junsei restaurant
Looking for vegetarian options for my visiting brother and nephew, Mari found Junsei near Nanzenji, where we had an excellent yuba (tofu skin) kaiseki dinner. The garden, lotuses and koi were as beautiful as the food.
ume
These ume, a type of apricot, had a wonderful light, fruity fragrance. The delicious smell was deceptive, though, because ume are too sour to eat raw. Mari boiled some of these and added sugar to get a tangy juice and jam. Others are now sitting at the bottom of a ceramic-coated bucket, weighted down and pickling in salt. After we add purple shiso (perilla) leaves and wait a few months, the ume will have transformed into soft, red, wrinkly, salty-sour umeboshi.
koujitsu-kyo contemplation
Koujitsu-kyo (好日居) is a café that opened recently near Heian shrine. Built in what used to be an old home, it's a casually elegant space with a European-inflected traditional Japanese woody style. (My description is not so good... I'll try to go back to take better pictures.) The owner, who worked as an architect before she quit her job to open the café, renovated the building herself. We sat in the soft light next to the garden doors in the back and snacked on red bean mochi, matcha, cookies and fragrant Chinese teas. Everything was delicious, enhanced by the peaceful atmosphere of the place and by the owner's obvious bliss in sharing it with us. Koujitsu-kyo is a short walk from Kyoto's National Museum of Modern Art, near the boutiques across the river and down the street.
The table centerpiece in the photo above is part of an exhibit of the café owner's grandma's delightfully strange and cute collection of kewpie dolls, each of which the grandma embellished with tiny hand-knitted outfits and accessories.
ramen at rouji
Rouji, this delicious ramen shop near Demachiyanagi station (map), serves their noodles tsukemen style, with the noodles separate from the broth. You dip the cold wheaty ramen into the fish-based broth. Boiled egg and char siu pork are optional, just choose at the ticket machine by the entrance. On a recent visit with friends from the U.S., I had an entertaining time finding the right buttons to press since none of us could read kanji. For any of you similarly handicapped visitors, here are the buttons, from left to right: "plain," "with boiled egg," "with roast pork," "with boiled egg and roast pork." Simple! (You'll also need to choose how many grams of noodles.) A nice design touch: all the bowls, and the hot plates you can reheat the broth with, appear to be from Muji.
New Year’s Food
This post shows how late I am. Spring is starting, and I'm only now showing Mari's osechi ryori, or New Year's cooking, at her family's place in Saitama. Served in a three-tiered lacquer box, as is custom.
Memories of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Looking back at what I've left un-posted these past several months, I found these warm memories of banana bread (cake, really) in November — made by Mari with American chocolate chips and a recipe from my sister Marnie. At bottom, a slice of cake with yuzu zest. Nothing says "love" like cake.
fujino home
Photos from a relaxing afternoon at the home of a couple we met in Fujino last May. She's a potter and bead artist, and he's an illustrator/sculptor. Their living room was a colorful clutter of bicycles, vintage toys, posters, drawings. Hanging from the ceiling, a photo-mobile, koinobori carp flags, and a motorized globe. R2-D2 and Ultraman were there, as was a Picasso-inspired bull's head fashioned out of a bicycle seat and handlebars. I had the impression that the toys belonged to the 50-something dad as much as to the five-year-old son.
"aisu"
Post-sightseeing ice cream. From left: Milky (that's Peko-chan with the ponytails), a green tea/red bean/milk bar, and green tea Coolish. (I don't recommend the one in the middle — nice texture, but syrupy sweet.)
All the Japan guidebooks I've seen warn that it's considered rude in this country to eat and walk on the street at the same time. Eating while walking at festivals is an exception, and some say that ice cream is okay. Mari and I have a routine that whenever we eat and walk, I ask her, "Are we being rude?" She answers, "I don't mind."
Well, it was a hot day and we'd been walking a lot, and despite what polite society may think proper, the three of us — Mari, her mom and I — ate our ice cream while strolling down the street, AND WE ENJOYED IT.
saturday soba
Hop on our bikes to catch lunch at a nearby soba shop on Higashioji-dori. Cups of green tea, cold sake, hot soba water. Studying a pamphlet about basic health insurance.
