Chestnut kakiage 栗のかき揚げ

One more dish made from North American chestnuts. This time I made “Kakiage” かき揚げ with onions and chestnuts.

Chestnuts: I prepared the chestnuts the same way as before. In brief, I boiled them and removed the outer and inner skins while they were still hot. For kakiage, you can use fragmented chestnuts.
Onion: Since I did not have any other vegetables such as carrot or gobou (burdock root), I just used sliced onion (halved first and then thinly sliced. The amount is totally arbitrary. You could add other items.
Batter: I lightly salted the sliced onion first and then sprinkled on cake flour and let it sit for 30 minutes so that the moisture from the onion came out.  To make this kakiage a bit richer I added one egg yolk (optional) and more cake flour and cold water and mixed. I tried to make a rather thin tempura batter.

In a deep frying pan, I added fresh vegetable oil and heated it to 350F on medium flame. When the oil was hot, I placed a flat disk of onion and chestnuts mixture using a slotted spoon (below). To make kakiage crispy, I fried it longer than I would usually fry tempura (5 minutes) and turned them over and kept frying for another 4-5 minutes until the edges of the onion were brown and crispy.

This is a good autumnal dish. The sweetness of the onion and chestnuts enhance each other with different textures. As usual, I served this with green tea salt and wedges of lemon.

Miso flavored omelet 味噌卵

I tried to make this once before. This time I properly used scallop shells to cook the dish. This one is better than the first attempt but still not as good as I remembered. (My mother's side grandfather used to make this dish in a large scollop shell when I was just a little kid).



The recipe is still evolving but essentially a mixture of  eggs and miso cooked in a scallop shell.
The two servings as you see below is made with one egg.

Miso: I used Saikyo miso 西京味噌 (1 tbs) and loosened the consistency by adding a small amount of mirin which also added more sweetness.

Egg: Since I was planning to serve the dish with the center not fully cooked, I used one pasteurized egg.

I beat the egg and added the miso mixture and also added finely chopped scallion.

On low flame, I started cooking the mixture (left) and stopped when the peripheral portions started cooking (right).

This was much better than my first attempt but the edges got cooked too much while the center was still liquid. I have to try further to perfect this.

G-sake Fifty and G-sake

A few years ago, we came across a good US brewed sake called G-sake "Joy" from SakeOne. Some time later we tasted a new batch of  "Momokawa" Silver and Diamond sake also from SakeOne. Recently we came across a new variation of G-sake called "G-sake fifty", so we had a mini tasting to compare G-Sake fifty with regular G-sake (they have apparently dropped "Joy" from the name).

To start the sake tasting, we needed "Otoushi" お通し. I could not come up with 6 otoushi like Suiko  酔香 or Shuhai 酒杯 so I settled for three (see below).

From left to right; Kinpira gobou きんぴらごぼう, Pork belly "Kakuni" 豚の角煮 and Chicken skin, pickled myouga and cucumber in Ponzu 雛皮，蛇腹胡瓜，茗荷のポン酢和え.

Here is a picture of the two G-sakes. Left is the original G-sake（yellow "G") and the right is G-sake fifty (Green "G").

The picture below shows what is written on the back of the of the G-sake Fifty bottle.

Again, what kind of rice they are using is a bit of a mystery but if I had to hazard a guess I would say that they must be using a combination of imported "Saka-mai" 酒米 from Japan and probably  "CalRose" rice from California. Since it has an affiliation with Momokawa shuzou 桃川酒造, it is possible the imported rice may be from Aomori prefecture 青森県.

We were quite excited about this tasting. We poured both G-sakes into clear glass sake cups (to see the colors of sake better); surprisingly G-sake was slightly turbid (see below right). (Yes the sake cup was clean so the turbidity is indeed the sake not the cup).  The G-sake fifty, as you can see in the picture was clear (below left). Both had a very similar flavor profile which is not unlike Momokawa Diamond but not as sweet and a bit more refined, especially "Fifty". It is a more savory sake with a slight sweetness In contrast the regular G-Sake was a bit sweeter.

