Chestnut Shaped Egg Yolk Anpan Sweet Bun

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

Egg Yolk Anpan Sweet Bun - Egg Yolk Bean Paste Filling

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Shop Photo and Map Coming Soon –

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Kara Komoro Wagashi: An early summer wagashi shaped like a well dressed member of the imperial court, made of sweet jellied beans.

Itadakimono: Recently I have been helping several foreign students find some unique cultural experiences in Kyoto as part of our new OpenKyoto project. This is tentatively called the Kyoto Nest Project. After school and on weekends, these students have been rushing around Kyoto to do internships, research with artisans, musicians, weavers and so on.

Our first two of the ‘tamago’, (eggs, as they might be called in contemporary Japanese), sisters Leah and Meryl, are leaving Japan in a few days. Last night they took me out for dinner at Kyonaya and gave me a box of goodbye wagashi omiyage.

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi

This wagashi is from Kogetsu. We haven’t reviewed Kogetsu on KyotoFoodie, but it is one of Kyoto’s powerhouse wagashi producers. Kogetsu has stores in the major departments stores all over Japan now. (They have 22 locations in just Kyoto now — a little much, I think.) One of the cliquey and adolescent Kyoto attitudes quite prevalent is that once a traditional Kyoto company goes national or gets big, most Kyoto people instinctively begin to criticize the company’s products even though they can never seem to give concrete examples of what went bad. While I have run into a few disappointments, I find that most of Kogetsu’s wagashi are excellent. Their sit down location in Gion is quite nice.

I have seen these Kara Komoro wagashi the last year or so, but I had never purchased them. The shape is based on the early kimono that came from China. You can these ancient garments in the Aio Matsuri (Hollyhock Festival) going on in Kyoto this month.

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi – Packaging

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi

The Package
The wrapping I thought was very clever and cute, but when unwrapped it revealed a whole lot of waste paper and packaging. Traditional Japanese designs, especially anything traditionally ‘Kyoto’ abhors waste and excess. So, that was a little disappointing however wagashi packing today is often very wasteful and excessive. In the box or alone on a plate, the visual effect of this was indeed very beautiful.

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi – Unwrapping

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi – Served

The Taste
This wagashi is made with jellied bean paste and flavored with ‘Western liqueur’, the wrapper says. It was a nice, fruity, early summer taste but it was quite sweet, a little too sweet for me.

I guess that the form factor was a bit more novel than the taste. Never the less, I was very happy to get a wonderful, seasonal gift from my new friends Leah and Meryl. Thanks much and I hope you make it back to Kyoto in the future!

Kara Komoro Jellied Bean Wagashi – Opening the Box

First Two Tamagos, Sisters Leah and Meryl (and Me) at Kyonaya

Leah and Meryl are going to write about their Kyoto ‘Nest’ experiences and post an article each at OpenKyoto. Stay tuned.

summary: Ukiya is second to none for soba. Soba is the famed buckwheat noodle of Japan. Ukiya’s soba is handmade (手打ち, teuchi) every morning. Ukiya’s famous dish is the very unique Ukiten Soba.

Ukiya has 9 restaurants, 7 of which are in Kyoto. I visited the Ukiya in Ponto-cho, near Sanjo Bridge, next to the Kaburenjo Theater. Takaraya Ramen (reviewed on kyotofoodie recently) is directly across the narrow Ponto-cho street from Ukiya. Here we review a dish that also includes raw egg (we reviewed Tamago kake gohan at Takaraya).

Ukiya has a famed dish that is completely unique in Kyoto, and all of Japan for that matter. That is the Ukiten Soba. The ‘ten’ in Ukiten is tempura. It is common for noodle and rice dishes to be served with tempura on top. Tempura soba, udon, donburi, can be found on most any lunch menu in Japan.

