, they just eat them as is. There are some wagashi confections that are a hoshigaki hollowed out and filled with various wagashi concoctions. These are a wonderful winter treat and usually fairly expensive.

Hoshigaki are one of my all time favorite things in the world to eat – in my mind they are tied with Medjool dates as the best dried fruit. Perhaps the flavors are more complex than dates. Making them and observing the drying process is a lot of fun too.

Shiozakura Dashi Taki Soba Gohan Kumiage Yuba Donburi: Now that is a mouthful! So, what exactly is it? In short, it is a rice dish topped with condensed soy milk and finished with soy sauce and wasabi. This dish is healthy and creamy yummy, it can easily be made vegan.

Shiozakura and Soba Gohan - Ready to Cook

Soba Gohan: Japanese short grain rice with fresh buckwheat soba kernels. I love how Japanese add a little of another grain to their white and, or brown rice to make it more nutritious and flavorful. Perhaps the most popular is mugi gohan, ‘mugi’ is oats that have been pressed or rolled to facilitate cooking and ‘gohan’ is rice. Soba gohan is much less common but a more rare and complex taste. The whole, unroasted soba kernels give an earthy but slightly astringent, perhaps even Chinese mediciney taste to the rice.

Shiozakura Dashi Taki: Dashi broth, rich in umami. I have added the novel ingredient of cherry blossoms that have been preserved in salt. This is called shiozakura or sakura no shiozuke, in Japanese. It most commonly appears in sakura mochi. Shiozakura is very perfumey, so it is a subtle contrast to the soba. Taku (taki), is the Japanese verb for, to cook or boil rice. Dashi broth is an absolute essential element of Kyoto cuisine. Some Kyoto chefs cook their rice in broth instead of water, this makes for a very luxurious bowl of rice. Kyoto-style sushi that has been made with dashi cooked rice is sublime.

Kumiage Yuba: Yuba is made by simmering a large vat of soy milk, called tonyu in Japanese. As water evaporates, every minute or so, a skin, or film develops on the surface of the tonyu which is carefully lifted off. This is yuba and it can be dried or eaten as is, fresh. If fresh, it is kumiage yuba. If you like the taste of rich tofu and soy milk, you would surely love fresh yuba! Yuba is still mainly made and eaten in Kyoto. As the head temples of the Japanese Buddhist sects are located in Kyoto and priests of centuries past adhered to the teachings of Buddhism (they don’t now), Kyoto culinary culture developed a lot of vegetarian cuisine to feed priests and monks. Yuba, and tofu, are among the ‘temple foods‘ of Japan.

Kumiage yuba donburi is usually finished with wasabi and soy sauce. To accompany the fresh grated wasabi, I used a heavy soy sauce from Sawai Shoyu Honten in which I steeped fresh peach flesh in for about one month. This ‘momo shoyu’ makes for some insanely great kakushi aji. The fragrance is especially fruity, more like honey than peach, actually! This is a favorite of mine for sashimi and yuba donburi. I have also made it with strawberry, which was also really good. I have served this to quite a few Japanese friends who thought that the idea sounded positively weird but the taste was positively great and not at all unnatural.

Donburi: Donburi is a simple Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice with some kind of flavorful topping. Perhaps the most common is oyako donburi. Oyako means ‘parent and child’. The topping for this donburi is made with chicken meat and egg, flavored with soy sauce, sugar and scallions.

 Kumiage yuba and wasabi-shoyu makes for a rich and creamy, but healthy meal. This dish can easily be made vegan by swapping shaved fish for dried shiitake mushrooms in the dashi.

In Japanese, I call this dish, 桜の塩漬け出汁炊きそばご飯汲み上げ湯葉丼. Long names always taste best!

