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

Toriiwaro, a shinise located in the old weaving district of Kyoto, offers a single dish for lunch and a single dish for dinner. Toriiwaro’s chicken broth is the heart and soul of their chicken cuisine. Chicken itself is a relative newcomer to the Japanese culinary scene and this 150 year old restaurant is among the oldest in Kyoto serving chicken. The history is palpable here!

Toriiwaro is a restaurant that I had known of for a long time and even though I used to live in the neighborhood, I had never dined there. Thanks to this question (and excellent recommendation) in Kyoto Support, I finally did.

I visited the restaurant with a friend for lunch and we enjoy oyako donburi, shinise style.

Nishijin Shinise Oyako Donburi

Nishijin Shinise Oyako Donburi – Cross Section

This oyako donburi is very rich and soupy!

Nishijin Machiya
Toriiwaro is located in the heart of Nishijin, the old obi and kimono weaving district of Kyoto. This area of Kyoto has the most old traditional machiya houses left. The most spectacular were trading houses, usually dealing in kimono and obi. As Japan changed in the 1970′s and 80′s, most of these companies went bankrupt, as they were not able to change with the times. Today much of old Nishijin has been lost to mindless development but between the parking lots, plastic houses and bathroom tile covered apartment buildings there are still quite a few machiya left, more are being lost literally everyday though. Some are decrepit and some are lovingly maintained and now and again one is meticulously renovated.

Nishijin is one area of Kyoto that travelers won’t want to miss and Toriiwaro is a good place to have a meal and experience a machiya from the inside.

Toriiwaro Dining Room Interior

Toriiwaro Dining Room Interior

Toriiwaro Dining Room Interior

Toriiwaro
Toriiwaro started out in Gion at the end of the Meiji period, about 150 years ago. In 1945 they moved from Gion to their current location in Nishijin and renovated this old machiya into a restaurant. Most of the layout retains the original residential plan. Of course renovating machiya today for restaurants is quite in fashion, however tearing them down is even more in fashion. Many machiya renovated for restaurants retain their shell and structure, but the ‘machiyaness’ is often lost to poor design or over-design. None of that is going on here.

The quaint dining room on the second floor overlooking the garden was quite beautiful. There are numerous tokonoma alcoves, hanging scrolls ikebana flower arrangements and so on.

The tables are quite small and very low. The floor is tatami and you sit on nice thick zabuton cushions.

Toriiwaro Garden and Walkway

The dining room that we ate in was at the end of this sloped wooden walkway on the second floor.

Toriiwaro Garden


Toriiwaro Chicken Cuisine
The soul of Toriiwaro’s cuisine is the rich chicken soup stock. Everyday, for decades now, the carcasses of 30 chickens have been slowly simmered with Kyoto well water for 8 hours to make the next day’s soup.

One Item Dinner Menu: Mizudaki Nabe
Toriiwaro only serves chicken dishes. They are very famous for their mizudaki 地鶏水だき which is local chicken hotpot nabe cooked with their chicken broth. Mizudaki is the only dish offered for dinner and costs 6,300 yen (per person). (We haven’t eaten their mizudaki nabe, but in this photo, it looks pretty good!

One Item Lunch Menu: Oyako Donburi
Lunch is also a single item menu. Toriiwaro’s oyako donburi is a classic and well known in Kyoto. Oyako donburi, literally ‘parent and child’ rice bowl is chicken and egg on top of rice. Their rendition of this common Japanese lunch fare is quite ‘soupy’ with broth and dashi. Usually oyako donburi contains scallions or onions, but not at Toriiwaro. They just use the finest chicken and egg, so it tastes great without the extra flavoring.

A cup of chicken soup is served with the donburi and it has go to be the richest chicken soup broth that I have every had. I went for lunch with a friend from Kyushu and he said that it reminded him of Kyushu’s famous and very rich pork bone stock, tonkotsu.

Toriiwaro Genkan Entry

Toriiwaro Genkan Well

Toriiwaro Sign (鳥岩楼)

As this wooden hand carved and very weathered sign is very old the characters are written in reverse order to modern Japanese.

Toriiwaro Storefront

Toriiwaro is in a large and spectacular Nishijin ‘machiya’.