Being "Genshu" 原酒 (or undiluted sake), the alcohol content was 18% which, (believe it or not) we felt, was a bit too high for our tastes. So, in conclusion, we were not as impressed as before when we tasted G-Sake "joy" 2 years ago. Of the two we tasted we liked G-Sake Fifty better but if you like this flavor profile, Momokawa Diamond is more readily available and less expensive, albeit sweeter.

Of course, more food is needed when tasting sake. Again, we had sashimi from Catalina Offshore. This batch was quite good. Especially the blue fin tuna; very nice "Chu-toro" 中トロ (left lower) and "Ko-toro" 小トロ (upper center). Hamachi ハマチ could have had more fat (Center lower) but had a nice texture and Uni ウニ was superb.

Since, as usual, I removed the almost pure fat layer which was closest to the skin, I made a dish which is a cross between "Negi-toro" ネギトロ and ”Namerou" なめろう (Dressed in Karashi-sumiso からし酢味噌 and finely chopped scallion) preparation. I used a small container we newly acquired from the pottery store in Nishiki Market.

Although both G-Sakes are quite drinkable, we still prefer "fruity" and "clean" as oppose to "savory" and "sweet" tastes in sake. We  still prefer our house-sake "Mu" over either G-Sake.

Uni-Ikura donburi うにいくら丼

When I posted Eki-ben 駅弁 or station bento box, I mentioned my wife was disappointed because she could not get her favorite eki-ben from Hakodate; they are "Ikura bento" イクラ弁当 and "Uni-Ikura bento" ウニイクラ弁当 because our train connection to Sapporo was very tight due to the delay of our train to Hakodate. We did not have a time to buy eki-ben in Hakodate 函館.  After we came back to the U.S., she lamented the fact that she could not have  "Ikura and Uni bento". So, to appease her, I got uni (fresh) and ikura (frozen) from Catalina offshore products and made her Uni-ikura donburi.

The picture below is what she could have gotten in Hakodate but she did not.

(from https://www.jr-shop.hakodate.jp/mikado/product/product01.html).

This is what she got after coming home.

Since this was after eating some other goodies including toro sashimi トロ刺身 also from Catalina, I made a small donburi.

Ikura: I first thaw Ikura in the refrigerator over night. I then added a mixture of sake and soy sauce (equal amount), mixed and let it sit in the refrigerator over night in a sealed plastic container. The ikura swelled up absorbing the seasoning by the next day.

Uni: This is straight from the tray of California Gold uni from Catalina.

I first put the "sushi meshi" 寿司飯 on the bottom of the bowl, I then scattered thin strips of nori. I then topped the rice with uni and seasoned ikura. I could have added golden thread omelet or "kinshiran" 金糸卵.

As a consolation prize, this was not too bad. My wife said she was quite thrilled and satisfied to finally get her Uni-ikura donburi.

“Eki Ben” 駅弁

When we go to Japan, there are several things we really enjoy (beside going places and seeing our friends and family, of course). The first is visiting Izakaya and tasting all the good food and sake. The second is riding trains (we always get Japan rail passes). The third is eating “bento” 弁当 or more specifically "Eki-Ben" 駅弁 "station bento" boxes while riding trains. We did not do as many bentos as we would have liked but here the ones we tried.

One kind of bento which is rather universal either at the train station or the basement floor of department stores (“Depa-chika” デパ地下) called “Makunouchi Bento” 幕の内弁当 which originated from a bento boxes served at the Kabuki theater between performances. Now, among the bento boxes sold at train stations, makunouchi bento is very common and popular. It is offered at different prices and sizes but, essentially, it consists of many small compartments that include cooked fish, meat, vegetables, and rice.



This is the one we had while riding the shikansen 新幹線 train from Tokyo 東京 to Kyoto 京都. This was one of the small makunouchi. The left side is molded rice which is very common in makunouchi which makes picking up rice with chopsticks easy.



Below is an example of a much larger makunouchi bento which we had when we were riding from Kyoto to Tokyo. There are many more compartments than the previous example and the rice in different preparations was in five of the compartments including Inari いなり寿司 (left middle compartment).


Of course, train riding is thirsty work so some libation goes well with bento. I was a bit disappointed that many kiosks carried different kinds of beer, shochu cocktails, or whisky but sake was either not available or the selection was very limited. Obviously the preference of Japanese people has changed.