Shiozakura and Soba Packages

Shiozakura and Soba Kernels

Cooked! - Soba gohan Cooked in shiozakura and dashi broth

Chopped Baby Chives and Mint

Chopped Baby Chives and Mint Gently Mixed In

Soba Gohan Rice

Soba Gohan Rice with Kumiage Yuba

Soba Gohan Rice with Kumiage Yuba and Fresh Wasabi

Soba Gohan Rice with Kumiage Yuba Served with Furosen Sake - A Perfect Combination!

How Did it Taste?
I thought that I might have gone a little overboard on the kakushi aji but, I liked the final result. I did only use two young mint leaves and chopped them very finely. You could go overboard on mint in this dish very easily, so, just a little will be plenty. Mint and wasabi are a very interesting pairing.

 Despite all the kakushi aji, rice, yuba and wasabi-shoyu are still the prominent flavors. The other flavors are still at the hidden taste level. So, if you don’t know they are there, you might not notice them. If you know they are there, you might be able to pick them out.


How to Make It

This is basically the combination of two recipes that have appeared on KyotoFoodie previously: soba gohan and yuba donburi. However, this dish has the addition of several kakushi aji hidden flavors: mint, sakura and peach. You can skip these or adapt to what you have available. I think the idea of kakushi aji is quite interesting and we should all try to incorporate it our own way into our cuisine with locally available ingredients.

Update: What happened to KyotoFoodie?
I have been concentrating on my consulting work which I am enjoying a whole lot. Originally, I am an architect and designer and in recent years have been fascinated by product and brand development. I am also fascinated by Kyoto’s traditional industries and artisans. I am currently working with several traditional Kyoto companies and artisans, developing products for markets overseas. These projects are in high fashion and luxury goods. I never imagined that I would be working with the kind of legendary companies and brands that I am getting to work with now. KyotoFoodie, back in its hay day, took a whole lot of my time and energy. Yet, I still need to earn a living. Hence, the hiatus.

That said, I am going to try to write an article a month here for the rest of this year. I am active on Facebook and to a lesser degree, Twitter and post a lot of photos of what I am up to and what I eat!

Also, I started a new photoblog, called Kyoto Postcards, at the end of 2011 that gives a peek into my adventures in Kyoto. (I am slowly moving my Tumblelog content to Kyoto Postcards, so there will be posts dated before December 2011.)

If you are interested in seeing what I am up to, Facebook and Kyoto Postcards are the place.

Michael
May, 2012

SHARE!
Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

Socialize
Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.
Facebook Find me on Facebook.

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

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

Uni Ikura Donburi and Champagne

Uni Ikura Donburi - detail

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

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

Champagne Chilling in the Snow - Japanese Garden Style!

Eating with a Spoon Makes it More Luxurious

All Gone!

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

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

Kurogome - Black Heirloom Rice

Black Rice - Kombu Overload!

Socialize!
Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.
Facebook Find me on Facebook.


Kinana - Kinako Ice Cream

Kinana - Autumn Chestnut Parfait

Kinana ‘Dekitate’ Ice Cream and Kodawari
Kinana makes six flavors of ice cream; kinako (roast soybean flour), azuki (sweet red bean), kurogoma (black sesame), kuromitsu (black sugar syrup), maccha (powdered green tea) and yomogi (mugwort), all real traditional Japanese flavors! To get the real Kinana ice cream experience, I really recommend the just made ‘dekitate’ ice cream as it is heavenly, impossibly soft and creamy. Once ice cream is frozen it loses this fantastic texture. I think that the kinako flavor is the only fresh, ‘dekitate’ ice cream that is served. If you just ask the friendly staff what the ‘dekitate’ flavor is, they should have no trouble understanding. (Many customers eat the dekitate ice cream while standing at the counter on the first floor. Try this if the sit down area on the second floor is full.)

Kodawari is an essential concept in Japanese culture, especially in culinary culture and all kinds of product development. Kodarari means picky or particular. Owner, ice cream chef Omoto-san is very picky about what goes into his ice cream. He uses no additives, fillers or artificial ingredients. His kinako powder is a original blend of roasted ‘kuromame’ black beans from the Tamba region of Hyogo and Kyoto and ‘daizu’ soybeans from Hamanaka-cho in Hokkaido. He traveled to both regions to inspect producers before selecting the best.