We were both a bit surprised at the size of the donburi. It was a bit on the small side in terms of volume, but being soupy makes it dense it quite filling. The tsukemono which accompanies the meal could use some improvement. However, 850 yen for a historic and very high quality donburi, in an atmosphere like this, I thought that Toriiwaro was a home run.

I am definitely going back for lunch, and often, and looking forward to having dinner there. I have never had a shinise mizudaki nabe.

As so many of the kimono and obi companies in Nishijin went bankrupt, it can be difficult to find a nice restaurant – they went out of business too. Toriiwaro’s lunch is very reasonably priced, and dinner, at 6,300 yen, while not exactly cheap, isn’t particularly expensive for the kind of food they serve. It seems that smaller, private rooms are available for dinner. At lunch, everyone is seated in the large room shown in the photos.

English and Access
西陣・鳥岩楼 Toriiwarou
English service: No English menu, but at this restaurant you don’t even order. Service is friendly
Website: http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~mao_utty/toriiwa/ (Japanese language only)
Hours: 12noon to 9pm (closed Thursdays)
Location and Access: You’ll definitely need a map for this one. From the intersection of Imadegawa and Chiekoin streets, walk north on Chiekoin to the first street which is Itsutsujicho and turn left. Toriiwaro is less than a minute walk and is on the left (south) side of the street. You can get to Imadegawa-Chiekoin by bus.
Address
: Kyoto-shi Kamigyo-ku Gotsuji-dori Chiekoin Nishi-iru Minami-gawa (京都市上京区五辻通智恵光院西入南側)
Telephone: 075-441-4004

Map

View Larger Map

We were given a gift of kumiage yuba from a yuba company up in Otsu recently and made donburi with it on Peko’s famous rice. Simply flavored with soy sauce and wasabi, this is veg, healthy, and not just tasty, but creamy tasty! Have you heard of yuba?

Yuba is made by simmering a large vat of tonyu 豆乳, or soy milk. As water evaporates, every minute or so, a film develops on the surface of the tonyu which is lifted off. This is yuba and it can be dried or eaten as is, fresh. If you like tofu and soy milk, you would surely love fresh yuba!

Yuba started out centuries ago as temple food in Kyoto but is now enjoyed by common people and is gaining popularity all over Japan because it is tasty and healthy.

Itadakimono: Kumiage Yuba

I had a chance to do a yuba making study/experience, called kengaku 見学, in Japanese at a shinise yuba company, Hiei Yuba in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, on the southern shore of Lake Biwa. Otsu is just over the mountain from Kyoto, and though a rather small town compared to Kyoto, it has a history that is a bit longer than Kyoto. In fact, it was the capital of Japan, just briefly, even before Kyoto was. We’ve got an article simmering about yuba kengaku coming your way soon, but until then, please just feast your eyes on this.

One of our friends that works at Hiei Yuba came to Kyoto Takashimaya for a week to sell their yuba at a demise. We met for dinner in the evening and were given a package of fresh, kumiage yuba.

Kumiage Yuba

This is four or five ‘sheets’ of yuba swimming in soy milk.

Gokokumai Mugi Gohan: Ingredients

Peko’s Gokokumai Mugi Gohan Recipe

• Short grain rice 2 cups
• Oshi Mugi (rolled oats, for Japanese mugi-gohan) 1/2 cup
• Gokokumai (5 grains) 1 pack, about 25-30g
• Kombu (dried kelp)
• Salt and Sake to taste

Add the amount of water based on the instructions of your rice cooker.

Gokoku: Package

Five kinds of ‘bird seed’ added to your rice makes it much more flavorful and healthy.

Gokokumai Mugi Gohan: Just Done Cooking

Discard the kombu after cooking.

Gokokumai Mugi Gohan: Served

Five kinds of grain (gokoku), rolled oats (mugi) and Japanese short-grain rice: yum!

Making the Donburi
Making the donburi is really simple. Just serve rice in a large donburi bowl, place yuba on top and add wasabi and soy sauce. (I think) to be photogenic, we didn’t add any of the soy milk that can be seen in the photo in the plate above. Be sure to add it though, it will be more creamy.