At a kiosk on the shinkansen platform in Tokyo, however, I found some fairly good sake (left) from Nada 灘 (near Kobe 神戸). We think the ultimate is riding a train in comfortable seats, watching the scenery go by, while tasting so many different food items from the bento box and sipping good sake. (one of the reasons we don’t ride the nozomi, even if we could using our Japan rail pass, is because the scenery flashes by so fast we cant watch it without getting dizzy.) The only problem is that the train rides seem to end too soon.

To fix this problem, we rode a scenic well-appointed tourist train which runs from Akita 秋田 to either Hirosaki 弘前 or Aomori 青森 via a local track called "Gonou-sen" 五能線 along the beautiful coast line facing the Sea of Japan north of Akita called “Resort Shirakami” リゾート白神. While the same trip (between Akita and Hirosaki using Oou line 奥羽本線) can be made by conventional train in 2 hours, this tourist train took over 5 hours from Akita to Hirosaki,

The below was the bento we had during the ride. This came in an imitation “Wappa” わっぱ bento box which, in original form, is  made of thin Japanese cedar bent into the shape of a bento box. Of course, this was made of plastic (below right).



The content was “seasoned rice” with a specific local chicken from the Akita area called “Hinai” ji-dori. 比内地鶏.



The last bento boxes shown below were ones that we had while riding the train from Hakodate 函館 to Sapporo 札幌. Our train from Aomori 青森 to Hakodate was delayed for no apparent reason (very unusual for Japanese trains) and the train from Hakodate to Sapporo actually had to wait for the connecting passengers (Us!). Although we usually have time to buy Eki-ben at Hakodate station (my wife really likes their “ikura-uni” bento), we had just enough time to transfer from one train to the other at a dead run dragging our luggage behind us--so shopping for bentos was out of the question. (That was the first time we almost missed a connection in Japan due to delays). So we had to get bento on the train.

We knew from past experience that we could make a reservation from the train for a “Kanimeshi-bento” かにめし弁当 or "crab rice bento" from Oshiamanbe 長万部 station. This is a rather famous bento and we wanted to try it. The idea is to make a reservation while  the train is heading to Oshiamanbe station. The reserved bento boxes are made just in time to meet the train when it stops. 

During this train ride we were attended by a very pleasant lady concierge. (Even though she had the responsibility of checking tickets she still had to serve tea.) She brought us a cold drink and paper slippers as soon as we boarded. She then took orders for lunch including the reservation of “Kanimeshi”. As the train left Oshamanbe station she delivered the bentos to our seats; Americans just don’t know the meaning of service until they’ve experienced it in Japan.

In any case, we had this famous crab rice bento (below). It was a bit disappointing. After all the hype we were expecting a luscious box with big chunks of crab. Instead, the crab meat was very finely ground and dry. It was seasoned sort of sweet and salty. The rice was still warm indicating that it had just been packed but this was not worth the effort and the price. The meat had very little crab flavor; it could have been any dry tasteless fish meat. It was certainly not the best bento we had on the trip—the other bento box we got along with the crab box was much better.



We also got an ekiben which was apparently originated in Hakodate station (below) called “San-kai iro-iro gohan” 山海いろいろごはん meaning “Items from mountains and the sea rice bento”



As you can see, items from mountains (small bamboo shoot, shiitake, “fuki”) and from the sea (scallop, salmon roe, kelp roll, fish cake) and other items topped the seasoned rice. For us, this was much better choice.



We knew that the JR Hokkaido and Hakodate line 函館本線 had been plagued with problems. During our ride to Sapporo 札幌, we were concerned about the way the train frequently lurched violently from side to side. My wife actually turned to me and said, “ If this doesn’t let up we could de-rail.” Two days later there was a derailment of a freight train on the same line (no one was hurt). The Hokodate line was closed for several days. My wife’s prognosis apparently was correct. We feel we were lucky. We hope things improve for JR Hokkaido.

