Kyoto Collectables

Things I find when floating through my Kyoto world. 

I gain great pleasure from seeing them every day.

 Which makes the months away from Kyoto more bearable. 

Feeling nostalgic. Natsukashi ne...

Kyoto Cuisine & Culture Tours 

In-depth, luxurious and delicious travel experiences.

Tankuma Kitamise - Kyoto

So if you read my last post you will know I am just a little time poor at the minute and therefore postings will be very light on content/detail for the next little bit.... Apologies. But it's the option of sketchy or... nada - and nada's not really ideal for keeping a blog alive. 

So, here are some beautiful Autumnal dishes from a meal I ate a couple of weeks ago in Kyoto. This lunch was around 10,000 yen with some sake. Just over $100 AUD.

The image above is the Zensai - or substantial appetiser plate consisting of items such as salmon roe and pickled flower petals, rolled duck breast and wasabi,  fish rolled around beans and simmered in a sweet soy mixture, ohitashi of mushrooms, greens and chrysanthamum petals, fresh soybeans cooked in smoky dashi, mini sabazushi like sushi  - using Kamasu - a type of Baracuda instead of saba (mackeral) - detail below. And a small sweet made of sweet potatoes and red beans. 

The chef entertains a group of Japanese women who were fascinated by the Gaijin chick who was asking him for details about the food... although they knew I could speak some Japanese they spoke about me as if I wasn't sitting directly next to them. A surreal experience.  Lucky for me they were being polite.

Sashimi of Tai (red snapper), Maguro ( tuna) and ika (squid)

A young chef with a focus on preparing a broth for my next dish below - containing a fish paste dumpling wrapped around prawns, matsutake mushrooms, sandomame ( green beans), konnyaku and scented with green yuzu zest

Chef prepares a takeaway wooden bento for one of the customers. It was stunning. 

Gindara (black cod) marinated in saikyo miso before grilling and Tai grilled with salt. Turnip greens in sesame dressing. 

Working on a small radish flower for the above-mentioned bento.

Takiawase - simmered dish - seasonal vegetable, fish and tofu dish  containing a maple leaf of nama fu (wheat gluten), turnip with yuzu miso, pumpking, ko-imo (a type of taro/potato), thin pieces of sweet/smoked fish and yuba (soy milk skin)

concentration for the perfect duck slice to pop into the takeaway bento

Indulging the ladies once again... this time with a photo

Agemono - the fried course of tempura including hamo ( conger eel) , manganji peppers, prawns, their heads, shiso, pumpkin, sweet potato and lotus

The gohan or rice course was quite fancy here and contained seasonal matsutake, shiitake, shimeji, jako (tiny dried sardines) and manganji peppers. The pickles were  made from eggplant (which tasted remarkably like black olives), daikon and cucumber (detail below)

Bye bye ladies...

Refreshing dessert of Black sesame kuzu mochi, nashi, wine jelly, muscat grapes and crisp persimmon

Exterior of the restaurant - if you happen to be looking for it...

Here's the link to the restaurant site - you will see there are a few in the family....

http://www.tankumakita.jp/en/

If you don't speak Japanese - I recommend trying the branch at the Kyoto Tokyu Hotel. Or check it out when you are in Tokyo - however I have eaten only at this venue in downtown Kyoto  ( which, by the way, was really excellent as you can probably tell from the pictures.)

Psst!

Like the look of this ? then you might want to hop over to my KYOTO WINTER TOURS PAGE!

Murata san of Kyoto's famous Kikunoi Restaurant- A man on a mission!

Recently my friend Michael Baxter - the Kyoto Foodie arranged an interview for me with Murata san  - the proprietor/chef of the the Kikunoi Restaurant's in Kyoto. Murata san is a highly respected and extremely busy chef so I thought we'd be lucky if we scored 15 minutes with him but when we arrived, welcomed by a delivery of freshly whisked matcha with warabi mochi (traditional sweets),  he advised, with a smile,  that he was available for 2 hours.... We were rather taken aback by his generosity but soon relaxed into proceedings and, what I'd anticipated being a rather stilted and formal interview, transpired into one of the most inspiring conversations about Japanese food culture I could have wished for in Japan.  