Any business in Japan that isn’t into kodawari really isn’t worth patronizing. If you like Kyoto culinary culture, it is probably due to kodawari.

Kinana - Autumn Chestnut Parfait

Kinana Parfait
Kinana has three parfaits that are available throughout the year. There is Kinana Hapon (warabi mochi), Berry Berry Kinana (yogurt and frozen berries) and Kinana Italian (tiramisu). Then there is a seasonal parfait that changes every few months. All use several flavors of Kinana ice cream and Western-style baked confections like cookies and biscotti, all baked in-house at Yakitsukasa Kinana, Kinana’s second location. The fresh-made ice cream is not used in the parfaits because it is too soft for layering other ingredients upon. I tried both the Berry Berry Kinana and Kinana Italian and thought that they were fine but not exceptional. Two foodie and chef friends agreed with me on this. I can see how these parfaits would appeal to Japanese women that visit Kinana fairly often or want to try something non-Japanese.

The autumn seasonal parfait was quite another story. Now, Japanese are really into parfaits and I have had a lot of great Japanese-style parfaits in Kyoto but this one was the most memorable and original. It was over-the-top amazing!

Chestnut Autumn Parfait
The seasonal Kinana Chestnut Parfait features two kinds of ice cream, mochi, anko (azuki paste), soba boro (buckwheat cookie), two chocolate cookies (actually more like little cakes), a chocolate and kuromame biscotti with lots of chestnut mousse all topped with a candied chestnut.

The chestnut mousse topping was amazing, thick and rich, just overloaded with chestnut flavor. The nuance of the biscotti really got me, like all the other baked items it is made at Yakitsukasa Kinana. It is dry and crunchy like traditional biscotti, it has some chunks of rich chocolate but the kuromame black beans, though baked and encased in crunchy biscotti they are still soft and chewy! There is some kodawari at work here. This contrast in texture and attention to detail really impresses me. The chocolate cookies are really moist and dense, about a mouthful each. The soba boro are cracker-thin and very crunchy. I have never had sobo boko like that.

Kinana only makes 20 of the autumn parfaits everyday and usually runs out of the key ingredient, chestnut mousse by 2 pm, earlier on weekends. This parfait will only be available in October and November. I am looking forward to the winter seasonal parfait, and the autumns to come!

Gion Kinana Owner Ice Cream Chef Katsuji Omoto

About Kyo Kinana (京きなな)
For many years owner chef Katsuji Omoto had a French restaurant near Kitano Shrine, which is a somewhat outlying area of Kyoto. In 2002 he decided to move into the center of town and to close his restaurant and open something like a cafe with baked sweets. He rented a space in Gion but after he signed the lease and moved in he was told by the owner that he couldn’t use heat or flame in the space. He was quite shocked and felt deceived. Nevertheless, he took the high road and persevered. He cooly thought about what he could make without cooking and decided that it would have to be ice cream. At his French restaurant he had made his own baked desserts and ice cream, so this wasn’t entirely new territory for him.

His initial location was not ideal and it was tough going, however his ice cream was soon noticed by the media and he was featured on a television program and from there Kinana started to get very busy and develop as a new Kyoto brand.

In 2004 Omoto-san moved to his current location which has become a Gion fixture and is a very popular destination in the neighborhood for visitors to Kyoto. It is even popular with the neighborhood maiko and geiko (geisha), you can see their traditional fans displayed on the wall.

Based on Omoto-san’s original intention to do baked sweets in Gion, in 2006 he opened Yakitsukasa Kinana. (I haven’t been here yet but the baked goods served at Kinana are made here. And, they are great!) Yakitsukasa Kinana is located near Kiyomizu Temple in the scenic Higashiyama district.

