June 2010
7 posts
Summer Kyoto-style Sushi at Izuju with New Foodie...
Today I met up with Amy Ma and two of her chef friends. We visited Nishiki Market and then had some Kyoto-style sushi at Izuju. I snapped a few piks. In addition to hamo pike eel, the ayu sweetfish is now in season. Izuju does a nice rendition of this summer sushi special. The dish is called Ayuzushi. The bones are removed from the ayu and it is salt grilled and served whole on sushi rice. I got...
A Good Experience at Aritsugu (Kyoto Nishiki...
I finally had a really good experience at Aritsugu. I wrote an article on OpenKyoto last summer about knives in Kyoto and my take on Aritsugu. I got some comments to the contrary and some scathing mentions on other forums. So be it. I am pleased to report that today I spent about 30 minutes at Aritsugu and the service was very friendly. I took Amy Ma and her friends around Nishiki Market and...
Wakayama Kishu Ume Arrival - Finally
F-I-N-A-L-L-Y ! My 10 kilos of orchard ripened ume arrived today. These are from Wakayama Prefecture, called Kishu Ume, in Japanese. Kishu is the former name of the country now called Wakayama and is where the best ume is grown in all of Japan. This year I finally resolved to make umeboshi. I ordered my ume plums, purchased and assembled all the accoutrements, tools, tubs and so on, then it...
Seasonal Tempura Donburi: Waka-ayu 'Sweetfish' and...
Early summer has come and that means ayu, or sweetfish are in season. Also, I have somehow been crazed with tempura donburi recently. I am not sure what took so long for me to really discover this dish. It is easy to make and very tasty; just some tempura on rice with a splash of tempura tsuyu. Normally I would never make tempura at home as I don’t like to cook with oil in my house and...
First Lotus Flower of 2010 - Rainy Season
My lotus bloomed quite early this year. I had 4 beautiful flowers last summer, that was July. This summer the first flower appeared at about the beginning of the rainy season. Now that is early! Ideally you want to have lotus flowers for the Bon Festival, the festival of the dead that takes place in mid-August.
Kyoto Kamo River Yuka - Sunset
I snapped these piks with a very old camera from the Sanjo Bridge looking north to Kitayama on the Kamo River in central Kyoto. We are in the rainy season now, but the evening sky and sunset reminded me of late summer with pink wispy clouds against the dark blue evening sky. On the west side of the river, the ‘yukadoko’, AKA, ‘kawadoko’ the summer dining decks have...
My Favorite Miso in the World Arrived!
In preparation for my ume (plum) extravaganza series, I ordered some miso from Kameoka in rural Kyoto. I got 1.5 kilos of Tamba kuromame (black bean) miso. It is nama, still alive, unprocessed right out of the wooden fermentation barrel. This is my favorite miso in the whole wide world!