New small containers and Walnut "shira-ae" tofu 新しい珍味入れとクルミの白和え

Every time we visit Japan, we shop in Kappabashi 合羽橋 in Tokyo and Nishiki market 錦市場 in Kyoto and buy some kitchen and table wares. The below is one such a purchase at Nishiki market. We bought similar items before from the same store called "Kawazen pottery" 河善陶器. They are tiny covered vessels in which "rare" tastes or "Chin-mi" 珍味 can be served. This time the proprietor suggested we get larger base (the little black tray divided into square compartments. He said that make everything a bit more "luxurious" (and we tend to agree with him.)
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So, one evening after we came back to the U.S., I made a few small dishes and served them in these newly acquired containers.



From left to right; Daikon Namsu with "Jako" 大根なます雑魚添え, Shira-ae with cantaloupe and walnuts メロンとクルミの白和え, and "Komochi megabu" 子持ちめかぶ.



This is my attempt at reproducing one of the otoshi items at Suiko. I promised my wife that I would make a similar dish. Since Persimmon was not yet available around here, I used cantaloupe instead.

Tofu: I used silken tofu (1/4). I placed it on a paper towel lined plate and microwaved it for 30 seconds to remove excess water and let it cool down to room temperature.

White sesame seeds and white sesame seed paste: I used the combination. I first dry roasted white sesame seeds (1/2 tbs, this one was already roasted but I briefly re-roasted using a small dry frying pan). Do not over do it since it will give the seeds color making shira-ae (literally means "white" dressing) not white. I ground the roasted sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar (suribachi すり鉢) until pasty and then added store-bought sesame paste (1/2 tbs). I then added miso (2/3 tbs, or to you taste) and the tofu and mixed it until it became a nicely smooth paste. I tasted and adjust the seasoning by adding more miso if needed.

Cantaloupe and walnut: Since I did not have a persimmon, I cut up a cantaloupe melon in to small cubes (amount arbitrary) and coarsely chopped roasted walnuts. I garnished with larger pieces of walnut pieces on the top.

Although, persimmon shira-ar is rather standard, the addition of walnuts really added to the taste and contrast in texture and this was a good variation of this dish.



This was my "sokuseki" 即席 or "instant or quick" version of "daikon namasu" 大根なます .



This was a packaged and frozen product. "Mekabu" めかぶ is a portion of "wakame" 若布 seaweed closed to the attachment. The eggs are Capelin eggs.

The tofu and cantaloupe was a good facsimile of the one we had in Japan. These containers look nice and we enjoyed our house sake "Mu" with these small drinking snacks.

Chestnuts with somen noodle crust 栗のコッロケのいがぐり揚げ

Besides matsutake 松茸, chestnuts 栗 are a classic symbol of autumn. Every year, we get whatever remained of North American Chestnuts from California. Same as matsutake dishes, I almost exhausted what I can make from chestnuts but I came up with a variation of the chestnuts croquet.



This is same as the chestnut croquet but instead of bread crumbs, I used broken thin Japanese noodles or so-men 素麺. As you can see above, it resembles the spiky outer layer or "Iga" いが or 毬 of chestnuts (sort of). This is mostly for appearance rather than taste.



When you cut into it whole chestnuts appears.

To make it, (I am repeating the previous post).

Chestnuts: The best way to removed the hard outer skin is to do it while it is hot after boiling. I took one out at a time and keep the rest in the hot water in which the chestnuts were cooked. I removed the outer skin by cutting the bottom of the chestnut (mostly skin part) and then peeling off the outer skin or "onikawa" 鬼皮. The outer skin is easy to remove (except that the chestnut is very hot). The inner textured skin or "shibukawa" 渋皮” is more difficult to remove. Especially for Northern American chestnuts, the inner skin goes deep into the crevasses of the nut. Sometimes pulling up will release it or more often, the nuts break apart. We did about 20 chestnuts and 9 came out whole and other 11 were fragmented.

I placed the fragmented chestnuts (11) into a small food processor and pulsed it to break down the chestnuts and then added milk. I gradually added milk as I ran the processor until a chestnut paste is formed  (upper left and right below). I added a pinch of salt as well. The paste was stiff enough that the traces of the tines of a fork remained on the surface.

I moistened my hands and covered each whole chestnut with the chestnut paste (right lower).