With Michael's help translating I was able to glean some wonderful insight into the foundations of Japanese cuisine and food culture from one of its masters! A third generation Kyoto chef. What an absolute honour. 

Murata san is so proud of his country's cuisine and eager to share with foreigners in hope that a spiked interest elsewhere will bounce back to Japan. Murata san feels that Japanese youth are sadly no longer interested in their own unique and ancient traditions - preferring to immerse themselves as much as possible in popular culture from other countries. According to Murata san - it seems that if a Japanese product becomes popular outside of Japan it suddenly has a spotlight shone on it within Japan.  

The chef was open and a little cheeky, sharp as a tack and allowed glimpses of his strong sense of humour to slip through his well poised presentation of self - all of which certainly helped brush aside the intimidation factor... leaving only respect for a man who, apart from running some of Japan's most successful Ryotei (high end restaurants serving Kaiseki cuisine) is also the founder of the Kyoto based Japanese Culinary Academy from which he maintains a platform for Japanese chefs to share information with each other, international chefs and food media. 

In addition, and this was something that really grabbed at my heartstrings, is his dedication to educating school children about the roots of their own cuisine and healthy eating - going so far as to invite one mother, from each school they visit, to be trained by the Japanese Culinary Academy on traditional dishes,  eating habits and nutrition in order to help spread the information to parents and students at other schools ( as the foundation are only able to get to one school per month). What a fantastic and essential initiative.  My research over the last few years concurs  that since the 70's (when foreign foods stated entering Japan at a great pace) many Japanese, under the age of 40, rarely cook at home and when they do - its often something very convenient or sadly not Japanese and the children are losing their connection to their astounding cuisine culture. His aim is to re-educate wherever possible. 

I hope to learn much more from Murata san and his team in coming months and am honoured to be joining him again tomorrow afternoon for the next instalment...   I promise to share soon. 

Zenbu Zen

Pssst! I'm a little bit excited to share this with you.  Its the cover of my new book - shortly I will finally see the finished product!

Zenbu Zen is due for release on 01 October 2012 - it seems so far away but not so long to wait in the scheme of things! Its been a long time in the making and its so wonderful to know that I will soon hold a hard copy in my hands for the very first time. 

Being in Japan for the last 8 months I have been working on digital files only  - so I haven't had a chance to feel real pages...  there is something so lovely about flicking through the pages of a hard copy book... That might make me sound a little old fashioned (and I get that a bunch of novels are easier to carry to your holiday destination on an electronic device than drag around in your luggage) but to me, there are few things more enjoyable than sitting quietly in your favourite corner of the sofa or perhaps under a shady tree with a cuppa or a glass of wine and pouring over the pages of a beautifully designed and well considered book.  Getting lost in a book's text or images and, in the case of a great cookbook, plotting and tagging all the recipes you want to sample and who you will share them with, is one of life's simple pleasures. 

The team who worked on the book have done such a great job to ensure my text stayed true, my recipes were beautifully photographed and that my own images of Japan were used in such an empathetic and stunning way.  I was so lucky to have Uber designer Reuben Crossman working his magic on this title as he did with Snowflakes and Schnapps. I can't thank him enough. The recipe images are as gorgeous as they are thanks to photographer Cath Muscat and the food itself was lovingly and so perfectly cooked for the shoot by the very lovely Olivia Andrews from Have you Eaten and Firetruck.. Keep an eye out for this one she is a very clever young miss! 

I am a lucky girl to have had such talented peeps working on my book. My words, although trimmed to fit, could not have been more respectfully edited by the gorgeous women who are Carla Grossetti and Katri Hilden. Thank you also to Laura from Murdoch Books for keeping it all ticking along. 

I will be updating my blog occasionally in the lead up to the release but in the meantime...

Here is the jacket blurb just to give you a taste:

"When bestselling author Jane Lawson finds herself burnt out professionally and personally, and anything but healthy, she retreats to Kyoto to find more balance in all aspects of her life. Through an immersion in Japanese culture and especially in its food, she slowly regains that equilibrium - the zen of the title. "Zenbu Zen" is her very personal journey of discovery, interspersed with well-explained and beautifully photographed recipes."