Last step: Devour

Yuba Donburi: Served

Yuba Donburi – detail with Shoyu and Wasabi

Yuba Donburi: Looks Like this While Eating

Miwa didn’t want me to include this photo, but she’s not here now and this is what it looks like as you eat it.

Unagi, or freshwater eel, is a very popular food in contemporary Japan and there is a dedicated ‘Eel Day’ in mid-summer (this year July 24th) on which most Japanese eat unagi.

This article tells about the development of unagi cuisine and history of the Ushinohi ‘Eel Day’ custom. This article tells about perhaps Kyoto’s most popular unagi restaurant.

Grilling Unagi at Nishiki Market

Unagi Donburi (Eel Bowl)

About Unagi
After Tokugawa Ieyasu succeeded in unifying Japan with his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, the capital moved from Kyoto to his base, the provincial town of Edo (now called Tokyo, or ‘East Capital’). Transforming Edo into a modern capital of its day required, among other things, extensive land reclamation projects.

Reclamation projects created temporary lakes and ponds in which unagi quickly invaded and flourished. Land reclamation is low paying work so laborers would simply catch unagi ‘on site’ for free. Physical labor is very hard work and unagi which is high in fat gave laborers the required energy.

In the early Edo period (1603-1868) unagi was considered a low class and unsophisticated food due to the fact that it was caught, chopped, roasted and eaten in the field by laborers and also because of its high fat content.

By the late Edo period though this had changed due to various unagi cooking processes being developed in the capital, namely kabayaki. With kabayaki, fish, generally unagi, is boned, put on metal skewers and grilled over charcoal while being dipped in a thick, sweetened soy sauce several times throughout the grilling process.

Today, unagi kabayaki is usually served on top of rice, as donburi, or unagi-don.

Difference Between Kanto and Kansai Style Unagi
Kanto (eastern Japan/Tokyo) style unagi is first steamed, then grilled kabayaki style. The steaming process causes a good deal of the fat to be removed and the unagi flesh to be soft.

Kansai (western Japan/Osaka, Kyoto) style unagi is not steamed, and therefore it is more fatty and chewy.

Another interesting difference is the way the unagi is cleaned. Edo was the seat of the military (samurai) government of Japan and samurai sometimes had to commit ritual suicide (seppeku 切腹) by cutting their lower abdomen open and slowly bleeding to death in excruciating pain. The purveyors of unagi cuisine were sensitive to this as samurai were among their customers, accordingly they split the eel open from the back, not the stomach; Japanese love this kind of thing. Also, usually the head and tail was removed in the process, though not out of deference to samurai.

In Kansai, in the merchant city of Osaka, there was a saying, ‘talk with your stomach open’; be frank, open and honest. So, in Kansai, the eels were split down the stomach. The head and tail usually remained attached.

About the Ushinohi ‘Eel Day’ Custom
In modern-day Japan, most everyone eats unagi on the Doyo-no-ushi-no-hi (土用の丑の日). This year it is on July 24th, but it occurs one day between mid-July and the beginning of August. The simple explanation why is that this is the hottest time of the year and as unagi has lots of nutritional value and fat content, it gives you the umph to not wilt in the blazing, steamy summer heat.

Historical Development – Eat Eel on Ox Day!
The old calendar of Japan utilized the Chinese Zodiac system of a 12 year cycle with each year being named after one of 12 animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar). This is called eto (干支) in Japanese.

Doyo: Between each of the 4 seasons was a period called doyo (土用) that is 18 days in length. The doyo period between summer and autumn (mid-July to early August) is the hottest time of the year and unagi gives strength.

Ushinohi: The days of the week were also named after the same 12 animals and ushi-no-hi literally means ‘ox’s day’, ox is ushi in Japanese. Depending on the year, there could be 1 or 2 ox days during the summer doyo.

In Japan there had long been a superstition that if you ate a food that started with ‘u’, for example, umeboshi, udon, uri, unagi and so on, on ox (ushi) day, as both the day and the food started with ‘u’, you would be healthy.

During the Edo period in Edo an eel shop owner lamented his mid-summer poor sales and sought advice from Gennai Hiraga. Hiraga was a learned man; he was a naturalist, novelist, painter and master of Dutch studies (Western learning), especially science and medicine.