For regular croquets, I dredged with flour, egg water and panko bread crumbs. For this preparation, instead of panko bread crumbs, I broke up the dried somen noodle in small segments (about1 inch or less) and coated the croquets. I just deep fried them in 350F oil for several minutes or until the somen noodles were golden brown.

Matsutake Dinner 松茸

When we got 1 lb of matsutake 松茸, we had to concentrate on having an “all matsutake” dinner so that we could finish it before it went bad. Nothing new here but the proof that an all matsutake dinner is definitely not too much of a good thing.  They are similar or identical to I posted before (Sakamushi 酒蒸し, Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, Tenpura 天ぷら, Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, Grilled 焼き松茸, Dobinmushi 土瓶蒸し).

Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 and clear soup of matsutake 松茸のすまし汁.



Matsutake grilled on touban 松茸の陶板焼き.



Matsutake chawanmushi 松茸の茶碗蒸し with ginko nuts and chicken.



This was the second version of matsutake omelet 松茸のオムレツ. Instead of chopped scallion, I used chopped shallot.



I think we can wait for one year for the next matsutake feast.

Matsutake Omelet 松茸のオムレツ

When the season for chestnut 栗 and Matsutake 松茸 comes, I cannot help myself and rush to order some. I order Matsutake either from Oregon Mushrooms or Earthy delights. This year, I ordered from Earthy Delights. The matustake is from North America probably from Oregon or Colorado. One pound of matsutake is quite a lot. Most of the matsutake we received was just before the caps open and the quality appears much better than last year. Since I posted many matsutake dishes (Sakamushi 酒蒸し, Chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し, Tenpura 天ぷら, Matsutake rice 松茸ご飯, Grilled 焼き松茸, Dobinmushi 土瓶蒸し) before, I have to come up with something new. One weekend morning, my wife suggested that since truffles and eggs go well together and since matsutake is Japanese truffle, egg and matsutake should go well together. How about an omelet? This is what I came up with. I made the omelet from two eggs and we shared it.



Since the flavor (smell) of matsutake is rather delicate (faint), I decide to make it as simple as possible.

Matsutake: I used three small to small matsutake (below left). As usual, I cleaned them with a wet paper towel and gently scraped the skin with a sharp paring knife. Some times embedded dirt is very difficult to remove but these matsutake were rather clean. I cut off  the bottom halves of the stalks and finely chopped them. The caps and attached portion of the stalks were sliced (below right).

Scallion: I chopped up two scallions finely reserving the green part for garnish.

Eggs: I used two large brown eggs well beaten with addition of cream (2 tbs) and a pinch of salt.


In a small frying pan, I added light olive oil (2 tsp) on medium flame. When the oil was hot, I sautéed the chopped scallion for few minutes, seasoned with salt and added the chopped up matsutake stalks. I sautéed for another 1 minutes. I pushed the chopped scallion and matsutake to one side of the pan and then cooked the slices of the matsutake turning once so that both sides had a nice color.

In another non-stick small frying pan on medium low flame, I added a pat of sweet butter (1/2 tbs) and let it melt but not brown. I poured in the egg mixture at once. Because of the cream, the omelet was rather fragile and soft. Instead of my usual way of forming the omelet as I place it on the plate, I decided to from an omelet in the pan. After I lifted the edge of the omelet as the bottom was set to let the uncooked egg to run under for several times, only just a thin coat of uncooked egg on the surface remained. I added the chopped and sautéed scallion and matsutake in the center of the omelet and using a wrist motion, aided with a spatula, I formed it to an omelet (see below).



I cut the omelet in half and garnished with the matsutake slices and green part of the scallion (The first picture).

As in the case of truffles, the delicate earthy flavor of matsutake and soft omelet are a good combination. I served it without any condiments or sauce. I even did not use pepper in the seasoning. Definitely this is a good way to bring up and enjoy the flavors (smells) of matsutake.