Key points: stunning food photography; detailed explanation of Japanese food and ingredients with more than 60 recipes; provides a unique insight into Japanese people and culture."

And here is a link to my facebook page where I will also be adding regular info on my Japanese life and the book  - please do hop over and "like" my page - that way I am sure to keep you in the loop. 

Cheers, Jane x

Kakinuma かきぬま

About a week ago I enjoyed a very pleasant meal with friends at Kyoto's Kakinuma. The chef used to be in the family business (his father was a Tempura master) but his parents have retired and he now has a place of his own on Marutamachi dori between Kawabata and Higashioji dori. On the north side of the road. 

The food is simple and fresh with clean flavours and the dining space is a wonderful mix of traditional and elegant contemporary Japanese furnishings. You sit on the floor but there is a deep hole for your legs under the table - much easier for foreign visitors than a 4 hour stint on the tatami but with a similar atmosphere due to sitting at the low tables.  There is also a counter that faces the kitchen as per below - you are still on the floor, but on backed cushions for support and of course that lovely, comfortable drop for your legs. 

We started with a first course comprising of a variety of fresh seafood, with land and sea vegetables and a lush gomadofu or sesame tofu (see above pic - the gomadofu was served on a spoon with some uni or sea urchin on top)

Then came the fresh homemade tofu inside a bamboo cup - try it unadorned at first then with salt or freshly grated ginger.

One of the several wonderful sake's we sampled...

More excellent sashimi - toro (tuna belly) was the highlight

Crisp skinned, tender fleshed butter red emperor with grated daikon, soy and lemon

 Tai (snapper) in slightly thickened dashi with junsai (pond plant) and yuzu flower buds for fragrant. Kinome (sansho leaf) sits on top of compressed flakes of snapper. 

Lotus root puree stuffed with chicken mince, deep fried and served with a light ankake (thickened sauce of dashi, soy, mirin) 

Individual rice servings

The rice course comes with a choice of seasonal green peas, small clams or tai. Eat it straight at first then pour over tea/dashi for ochazuke - make sure you scrape up the okoge - the lovely crisp and caramelised rice granules that have stuck to the bottom of the cooker. Enjoy with pickles on the side. 

Dinner starts at around 5000y per person (for the above course) - alcohol not included. 

Return to Soujiki Nakahigashi そうじき なかひがし

This post has been moved to ZENBU TOURS. You will find it HERE

105th Annual Kyoto Cuisine Exhibition

That's right - 105 years and still going strong. Every December  - around the 13/14th the Kyo-Ryori Association organise this fantastic 2 day event. It is a must see for visitors to Kyoto who are interested in traditional Japanese cuisine. You can even taste the wares of some of the local restaurants for a small additional fee - vendors, plus tables and chairs, are set up at the back of the hall(Kyoto exhibition Hall in Okazaki park near the Heian Jingu/Shrine) - dishes on display and ripe for the picking! 

I recommend going on the first day if you want to take pictures as by the second, some of the food which had been so beautifully displayed ( and somehow preserved to look as fresh as possible for as long as possible) were starting to sag a bit... however they, strangely, didn't smell offensive...

There are maiko dances and cooking demonstrations at regular intervals


and the fair maidens even stroll the hall afterwards ( with their minders) and you can have your picture taken with them if you ask nicely!

(thanks Maiko san!)

 You can also witness a whole Tuna being sliced and diced by a master swordsman!  Some local products such as Kyo-yasai (renowned Kyoto vegetables) sake, mirin, miso, nori, foot spas and Fukushima preserved baby peaches... etc were for sale.... The last two might sound a bit random however the produce from Fukushima was on display and for sale alongside the visual food offerings specially constructed by Kyoto foodies in homage to the people of Tohoku.... we did try the tiniest taste of the baby peaches and they were sensational... but have to admit we declined to purchase a whole packet....

(famous Kyoto veg!)

And without further ado - here's a small sample of the culinary offerings for your viewing pleasure....