Hiraga said, why don’t you put up a sign that says, ‘Today is Ox (ushi) day, Eat Eel (unagi)!’ The eel shop owner did so and lamented no more and as people learned this was on the advice of Hiraga, other eel shops quickly followed suit and soon it had spread throughout the country and became a custom.

Nishiki Market – Unagi Shop

Nishiki Market – Unagi Shop

This is eel wrapped around gobo root stips and grilled.

Unagi Shop – Sold Out!

This is a very popular unagi store in Nishiki Market and it looks like they could not quite meet demand.

Unagi Shop – Sold Out!

It looks like they sold a lot of eel today!

Grilled Unagi Kimo (liver)

The ‘U’ in Unagi on Shop Sign

うなぎ is unagi, notice on the left how the う (u) is eel-shaped.

Nishiki Market – Grilling Eel

The row in the foreground hasn’t been dipped in sauce yet, so it is still very light in color.

Nishiki Market – Grilling Eel

The tub behind the dude is full of sauce and he dunks them in there several time.

Grilled Eel for Chazuke

Grilled and simmered in shoyu and sansho, small chunks are placed atop rice and eaten as is, or tea is poured over it to make chazuke. At 2,200 yen this is a good deal! Chazuke Unagi is very, very delicious. It is one of Peko’s all-time fav quick and tasty meals.

Nishiki Market – Eel Sushi for Sake

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Stand

These eel are from Lake Biwa, just over the mountain from Kyoto.

Eel Stand Offerings – Unagi Bento

Eel Stand Offerings – Unagi Tamago Dashimaki

This is a Japanese style omelet (tamago dashimaki) with unagi inside.

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Store

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Stand Offerings

Eel Store Offerings – Wild Grilled Eel

The grilled unagi on the right cost 12,000 yen, about $120 USD!!

Daimaru Department Store – Popular Eel Store

The line is at least 20 people long!

Daimaru Department Store – Eel Store Offerings

This eel is 8,400 yen, about $85 USD!

Convenience Store Poster

Eel Day promotional poster

Convenience Store Unagi Bento

Kaneyo is a long-loved Kyoto eel joint thoroughly from another time and the grilled eel dishes are excellent.

Eating Out on Eel Day
On Eel Day we visited Kaneyo, one of the most famous unagi restaurants in all of Kyoto. Kaneyo is centrally located near Sanjo-Kawaramachi (intersection/neighborhood) and the Shinkyogoku Shopping Arcade.

To learn more about the history and development of ‘Eel Day’, please see this article.

Kaneyo Storefront and Takeout Eel Day Bento For Sale

The dude on the right is selling unaju (unagi bento) on Eel Day. On the left, in the window is where the unagi are grilled.
About Kaneyo
Kaneyo opened in the Taisho period and has been in business for more than 100 years now. The Taisho period was a very interesting time for Japan because the country had technologically modernized however, culturally it was still purely Japanese (now it is not).

Walking into Kaneyo is to step back in time. The atmosphere, the staff, the service, the building, everything is from a different time. Kaneyo’s traditional sense is not at all sophisticated.

Everything is out of kilter about the place. Walking up the steps to the second floor is an unnerving experience. The second floor space itself is seriously warped with age. If you were to set a ball on the floor, it would roll away, and in which direction it may be difficult to foresee. The first floor has a terrazzo floor and columns that do not look just handmade, but hand-hewn! There is one large wooden round table on the first floor that is warped and worn and polished with what I imagined to be decades of elbows and eel grease. Bottled beer is kept in a tub of ice water rather than a refrigerator.

I had heard about Kaneyo for years, walked and biked past it many times, but I had never been inside. When Paku lead me in the only think that I could think was, ‘eel joint’ (as opposed to eel restaurant).

As unagi cannot yet be completely farm raised, unagi is not cheap. We paid 1,600 yen each for our eel bowls. The servings are not especially large, either. They do offer a lunch time meal for 950 yen. This price range is on par with other unagi restaurants though.

I had unagidon (unagi donburi) and Paku had unagi kinshi which unagidon with a big square omelet on top. The presentation is dramatic and while the unagi is excellent, we thought that the egg was rather tasteless. In Kyoto, egg cooked in this way should have lots of dashi in it for flavor.