Kinana is a very popular and seating is only available on the second floor. If you can’t get seated upstairs or you just want ice cream, you can have that at the standing at the ice cream counter on the first floor. Don’t go away without some dekitate kinako ice cream even if you cannot get seated!

Foodie Souvenirs
For take out Kinana offers milk jams, cookies, biscotti, candies and a few other yummies. I haven’t tried any of them but they look very interesting. I think the milk jams would make very novel ‘omiyage’ souvenirs for visitors to Kyoto.

Kinana Souvenir - Kinako Milk Jam

Kinana Souvenir - Kinana Cookie and Kinako Candy

Kinana Interior - Gion Maiko Fans

Kinana Staff Making Parfait

Gion Kobu Neighborhood (祇園甲部)
Kinana is located in one of Kyoto’s most scenic and historic neighborhoods: Gion Kobu.

Kinana Storefront

Kinana Neighborhood in Gion

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto
SHARE! Kyoto Support Post: Handmade Ice Cream in Kyoto

Socialize
Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.
Facebook Find me on Facebook.

brand name: Kyo Kinana (京きなな)
Gion main store: Gion Kinana (祇園きなな)
Kiyomizu store: Yakitsukasa Kinana (焼司 喜七)

Gion Kinana in English (Main Store)
English Menu: no
English Website: none (Japanese language site: www.kyo-kinana.com)
Service: friendly
Hours: 11am – 7pm (6:30 pm last order)
Address: Kyoto-shi, Higashiyama-ku, Gion-machi Minami-gawa 570-119 (京都市東山区祇園町南側570-119)
Telephone: 075-525-8300

Map

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

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.

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Ramen: Great Ramen Shops in Kyoto

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

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!

Map

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

Since I started KyotoFoodie I have received numerous inquiries from people asking where to go for teppanyaki in Kyoto. I rarely eat teppanyaki but do like it. I go to the Himorogi teppanyaki restaurant at Brighton Hotel sometimes for business dinners (when I am not selecting the restaurant). It is good but I can never justify the cost of the meal. I guess I cannot forgive bad cost performance. Hotel restaurants in Japan have uniformly bad cost performance and often the food is mediocre.

Wagyu Sashimi

Grilled Duck Breast and Foie Gras

Lobster and Vegetables

Teppanyaki and Kappo
Teppanyaki is usually beef, seafood and vegetables cooked on a hot steel grill in front of the customer. Teppanyaki is perhaps the second most well-known Japanese cuisine in the West. While it was developed in Japan, it was more popular with non-Japanese, until more recently. Kappo is very popular in Kyoto and features a counter seating arrangement in which the chef cooks and arranges the dishes on one side, and the customer enjoys them immediately on the other. Kappo is very intimate and offers the customer a chance to converse with the chef. A good chef quickly discerns the tastes and inclinations of the customer and prepares dishes accordingly. The combination teppanyaki with kappo is the sort of dining you expect to experience in Gion. Nice!

Owner Chef Tsukada Grating Wasabi for Wagyu Sashimi

Teppan Kappo Sou Owner Chef Tsukada (鉄板割烹 爽)
Chef Tsukada started working at a shinise teppanyaki restaurant in his native Kobe when he was 19 years old. He then came to Kyoto and worked at a teppanyaki restaurant at the Granvia Hotel for 10 years and opened his restaurant in Gion in April of 2007.

I asked Chef Tsukada why he decided to do a teppanyaki Japanese wagyu beef restaurant. Being from Kobe, known for some of the finest wagyu in Japan, of course played some part in his decision. However, he said that he really wanted to offer diners the best wagyu available without the prohibitive price of the famous brands like Kobe beef. To do this, he uses non-brand name wagyu. There are 14 grades of beef in Japan and the top grade is A5, the best Matsuzaka beef and Kobe beef are A5. Using A5 non-brand gives the same brand name taste, but costs about 30% less.

