Kyoto

Kyoto is a historically fascinating and visually enchanting city to visit in any season. Formerly the Imperial Capital of Japan, and now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, it is home to over 200 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, incongruously settled amid an ever-growing, but sophisticated urban metropolis. Alongside its temples, well-preserved palaces and gardens, and famous geisha district, Kyoto is also renowned for its abundance of delicious Japanese foods. Harking back to its long imperial past, Kyoto proudly offers kyo-ryori cuisine, a refined style of traditional dining. The best way to experience this cuisine is a kaiseki: a multi-course banquet featuring a variety of vegetables and tofu-based dishes. Although the variety is large, the portion size is small, leaving you plenty of room to try everything. Our kaiseki included lightly fried tempura, individual tonkatsu, (soya milk) nabe with leeks and deep fried tofu, thin slices of sashimi and gently grilled salmon fillets.

In Japan, there are many traditions and customs based on the changing of the seasons, and kaiseki uses the best seasonal ingredients available. For those with less time, or a tighter budget there are plenty of other delicacies to choose from. The street leading up to Kyomizu-dera, perhaps the most famous temple in Japan, is teeming with stalls offering traditional Kyoto sweets, tempting cakes filled with sweet red beans and steaming octopus balls. The Nishiki-koji street market is another fantastic place to visit to see and taste a wide variety of foods. The restaurants lining the market offer the usual selection of Japanese fast food including the Kyoto special - nishin soba, a traditional meal of soba noodles with part-dried herring on top. The freshly made Mochi is also worth trying, served with unlikely but tasty toppings including peanut butter, cheese and green tea. The surrounding stalls stock everything from vats of Japanese pickles, displays of raw and cooked fish, Kyoto's famous red carrots and piles of dried beans. As we were lucky enough to visit Kyoto for the Setsubun festival(節分) on the 3rd of February, soya beans were in plentiful supply. This traditional festival marks the beginning of spring, and is celebrated with a number of food related rituals, including Mamemaki where the male head of the household throws pan-heated soybeans out the door. The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health. As part of bringing luck in, it is also customary to eat soybeans, one for each year of one's life.

Hannah Green

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