While there was a lot of culture and religion to visit in Kyoto, there was also a lot of food! Kyoto’s Nishiki market was at the top of my list for this trip. It is 4 or 5 roofed-in blocks full of different food stands and shops. Everything local to Kyoto cuisine can be found here – pickled vegetables, lots of sesame, mochi, yuzu in many different forms, soy donuts (tofu is big here), and so much more. When I travel I love visiting markets like this to really understand the local foods of wherever I am. I took a stroll through and bought and tasted a variety of things that made up my lunch for the day. Ultimately I might have had more sweets/desserts than savory, but it is what it is :).

  

I tried a bunch of different pickled vegetables, some of which were pickled using rice bran to ferment – really strong! I had little round savory donuts filled with octopus (just eh), an amazing yuzu flavored mochi as well as a great black sesame one (which I ate that night), an octopus with a hardboiled egg stuffed in it’s head, a salted cucumber on a stick, and soy-milk doughnuts.  Plus, I bought black sesame covered peanuts and wasabi covered peanuts and almonds. The wasabi nuts were especially different from any wasabi snacks I’ve ever had – and now I can’t find anything similar elsewhere and I’m craving them, I wish we bought more!! The market is also full of fish, produce, and other Japanese crafts and items – it’s a one stop shop.

                      

The market isn’t the only place where we had great food in Kyoto. At a little yakitori place called Torito we had great chicken meatball skewers with an egg, and a very tasty stew of kimchee and rice.

Udon noodles from Omen were fantastic! A little bit of citrus rind on top of the heaping bowl of udon, with a delicious make-your-own sauce with sesame seeds, radish, green onions, etc., to dip into – it was light and refreshing even though it was really just a big bowl of carbs.

   

Ramen from Ippudo was awesome! We both added some fresh garlic to our already fantastic broth – kind of fun to do it yourself. The gyoza were pretty great here too. I had heard rave reviews about this place and it did not disappoint!

   

Some other fun snacks along the way:

 

Black Sesame soft serve. I have to say, I first had this at Momofuku in New York a bunch of years ago and it was amazing. It was a special flavor back then, and so I’ve always kind of been on the lookout for it again somewhere. When I saw this outside of the Gold Temple I had to have some…but I was unfortunately disappointed. The Japanese don’t use a lot of added sugar, like we do in the US, but I think this is one instance where they needed to use just a little bit because without it this ice cream ended up with zero flavor. I actually didn’t even finish it. Flocking to everything black sesame, I also had to try some of this mystery treat, which might have been a black sesame coated sweet potato. Again, not 100% but what I was looking for but it was actually pretty good.

Yatsuhashi are a local cinnamon cookie commonly found in Kyoto. I had read about them, and while extremely simple these cookies were pretty addictive – they were almost like a ginger snap.

    

Before I wrap up Kyoto, there was one more Kaiseki meal and one more experience worth sharing. For my last night I decided to stay at a traditional Ryokan in Arashiyama. A Ryokan is a traditional Japanese Inn, dating back to the Edo period, with tatami-matted rooms and yukata (casual, lightweight kimono). My ryokan also had an onsen (hot spring baths) –nothing fancy or luxurious (think Korean Spa), but so welcome in the middle of my trip!! I checked in in the afternoon, had my choice of 2 beautiful yukata patterns, spent a while in the onsen and then upstairs to get ready for dinner. I love a place where I get to wear my robe to dinner, and even better, I got to wear my robe (my yukata), while served a multi-course kaiseki dinner in the privacy of my own room. It was a nice change of pace, and fun to experience it all.

This kaiseki was not as fine a meal as the first one we had in Kyoto, but it was cool to have a second experience so that I could really see what was customary of this traditional meal. My server for the night spoke zero English, literally, and handed me a beautifully written menu for the meal (all of which was in Japanese) but I could predict many of the courses now that this was no longer my first rodeo so I figured we should be ok.

        

The dinner started with a Japanese apricot (I discovered this in the last kaiseki and loved it), tamago (egg), and some cooked vegetables and crab. Next up was the sashimi course, served with shiso and wasabi. The third course was one where English could have helped. She brought in a personal burner with what looked like a coffee filter and some oil in it, plus an egg, some fish and yuzu pepper. I didn’t know if I was making my own tempura, an omelette, or something else entirely different?! She left the room and I was baffled, but I went for the omelette approach, and still have no idea if it was the right one. It tasted good in the end, so I guess that’s all that matters. A yuzu gelee mold with okra, sweet potato, shrimp and chesnut inside was up next – very good. Followed by the traditional sweet fish, served whole. This one was much bigger than the last I had had, but it was salt crusted in parts, which was delicious. Both the noodle and beef courses were my least favorite – mainly because they couldn’t compare to the other noodles and meat I had had so far in Japan. The traditional end to the meal came in the form of sticky rice, miso soup and pickles, followed by a dessert of cantaloupe, 1 cherry and 1 purple grape, all of which were sweeter than any fruit you’ve ever tasted. The meal overall was very good, and the best part was that I was in my robe, in my room…have I mentioned that? 🙂

   

At the end of it all, my bed was made up on the floor and my sleeping yakuta was given to me. It was only 10pm and the onsen was open for another couple of hours, so I decided to visit the hot springs for a 2nd time that day before bed.

      

In the morning, I was up early and went for my 3rd and final trip downstairs to the baths. And then a traditional breakfast was served in my room, again in my robe. Hot tofu, miso soup, tamago, pickles, a sour plum, a tofu cake of some sort, and a rice porridge that had some fermented flavors. So much food!! After breakfast I sadly had to trade in my yukata for real clothes again so that I could head back to Tokyo for the remainder of my trip. At check-in the ryokan takes your shoes in exchange for slippers, and upon checkout, you get your shoes back. Well, with my Hawaiian-print shorts + the house slippers, I really felt like I could be “turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese, I really think so…”

Thank you, Kyoto, for an amazing few days. See you back in Tokyo!!