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. 
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 appeared. The restaurants put them out for their guests to enjoy summer and dinner.
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!
Back in Minnesota, when I was an aspiring foodie, one of my favorite dishes to make was split pea soup, with stock made from a hambone.
The other day while talking around Takashimaya I came across a demise selling ham. They also had hambones for sale which I purchased.
I made split pea soup for the first time in probably ten years or so. It was wonderful! I already have some ideas on how to improve the recipe and can’t wait to make it again!
Oyako means ‘parent and child’ in Japanese. One of Japan’s most popular lunchtime rice bowl dishes is called Oyako Donburi, it is chicken and egg over rice. We have reviewed several famous spots for this simple but yummy dish in Kyoto. (Toriiwaro and Toriyasu)
I recently stole some cookie dough while a friend was making cookies — Japanese think the idea of eating raw cookie dough is disgusting. Ben and Jerry’s flopped in Japan. I used two piping hot cookies right out of the oven and sandwiched them with cookie dough. And, I must say, I was quite pleased with my creation!
Photographer Russell Wong and his wife are KyotoFoodie fans. Hey, thanks!
When he came to town, he took me out for dinner — twice! His wife even called and asked if he was having dinner with KyotoFoodie. He kindly gave me a copy of his book. Thanks, Russell!
I tried to line him up with some snow and bamboo forest to shoot, but I failed to make it snow. Sorry Russell!
Russell is a lot of fun to hang with and told me a bit about how to shoot portraits, which is something that I want to do more of and get good at. Check out his site at the link below.
7 months agoThe last meal I had while in the Japanese New Year’s celebration mood was a breakfast of sukiyaki. I love sukiyaki! I cooked this with udon and heaps of nanohana rape blossoms. Yum!
Tonight I stumbled upon a nightime film shoot at the Tadasu-no-mori forest on the grounds of Shimogamo Shrine. The forest was lit up in a way I couldn’t have imagined. It certainly won’t look very natural. It must be for a jidaigeki period drama as there were lots of samurai milling around under umbrellas.
I was in Tokyo for several days on business and I was kindly invited to dinner at a Kyoto-style oden restaurant (and then a magic bar). The night was extremely cold blustery and oden was the perfect hot and hearty, at home kind of meal to combat the onset or winter. If you are a regular reader of KyotoFoodie you will probably know that Kyoto cuisine is all about dashi (broth) — and water. In Tokyo they don’t have good water, so they can’t make good dashi.
Shochu is often drunk in Japan mixed with hot water. It is quite pleasant for a winter evening drink. Hot plus alcohol is the perfect combination. Recently shochu mixed with hot Chinese oolong tea and sometimes even green tea has become common, but not a favorite of mine. This restaurant kind of out did itself with this homage to Kyoto — shochu and hot dashi soup stock!
I was incredulous when I heard what my mates were drinking. I ordered one up and was very surprised. I was expecting something weird, but it was actually very good. I think the point is that the dashi is fairly light and the shochu used is mugi (barley) shochu.
Restaurant: Raku (Kyoto-style Oden) 楽 京風おでん
東京都新宿区丹町５番地
03-3351-2328
access: Yotsuyasanchome Station on Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line
Magic Bar: Ginza Hachi-ji 銀座 八時
東京都新宿区荒木町８番地
03-3225-8000
http://r.gnavi.co.jp/g636103
access: Yotsuyasanchome Station on Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line