Kaneyo cooks its eel over charcoal, which can be seen in the front window.

While this joint is a bit run down, the service gruff (but fairly friendly), there are more elegant places for unagi in Kyoto but there is a definite charm about Kaneyo. That blue-collar Taisho Japan is something that is surely not long for the world. If you are in Kyoto and up for unagi you probably want to put Kaneyo on your itinerary.

Unagi Donburi

A lacquered bowl filled with a modest portion of rice is topped with grilled unagi. This goes extremely well with beer. The little bamboo vessel on the rice holds sansho which is sprinkled on the donburi. By the way, the tsukemono (on the right) is terrible.

Unagi Donburi – detail

Notice the sansho sprinkled on the unagi.

Unagi Kinshi Don

This is a great dish, it arrives at your table just like this.

Unagi Kinshi Don – detail

Again, while very beautiful, the egg was less than delicious.

Unagi Kinshi Don – detail

The rice and unagi sort of steams under the hot, wet egg covering.

Kaneyo Interior

There is a waterfall outside in the little garden too.

Kaneyo Interior

The weirdly warped table and over-abundant staff.

Kaneyo Storefront

Kaneyo Storefront

Kaneyo Storefront – detail

We didn’t snap any piks of the second floor dining space, but if you look closely you can see how the columns and beams are not quite square with the world.

English:
English website: no
English menu: no
Location and Access: Approximately 10 minutes walk from Kawaramachi Station (Hankyu Railway), Sanjo Station (both Keian Railway and Subway Tozai Line)
Address: Kyoto-shi Nakagyo-ku Shinkyogoku Rokkaku (京都市中京区新京極六角)
Telephone: 075-221-0669
www.jin.ne.jp/kaneyo (Japanese language only)
Map
View Larger Map

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

Toriyasu serves several donburi (ricebowl) dishes that are unbeatable. This tiny and charming restaurant with about 50 years of history is an offshoot of the 120 year old poulterer just next door.

Toriyasu serves three classic donburi dishes and the most famous of which is karaagedon.

Toriyasu is located on Karasuma Street just north of the Oike Street intersection. It is within easy walking distance of the Imperial Palace and Imperial Gardens (Gosho) and is right across the street from the new Kyoto International Manga Museum.

Toriyasu’s donburi are unsurpassed in taste, generous in portion and are very reasonably priced between 680 and 780 yen. Surely the cheapest shinise I have visited. By the way, the ‘yasu’ in Toriyasu means both ‘cheap’ and ‘peace of mind’ (safe to eat).

Karaage Donburi (からあげ丼)

Kaage is deepfried food, usually chicken. And donburi is a rice bowl with various ‘toppings’. Toriyasu’s Karaage Donburi is unique because the karaage is served over rice (as usual), but then on top of all this is a generous serving of egg cooked with dashi (soup stock) and tender Kyoto scallions. Karaage Donburi comes with red miso soup and tsukemono.

Karaage Donburi

Served with miso, tsukemono and tea.

Karaage Donburi

Notice the pieces of deepfried chicken under the layer of egg. The brownish powder on the egg is sansho.

Toriyasu Interior

This restaurant is tiny. The counter seats about 6 people and there are two tiny tables to the left, out of view in this photo. You might have to stand in line but customers usually move through in a timely fashion.
The restaurant interior is about 50 years old. The cook told me that they was an older interior, but that was before the war when the restaurant was smaller — being smaller than this is a little difficult to imagine.

Toriyasu Menu

Toriyasu lunch set
Oyako-don, Karaage-don, Tamago-don
Sake, Beer
Other chicken dishes

Toriyasu Exterior

Don’t be put off by the exterior.

The Original Toriyasu Poulterer Exterior

If you want to buy fine chicken meat for cooking at home, this is the place to come! This tiny shop is probably the most well known place to buy chicken in Kyoto. It is so tiny that they don’t even have chicken and eggs on display. You tell them what you want and they bring it out from the back room.

All the dishes at Toriyasu are cooked and portions are generous, so we have included this in our ‘budget’ category.

