BEER TASTES BETTER IN JAPAN

barracuda sushi, grilled chestnut, jade ginko nuts

a few dishes from kikunoi

sea urchin rice, lillyroot soup, tsukemono

grilled sea bass + pounded tade leaf

tilefish, dashi, shitake + chrysanthnium petals

and a few more from the other parts of kyoto!

?????

we love tofu and doughnuts, but that's ridiculous

adam and megan, this is how i get my coffee fix now - from a can from a vending machine!

the rule "if you wanna read it, buy it", does not apply in japan

sashimi at 'dan' in kyoto - $12!

yuba, shiso flowers and benitade at 'kirinya'. delicious!

cod roe chazuke (rice with tea and dashi broth) at 'kirinya'

local kyoto eggplan with miso at 'kirinya'

a five layered japanese omelette (tamago) at 'dan'

tsukemono (japanese pickles) at nishiki market

grade 9 wagyu beef

at kiyomizudera, a temple in kyoto

kiyomizudera

As we sit here drinking cans of asahi beer from the vending machine in the lobby of our hotel, we thought it timely to fill you in on our eating, and other experiences in Kyoto.

We caught the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) from Tokyo to Kyoto on 31st August. Our first night in Kyoto we wandered down to the Gion area, which is a little touristy in some spots, but there are so many cute little back streets there as well. We stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant called ‘Kirinya’.

Kirinya
We sat at the counter around the kitchen and asked to be served some specialities of Kyoto. The first thing we ate was called yuba, which is made from scraping the top of the curds in the tofu making process. It was served cold with some ponzu dipping sauce, shiso flowers and benitade (tiny red cress). It is really yummy and quite refreshing. It has the texture of silken tofu mixed with the texture of mozzarella. Another speciality we were served was Kyoto eggplant (cute little round eggplants), simply cooked with red and white miso, which is such a harmonious match. The other interesting dish we had was cod roe chazuke. This is rice served in a green tea and dashi broth with some brined cod doe on top. The cod roe was so creamy and rich, and the rice in the broth delicious.

We asked our waiter of a recommendation of where we should eat the next night and he showed us how to get to a restaurant called ‘dan’ (we think). So we went there the next night, and luckily managed to find it. We say luckily because bulidings/houses/shops etc in Japan don’t really have addresses. There are no street numbers, so from our understanding the address generally consists of a street name, area name, greater area name and city. So it can be a little confuisng finding places, and Japanese people will always show you a map rather than giving you and address for a place. Anyway, on this occasion we managed to find the restaurant with out any problem.

Dan
We walked into the restaurant, where in true Japanese style you take your shoes off at the entrance (luckily Luke’s feet didn’t smell too bad tonight). We sat at the counter, on the floor facing the kitchen (which was slightly lower than the floor we were siting on) where we could see all the action. We managed with Kat’s small amount of Japanese (the menu was all in Japanese and nobody there spoke any English) to order a great meal. The food here, like everywhere we have enjoyed so far, was understated and so tasty.

The highlights of our meal here were firstly the grade 10 wagyu beef. A small portion, cooked to perfection served with ponzu sauce mixed with raw egg yolk (eat your heart out Hobart City Council!). It was amazing. The beef literally melted in our mouth and the egg and ponzu dipping sauce was perfect with it. The other extremely simple plate that we had was a 5-layered Japanese omelette. In Japan they have special rectangular tamago pans for making these omelettes. They cook one layer at a time, flip it over with chopsticks to one end of the pan, add some more egg, and continue to do this 4-5 times. Now an omelette may not sound very exciting, and may also not sound like something that you would eat for dinner, but this was so light and delicious, we could eat it any time of the day. It was served with some pickled ginger and daikon. We also ate yuba agedashi (deep fried yuba with ponzu and bonito flakes), sashimi, and vegetable tempura (which included things such as shiso leaf, burdock root and fig).

The thing we love about Japanese cuisine is its simplicity, the small portions and the amount of flavour that you get in each dish. And although many people had told us that it is expensive to eat in Japan, we have not found that to be the case so far. You can grab a bowl of ramen for $6 and it is sooooo tasty. We had a huge bowl of ramen the other night at this little place that had about 15 seats and had 2 people cooking (well one person cooking the noodles and one person ladelling broth into the bowls) and one person serving. The noodles were cooked to perfection, still had a nice bite to them and the broth was thick, but thin at the same time, add a little chilli oil and you have the perfect meal for $6. And other meals we have had maybe 7 or 9 dishes (using high quality ingredients), beer and sake and they have cost us about $45 each.

Our next meal of note was at Kikunoi, which is a high end Kaiseki restaurant. Kaiseki is refined, heartful Japanese cuisine. It is very structured in presentation and technique and is a concept of cuisine originally inspired by the Japanese Tea Ceremony. This was a truly amazing experience.

Kikunoi
When you walk into this restaurant the thing that strikes you is the importance of aesthetic in Japanese culture. We were greeted by the head chef as we walked into the restaurant (as we had rounded the corner where the restuarant is we saw him waiting on the street looking for us, and quickly duck back into the restaurant when he saw us coming. How did he know it was us? – we were the only westerners.) and ushered into a small room with two small tatami alcoves which could seat 4 people each and a counter along the length of the kitchen with 13 seats. It was very minimalist and very Japanese – lots of wood and clean lines.