In addition to quality at a reasonable price, is individualized customer service in an intimate setting. Chef Tsukada said that he likes the simplicity of the kappo counter format and the direct contact with the customer. If the chef is alone in the kitchen, even if meals for 100 people are prepared, they all will taste identical. Chef Tsukada observes, listens to and gets to know each customer and adjusts the flavors and ingredients for them and recommends seasonal dishes.

He ends his course meals with some contemporary Japanese homecooking, curry rice. At Sou, curry is made with wagyu and an original roux and spice medley that he developed. I am not a big fan of Japanese curry, but many wagyu beef restaurants have their own signature curry dish, which I often like very much – hey, it’s gourmet! – and Chef Tsukada’s could not be topped.

Shark Skin Wasabi Grater

In Action – Photos from the Teppan Grill

Chef Tsukada at the Teppan

Chef Tsukada at the Teppan

Teppan: Mugwort Namafu, Atsuage Tofu and Wagyu

Teppan: Abalone

Teppan: Abalone

Teppan: Final Course, Curry Rice

Teppan: Final Course, Curry Rice

Meibutsu: Wagyu Katsu (Deep-fried Cutlet) Sandwhich

Sou Interior

Highly Recommended
• Teppan Kappo is located in extremely picturesque Gion Shinbashi, one of Kyoto’s geiko (geisha) entertainment districts.
• These districts are known for their very high prices and snobbery but Sou is open, friendly and quite reasonably priced.
• The quality of the wagyu beef is the highest grade available.
• Sou offers an excellent selection of wine, both Chef Tsukada and the manager are sommeliers.
• An English menu (with correct English) is available. The owner chef and manager worked at an international hotel for 10 years so can communicate a little in English.
• Get the meibutsu wagyu katsu sandwich for take out.
• Teppan Kappo Sou is even open until 2 am!

A dinner reservation is recommended. Ask your hotel concierge to make a reservation for you or use the email address below (simple English, please, the manager requests!)

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Sukiyaki and Yuba Recommendations

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

Teppan Kappo Sou in English
English Menu: yes
English Website: none
Japanese Website: www.teppankappou-sou.com

Service: Very good
Price:
dinner course: 8,400～ (10,500 or 16,000 yen course recommended)
ala carte also available
Reservations: Please make dinner and lunch reservations via email at least 3 days in advance.
Hours:
dinner: 5:30pm – 2:00am (1:30am last order)
Closed Sunday
Reservations: Please make lunch and dinner reservations via email address below at least 3 days in advance.
Email Reservations: teppankappou-sou (at) kki (dot) biglobe (dot) ne (dot) jp
Location and Access: Gion Shinbashi. Teppan Kappo Sou is located on the east side of Nawate-dori street, about 2 blocks north of Shijo Street.
Address: Kyoto-shi, Higashiyama-ku, Nawate-dori Shinbashi-agaru, Nishino-cho 216-2 Onishi Bldg II 1F (京都市東山区縄手取り新橋上る西之町216-2 大西ビルII 1階)
Telephone: 075-551-4515

Map

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia Top Food Blogger Profile

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

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

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

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

Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia Top Food Blogger Profile

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

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

My most favorite floors are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Served

Oimatsu is a famous shinise confectionary in the Kamishichiken geisha quarter (hanamachi) near Kitano Tenmagu Shrine in the Nishijin area of Kyoto and their natsumikan jelly is perhaps the most famous of all in Kyoto. I like the Kamishichiken neighborhood very much, it is more friendly and humane than the Gion area hanamachi. I like several of Oimatsu’s other famous confections, so I decided to give their jelly a try and I enjoyed it very much!

Oimatsu’s Natsukanto 老松 夏柑糖
Oimatsu, the shop name means ‘old 老 pine 松’.