Famous Dishes:
Oyako-don 親子丼 (chicken and egg simmered in dashi) 780yen
Tamago-don 玉子丼 (egg) 680yen
Karaage-don からあげ丼 (deepfried chicken and egg) 780yen

English: No English menu, no website, staff does not seem to speak any English. The cook is a warm and polite young man and the staff is very friendly.

Hours:
11:30 – 2:00
5:00 – 8:00

Closed: Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and National Holidays.

Near Sightseeing Spot: Gosho, Kyoto International Manga Museum
Also, just south of Honke Owariya

Access: Two minute walk from Karasuma Oike Subway Station

This is a rendition of the ever popular Uni-Ikura Donburi, here we serve it on soba-gohan (rice with soba kernels).

Uni is the roe of sea urchin and ikura the roe of salmon. Combined and served on rice, this delectable combination makes Uni-Ikura Donburi. Our rendition here uses soba-gohan and makes this donburi dish decidedly nouveau. Soba is buckwheat, the same that is used to make soba noodles.

Main Ingredients: uni, ikura, rice (1 1/2 cups short grain white rice, 10 – 20% *soba kernels), *dried kombu or sake
(*optional)

Rice: If you can obtain soba kernels try making soba-gohan. Cook as usual for white rice. Add dried kombu or sake for additional flavor. (White rice is fine too, try to use Japanese-style short grain rice, ‘California rice’ is just fine.)

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl with generous portions of uni and ikura. A splash of high quality shoyu on the uni is recommended. Ikuradon is often served with chopped shiso leaves, add shiso leaves if you like.

The Ingredients

ikura, uni, rice, soba and sake

Tsukemono

nukazuke – before

Tsukemono

nukazuke – after (washed and cut)

Nakazuke is tsukemono pickled in rice bran and salt. We had scarlet turnip nukazuke and it was amazing. Nukazuke tsukemono retains the crispness of fresh vegetables and has the pungent qualities of something fermented.

Buri-daikon with Yuzu

buri (yellowtail) simmered with daikon

Soba Gohan

buckwheat (soba) kernels cooked with short grain white rice

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi

Uni-ikura Donburi with Buri-daikon and Nukazuke Tsukemono

With champagne, this makes quite a New Year’s breakfast!

Wagyu Roast Beef Donburi is a recent invention of Paku and it kicks!

This novel donburi features fine wagyu (Japanese beef) roast beef, on a bed mugi genmai gohan (barley brown rice) and fresh mizuna and topped off with a shoyu based onion sauce.

Main Ingredients: roast beef (preferably wagyu style), mizuna (or other similar green), rice (1 cup ‘genmai‘ brown rice, 1 cup white rice, 1/2 – 2/3 cup ‘mugi‘ barley), *dried kombu
(*optional)

Sauce Ingredients: onion (grated), shoyu, cooking sake (or white cooking wine), mirin and sugar (about 1 tablespoon each)

Rice: If possible, use Japanese style short-grain rice. If using genmai, be sure to soften it up adequately before cooking. This can be done by soaking the genmai in water over night or by pouring on boiling water and letting it stand about 2 hours before cooking. If you don’t like or don’t have genmai, just white rice or mugi gohan is fine too. Genmai and mugi makes for a more healthy donburi. Cook the rice with a sheet of dried kombu if you can obtain it as is adds excellent flavor and minerals.

Sauce Preparation: Grate half an onion as shown in the photo below. Combine all sauce ingredients in a pan and cook over moderate heat for several minutes and until it starts to thicken up. Paku says to just cook it until the ‘sting’ of the onion is ‘gone’.

Serve: Serve the rice in a large ‘donburi‘ style bowl and place fresh mizuna on top of the rice. Atop the mizuna, place the roast beef and spoon on the onion shoyu sauce.

Enjoy!

The Main Ingredients

Wagyu roastbeef, mizuna (greens), genmai mugi gohan and dried kombu (kelp)

Sauce Ingredients

Onion, shoyu, sake, mirin and sugar

Grating the Onion

If you don’t have this kind of Japanese grating implement, a food processor will work just fine too.

Cooking the Sauce

Cook for several minutes, until thick and mellow in flavor.

Dekita! Wagyu Roast Beef with Shoyu Onion Sauce Donburi

Enjoy!

This is a quick and easy dish that makes Western-style roast beef modern-Japanese.