Ukiya’s rendition is completely unique because it features whipped raw egg (生卵, namatamago) and natto (納豆)! Natto, again is fermented soybeans, not well liked by all Japanese. Natto is commonly eaten at home, often with breakfast. Natto is more well liked in the Kanto region (Tokyo) than here in the Kansai region.

Ukiten Soba is offered either hot of cold. Cold goes great with summer and hot with winter.

The tempura is a shrimp, a piece of nori (dipped in tempura batter and deep-fried) and a sprinkling of tenkasu (天かす), tenkasu is droplets of tempura batter that has been deep-fried, tenkasu is often added to soba and udon dishes. This is garnished with strips of nori and a lightly grilled shishito (sweet green pepper) and chopped scallions.

This is all atop a layer of rich, creamy whipped raw egg. This is what you can see, under this is Ukiya’s famous handmade soba and natto. And of couse, tsuyu (つゆ), the ‘soup’.

These two ingredients, whipped egg or natto are by no means common with soba dishes. I have taken many Japanese friends and visitors to Ukiya, people from various regions of Japan. Everyone was amazed with the concoction, and even people that don’t normally eat natto all loved it.

Ukiya offered both shichimi and sansho to sprinkle on. The staff recommends shichimi, but I prefer sansho.

Again, about namatamago, I have eaten raw or undercooked egg in Japan for years, I have eaten Ukiten Soba countless times and I haven’t had any trouble. I think you have to take your own physical constitution into consideration, especially if you are traveling, but do consider this dish. Also, you may have tried natto and been turned off by its smell or texture, neither of which are pronounced in Ukiten Soba.

Ukiya has numerous other dishes, some of them quite extravagant for a soba shop, but I have never tried any other these! To me, Ukiten Soba is THAT good! For years I have only ordered this dish.

Ukiya is one of my all time favorite restaurants in Kyoto. I highly, highly recommend it!

By the way, Kyoto is not really a ‘noodle town’, Shikoku is famous for udon and the mountainous and northern regions of Japan are famous for soba. However, Kyoto is the king, or shall we say, the emperor of dashi (soup stock) and tsuyu (soup) and various kinds of sauces and dippings in Japan. The reasons being that the water itself is exceptional, exceptionally soft, which lends itself to soups and Japanese tea. And most importantly, Kyoto was ‘his highness the emperor’s kitchen’ (天皇陛下の台所) for more than a thousand years and he liked his cuisine refined!

Ukiten Soba (有喜天そば)

notice the light sprinkling of shichimi (seven spice chili powder)

soba and natto

just natto beans left

You can drink the tsuyu, but it is currently not recommended for health reasons as it has a lot of salt.

Yukiya in Ponto-cho, the building on the right is the Kaburenjo Theater (traditional dance).
Above the noren, the shop curtain, there are two talisman-type objects, these are to ward off misfortune. Such items are purchased at shrines all over Japan. These are probably from the Gion Festival (祇園祭り, Gion Matsuri), each float (鉾, hoko) offers their own talisman. The large window on the right is where the head chef makes soba every morning.

Making Teuchi Soba

Here the chef is cutting the soba from a single sheet of folded dough.
The large red and black lacquer bowl is used for mixing and kneading the dough. On the wall, behind the chef are wooden pins used for rolling out the dough to about a thickness of 2 millimeters.
The photograph on the upper left shows Ukiya’s soba fields in Hanase, a small and very picturesque village in the mountains to the north of Kyoto.

critique: For me Ukiya doesn’t have much to improve. The soba is truly second to none. The Ponto-cho location only seats a few people on the ground floor. The basement, though recently renovated is a bit dungeon-like, I try to avoid it. You can ask to be seated on the second floor if the ground floor is full. Several of the other locations are quite nice. The Ukiya inside The Museum of Kyoto (at Takakura Sanjo) offers a better interior and atmosphere.

English: English menu, no English website, the staff is not bad.
Ukiya website (The website is all in Japanese, but there are lots of photos, so you still can get the idea.)

有喜屋そば、京都、先斗町