Matsutake grilled on ceramic plate 松茸の陶板焼き

The simplest and probably best way to enjoy matsutake 松茸 is to simply grill it and eat it with the juice of Japanese citrus splashed over it (Sudachi すだち or Kabosu かぼす) and salt. Sometimes I feel, though, that direct grilling over a charcoal fire makes matsutake too dry. I have tried using a "Touban" grill with the addition of sake (grill-steamed). This time, I made it even simpler and it turns out that this is a very good way to enjoy the delicate flavor of matsukae in its purest form. I simply grilled it on the touban 陶板 and finished it with the lid on. This final step steams matsukake in its own moisture.

I placed the mastutake on the heated touban on low heat without any oil or liquid. After the matustake grilled enough to develop some brown spots (appearing in about 2 minutes), I put the lid on and let it continue cooking for another minute.

The dome-shaped lid really does a good job of retaining the matustake flavor yet you do not feel like you are eating “raw” matsutake. Since we do not have “Kabosu”, we used wedges of lime and Kosher salt.

Squid sashimi dressed in tarako イカの刺身の鱈子和え

I decide to make this dish since it was served as one of the numerous dishes for a dinner at Wakamatsu Hontenn 若松本店 in Narita 成田 on our last  night in Japan. Unfortunately, the quality of the squid sashimi we could get here was not up to par with what we had in Japan and the previously frozen "tarako"たらこ was a bit too salty. As a result this dish was a pale comparison to the one we had at Narita. Dealing with lesser quality Japanese food items is especially difficult sice we just came back from Japan.

Squid sashimi: This is a packaged, prepared and frozen. I just thawed it.

Tarako cod roe: This also came frozen. I opened a sac of one small tarako and scraped off the roe from the membrane of the egg sac. I put it in a small container and added a small amount of cold sake so that the constancy is more suitable to dress the squid (also reduced the saltiness).,

Just dress the squid sashimi with tarako sake mixture.

We served sake in our newly acquired "Tusgaru" nuri 津軽塗 sake cups at "Nebuta" village ねぶた村 in Hirosaki 弘前.

This is my cup which matches the my chop sticks.

This is my wife's which also matches her chop sticks.

In Hirosaki, near Hirosaki castle 弘前城, we went to "Nebuta"village which is a large tourist trap. Beside the display of "Nebuta", many Tusgaru 津軽 or "Aomori" 青森 crafts are being displayed and sold. Some of the artisans were demonstrating how these crafts were made. One of them was making "Tsugaru-nuri" which requires many layers of lacquer and polishing on every layers. We bought two sake cups. When we came home, we were surprised to find that chopsticks which we have had for years matched the sake cups. I thought our chopsticks were "Waksa-nuri" 若狭塗りbut now I realized they are "Tsugaru-nuri" 津軽塗. Surprise, surprise!

Kawadoko restaurant Kiraku, Kifune, Kyoto 貴船川床料理喜らく，京都

We visit Kyoto 京都 every time we are in  Japan. This time we had only 2 nights and one whole day. We stayed at out favorite hotel in Kyoto "Granvia" with a spectacular city view.

We arrived in Kyoto late afternoon on Sunday and many of the Izakayas we would have liked to visit were closed. The weather was not particularly cooperative either as you can see in the view from our hotel window. So, we went to our backup, "Torihachi"鳥八 on Sunday evening. One of the advantages of Torihachi is that they are always open even Sunday. (They may close New Year’s day). In addition, we could walk to it through the station and underground "Kintetsu meitengai" 近鉄名店街 shopping mall. Although the choice of sake is very limited, their "Kara-age" is to die for. They keep the skin on the meat and the skin gets crispy yet the meat remains succulent. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening at Torihachi.

In any case, we had only one whole day (Monday) and over the years we have visited most of the major sightseeing spots in Kyoto and surrounding areas (Nara and Uji) including some difficult to get to such as "Koke dera" 苔寺, so we decided to go to "Kurama" 鞍馬 this time. This is in the mountains where Minamoto Yoshitune 源義経, the favorite tragic hero of Japan, trained with the mystical red-faced and Pinocchio-nosed creature/monk warrior “Tengu 天狗” as a young  “Ushiwaka-maru” 牛若丸.  I walked the mountain path between Kurama and Kifune 貴船 many many years ago and remembered that the path was dark, cool with many tree roots exposed on the surface. My recollection was that I walked the path during a break in a business trip in my suit, tie and dress shoes. I remember it was very difficult (possibly due to my attire) but the detail of my memory have been blurred by time.