As soon as we sat, everyone started preparing our food (we had preselected a menu when we booked). We were served some sake from the most amazing copper sake flask - a special sake made for the restaurant. It was so smooth and delicious. All the people working at Kikunoi are chefs - there are no wait staff. So the chefs cook for and serve you. There were 13 chefs working there, some who cook and serve out the front, some who just cook out in the back kitchen. You could see there was a real hierarchy and that everyone took their job and training very seriously. We were served 10 courses, and yes, we’re going to give you a blow-by-blow account.

Walnut tofu (kurumi-dofu), served with a jellified dashi and fresh grapes.

A variation of “October Hassun”, including baracuda sushi, jade ginko nuts, salted ayu entrails with trout roe and grilled chestnut.

Sashimi of red sea bream, and eel with tomato jelly, served with wasabi, chrysanthemum flowers and wasabi.

Hamo (conger eel), blanched and served with plum sauce with daikon.

Harvest soup (honen-wan) with egg custard, hamo in toasted rice, shimeji musrhoom.

Grilled sea bass with daikon and tade leaf.

Soup of tile fish, tofu, eggplant and shiitake mushroom with plum dipping sauce.

Sea urchin rice with nori, tsukemono (japanese pickles) and lilly root soup.

For dessert we had the most amazing custard (like a crème caramel) with chestnut ice cream. It was faultless, and Luke got so excited about it he forgot to take a photo.

On our final day we had lunch and dinner in two of the smallest restaurants we have ever eatin in. For lunch we ate in a little 6-seat hole in the wall in a tiny lane in the middle of Kyoto. We have no idea what the restaurant is called. But there is just one guy working there and he serves one thing, and it was just fantastic. It may sound simple, but it was all perfect. We got kyobancha (Kyoto tea) as we sat down. Then we were served bitter melon with shaved bonito, tsukemono, yuba with ponzu and tsudachi (like a lime). We were then served the most perfectly grilled piece of mackerel with rice and miso soup. Simple as it was it is up there as one of our favourite food experiences.

For dinner we went to another tiny place which we had stumble upon the night before, but they were full (no surprise as there are only 7 seats!) The restaurant is run by two ladies at the back of a tabacco store. But the little restaurant is so cute. All there is is one long bench – on one side is where we sit, and on the other side is where the ladies prepare everything. There is literally only enough room on the cooking side for 2 very small women to squeeze past each other. We were served 8 small courses (and they just serve that one menu, which would change seasonally, as all the food in restaurants in Japan seems to be very seasonal) sake and tea. All the food was really simple and enjoyable, and the atmosphere was lovely too.

The two ladies did not speak English, but luckily the guy who ran the tobacco store (maybe a husband or family member) could speak a little. It is amazing how much body language and hand gestures can explain too. The ladies thought it was kind of cute and funny that we wanted to eat at their restaurant, but they were also very interested to know what we thought of the food too. And very happy and surprised when we told them that it was fantastic. The also looked very surprised after the first few courses when we had eaten everything on our plate. It was all a very cute experience, and the little guy who ran the tobacco store kept running in to see that everything was okay and kept looking things up in his dictionary so he could talk to us. They had these cute little paper placemat that Luke was particularly fond of, and he had done an amazing job of keeping it clean so he could take it home. When one of the ladies saw that we wanted to take it, she ran off to get a clean one, and then came back with this stack of paper, as they use a different placemat for each month and also for the major festive times of the year. So we ended up walking away with about 15 placemats – very cute.

But that’s one thing we have noticed in Japan that the service is just incredible. Have you ever had an enthusiastic 20-year-old serve you at 7/11 in Australia? Well here they serve you like it is a 5-star establishment.

We went into the takashimaya department store today, down to the food court to get some Japanese cakes and sweets. It is really an experience in itself. The range of stuff they have there is amazing. It’s like the David Jones’ food court times by 1000. And so is there service. We bought some ice creams (just your run of the mill paddlepop style ice cream) and they packed it up in a moulded foam bag with dry ice for us so the ice creams wouldn’t melt (even though we ate them before we left the store). But they jus go out of their way to serve you. At the hotel we are staying at (by no means an expensive place, more budget to moderate range) when you check in they hold the elevator for you and once you have stepped in the elevator they bow to you until the doors have closed completely! Amazing! And our experience at the post office was fantastic as well (bet none of of us could say that about a visit to Australia Post!). We had to send some stuff back to Oz, and this is complicated enough if you can speak Japanese, but with very poor lines of communication it is even more difficult. But the staff stuck with us and were very patient, wrapped and boxed everything up for us, and even though we kept changing the type of postage we wanted (air, sea, express mail service) and they weighed each package about 10 times, they were still smiling when we left and even gave us a packet of tissues (yeah we know that bit is odd).

And although our holiday is a pilgrimage for food we have managed to fit in a little sightseeing as well. We have visited a few temples in Kyoto, including Kiyomizudera, Ginkakuji and Ryoanji. Kiyomizudera is a beautiful temple up on a hill overlooking Kyoto amongst forest and greenery. Ginkakuji is the golden temple which is actually coated in gold leaf, but unfortunately is one of the most popular temples and is overrun by tour groups, which is quite disappointing as it ruins the atmosphere of the temple. And then there is ryoanji with the famous Zen rock garden. This is a lovely temple, which is so…Zen. It is very peaceful sitting there looking at the rock garden and wandering around the grounds which are so beautifully looked after.

Anyway, we have gone on for far too long now, so if you have made it this far, congratulations. Tomorrow we head back to Tokyo for some more madness!!!