The product is called natsukanto; natsu 夏 means summer, kan 柑 means citrus and to 糖 literally means sugar. Natsukanto had a surprising amount of sweetness to it, it was very well balanced between bitter and sweet. I had expected more bitter than sweet, but this is Kyoto, something unexpected is expected!

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Package

The package consists of a simple paper bag and inside that is the jelly enclosed in this plastic bag.

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Unwrapped

The natsumikan always seems like a fruit that time forget. It is not a very handsome citrus, it is deformed and uneven in shape, the peel is pockmarked and discolored and the peel seems needlessly thick. This seems like citrus must have been like in centuries past, before modern agriculture. The rustic quality of the fruit comes through in the honest and straightforward presentation of the jelly.

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Opened

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Served

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Served detail

How Did Natsukanto Taste? Refreshing!
In addition to taste, in Kyoto the look and feel, the full sensory aspect of a dish must be considered. The point of this jelly confection is respite from the sultry summer heat. Japanese love kanten jelly in summer as its translucence makes one think of ice.

I put the natsukanto in the freezer for about an hour until it was as close to frozen as it could be with out being frozen. More than this, I put the serving plates in the freezer for about 3 hours. Ideally the plate would be like one of those frosty beer mugs, I thought. I like the idea that the plate is intensely cold to the touch. Kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto would serve this dessert on a bed of crushed or shaved ice.

Also on the visual, the natsukanto comes with a fresh, deep green natsumikan leaf. This also plays on the idea of freshness and to Japanese refreshes the heart.

Ingredients for natsukanto are just three: natsumikan juice, sugar and kanten (agar).

There is no pulp in the juice used to make the jelly so it is translucent and though yellow, not cloudy.

The taste is pleasantly bitter yet is balanced and filled out with a good dose of sugar. Being in the peel, with the pith, adds a great deal of zing to the flavor and fragrance. The citrus bitterness is the perfect antidote to the hot, muggy Kyoto summer and this confection really does refresh body and soul!

My only complaint is that the opening on the top is quite roughly cut and lacks the kind of finish and attention to detail that is expected to be authentically ‘Kyoto’. I would think that this could be improved quite easily.

Availability and Price
Natsukanto is available from April until mid to late August. Availability depends on the season. This is handmade and not made with just any old natsumikan. The price is 1,250 yen which is not too expensive for this ‘in the peel’ jelly.

Natsukanto Citrus Jelly - Cross Section

Oimatsu Storefront
Oimatsu has two locations in Kyoto, Arashiyama and Kitano (Kamichiken). There are also small stores in two Kyoto department store food courts: Daimaru and Isetan.

Oimatsu Storefront in Kamishichiken

Oimatsu Interior - Kamishichiken Maiko Fans

In each of the hanamachi geisha quarters of Kyoto, the maiko (training geisha) give fans with their hanamachi name and the maiko’s name on it to restaurants that they like and frequent. The maiko fans are a source of pride and displayed prominently, usually in the entry area. From the number of fans, it looks like Oimatsu did a  (These fans are usually, but not always, an indication that the place is good.)

Oimatsu Interior

Oimatsu Interior - Wagashi Forms and Molds

These are the wooden forms and molds used to make some varieties of wagashi.

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

English
English menu/signage: none

English website: none

Service/Staff: so-so

Price: 800 – 2,000 yen
Location and Access: Oimatsu is located just east of the gate on the east side of Kitano Tenmagu Shrine. The nearest municipal bus stops are Kitano Tenmagu-mae and Kamishichiken.

Address: Kyoto-shi Kamigyo-ku, Kitano, Kamishichiken 
(京都市上京区北野上七軒)

tel: 075-463-3050

Near Sightseeing Spot: Kitano Tenmagu Shrine

Map

View OpenKyoto/KyotoFoodie Map in a larger map

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

SHARE! Kyoto Support Topic: Food and Drink in Kyoto

Tweet! Tweet! Find out what’s going on in Kyoto right now, follow me on Twitter.

More on KyotoFoodie about Karami Daikon here.

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