So, we decided to dedicate a whole day to this excursion. Our plan was to skip lunch and come back to the hotel early and hungry enough so that we could be at Akagaki-ya 赤垣屋 around 4:30pm when it opens so that we could sit at the counter.

Kurama is a bit far away but the concierge at the hotel gave us good advice. He suggested that we take a short taxi cab ride to the Keihan shichi-jo 京阪７条駅 station and pick up the train to Demachi Yanagi 出町柳 and then transfer to “Eizan-dentetsu” 叡山電鉄 to “Kurama”. Eizan-dentesu is a quaint local train and many intervening stations were un-manned (meaning that passengers had to get off from the first door so that the driver could collect the fare). Our slow train gradually climbed into the mountains and beautiful scenery unfolded as we went. (The train actually had seats placed parallel to the side windows so passengers could view the scenery comfortably facing front without having to turn their heads). 

We got off at the terminus, Kurama station. We walked easily to Kurama-dera temple. Next question was how far we had to walk/climb to attain the mountain path I remembered. I somehow thought it was an easy reach from Kurama station but it was not. (We found that there is little level ground in the mountains you are either walking relentlessly up or relentlessly down.) The path on this side of the mountain was relentlessly up. In addition to a short cable car ride, we had to climb numerous stone stairs, paths, and steps which were cut into the ground. We came across several temples and shrines of sorts along the way. After some way up, we felt we were deep in the mountains with dense stands of Japanese cedar trees soaring straight to the sky on both sides of the trail. The air was much cooler (this was a rather hot day) leaving our skin feeling clammy cool. Something that can not be captured in pictures were the continuous sounds of cicadas, other insects, and birds. We saw a small snake, brought to our attention by a lady hiker running past shouting "hebi…hebi" (snake, snake). We turned in time to see the creature slither off the path in the opposite direction of the screaming hiker. Finally, we saw the exposed tree roots on packed dirt that I remembered.

At this point, we had come half way along the route. Initially we were not sure we could walk all the way to “Kifune”. My wife said “I am not going back down the steps we’ve already climbed. Lets keep going”. That settled it. Forward and onward! The rest of the way was relentlessly down hill. This was not as bad as climbing. Although many steps had been painstakingly cut into the earth of the mountain path, we felt in some cases they actually made the walking more difficult. If the packed dirt and tree roots were kept as they were, it may have been easier to walk as long as it was not wet or muddy. Finally after 2 hours of climbing and walking on the stairs and mountain path, we heard the water running and saw the top of the tiled roofs. We knew we were finally at “Kifune”.

Coming down the last stretch of steep steps, we saw “Kawadoko” 川床. I had read about these restaurants in Kifune but this was not what I had imagined. Kawadoko is somewhat similar to Suzumi-doko* 涼み床 but better. Although we were supposed to skip lunch so that we could go to the Izakaya early, this view of kawa-doko changed our minds. We did not do any “research” (i.e. look up on the web) but we decided to have a lunch at “Kiraku” 喜らく. It was expensive especially for a lunch but we could not pass this unique opportunity.

The customers were seated (shoeless) on low, platforms suspended over the shallow river bed. The river bed was paved with cement embedded with stones and the water ran swiftly over descending rapids with a loud rushing sound. We were so close to the water we could have put our feet in. (My wife said she almost did while attempting to remove her sandals). The rapidly moving water served as a natural “air conditioner” cooling things by several degrees. The nice sound of rushing water further enhancing the cool feeling as well as muffled conversation from nearby tables. Please see the picture below and I also added a short video (below).

*Suzumidoko: We had spent an evening on Suzumi-doko in an old Japanese restaurant 料亭 on Ponto-cho 先斗町 some years ago. Prime seating was au fresco on a deck or veranda built over the flood plain of the Kamo river 鴨川. The idea is that the cool air created by the river going under and over the suzumi-doko served as a natural air conditioner making the hot humid summer evenings of Kyoto more tolerable while dining.

The above picture was the up-river view from where we were seated. The entire platform was just for us. The bamboo blind provided privacy from the diners next door. Please see the video below for the full effect of view and sound.

This was the most reasonably-priced lunch on the menu. Goma-dofu 胡麻豆腐, mountain vegetable tempura 山菜の天ぷら, cold somen noodle with poached egg 素麺の温泉卵 and several more small dishes. We thought this was quite a feast for lunch. But then, the second course appeared which was grated  mountain yam and Carp* "arai" sashimi* 鯉のあらいの山芋かけ which was a rather elaborate and filling dish.

*Eating raw fresh water fish is risky because of the parasites they may carry. In this type of Japanese restaurant, I was told that they only use specially "cultivated" carp for eating raw not wild. So the risk of parasites is said to be nonexistent. Since these raw carp dishes were being served in many reputable restaurants, I have to trust their safety. I don’t think, however, carp is worth ordering if you have a choice.



We forgot that we ordered an additional grilled sweet fish 鮎の塩焼き.



We did not know but they also served mushroom rice, soup and assorted pickled vegetables 漬け物.



Although we barely touched the rice, at this point, both of us were quite full and it was very unlikely that we would be hungry again at 4:30pm when Akagaki-ya opens. Nevertheless, this was a quite a experience and we were glad we did it. It was like a grand Japanese style reward at the end of the arduous hike.

We took a bus to Kifune-guchi station 貴船口駅. It was a paved road but very narrow, in some segments, it was not possible for two cars to pass. In addition, many tourists were walking along the road making driving even more difficult. We were glad we took a bus rather than walking. From Kifune-guchi station, we took the slow local train again back to civilization.

To make the day count, we got off the subway at 4-jo Kawaramachi ４条河原町 to do some shopping on the way back. We went to several of our favorite stores including the doll store which my wife really likes. We even managed to go to Nishiki ichiba 錦市場 and bought a few items including small containers to serve Japanese delicacies. At this point, we gave up on going to Akagaki-ya since we were not yet hungry and it was almost 5pm. Again we decided to go to our back-up Izakaya later when we were hungry.

This one is called "Kurakura" 倉蔵. It is hidden in the small alleyway but is in walking distance from our hotel. Although food could have been better, we had many choices of excellent sake as a de fact-sake sommelier (wife of the owner??) took interest in us and let us taste and served sake herself.  (Akagaki-ya does not have a good variety of sake). So we were quite satisfied. We declared our visit to Kyoto another resounding success and walked back to our hotel.

Grilled walnut miso 焼きクルミ味噌

One of the things I like best about “eating out”, in addition to the food itself of course, is the inspiration I get from finding new dishes. This is an example of one such inspiration. It is my attempt to reproduce the grilled walnut miso we had at Honoka. I made two attempts and the second one was much better which is the one shown below. It tasted very similar to what we had at Honoka.

Miso: For this, I used "awase-miso" 合わせ味噌 made of soy bean but using both rice and wheat "kouji" 米麹、麦麹 thinking this kind of miso would be savory and a bit sweeter but not too sweet for this dish but, I am sure, any good quality miso will do.

Walnuts: I used American black walnuts (whole). My wife toasted them in the toaster oven for me and rubbed the skin off using a dish towel. I chopped up half.  I ground the remaining half in a Suribach すり鉢 mortar to make smooth walnut paste.

The amount is arbitrary but for two small bamboo spatulas (below), I used about 2tbs of the miso and 1 tbs of the walnuts paste. I mixed in mirin to adjust the consistency and sweetness (about 1-2 tbs). I tasted this mixture and was satisfied with the balance of saltiness and sweetness and did not  add any sugar. I then mixed in the chopped walnuts (2 tbs).

I smeared the miso mixture thinly on both bamboo spatulas (these are a bit larger than ones at Honoka). I grilled the miso using a direct gas fire. I used a low flame and grilled them from few inches above the flame. I did it slowly and it took about 5 minutes as I moved the spatulas to make sure the entire surface was evenly grilled and not too quickly charred (see below).

This was not bad for a quick re-production. It had plenty of walnut flavor and savory miso was not too sweet or salty which was enhanced by the grilling process. This was indescribably good between sips of sake. It also took us back to the great time we had at Honoka.