food and packaging

elaborate sushi

we had an elaborate sushi meal high up in a kyoto restaurant, with a view of bustling shijo street. people with umbrellas hurried through the rain as it grew dark. lovely.

bamboo and matsutake cookies

daitokoji meal

we had a delightful shojin-ryori meal [vegetarian buddhist temple food] in the gardens of izusen, a restaurant on the grounds of daitokoji temple. at the end of the meal, all the lacquer bowls it was served in stack up inside each other. stunning.

first uji gori of the year.

strong sweet green tea [macha] poured over shaved ice the consistency of spun sugar, topped with sweet azuki beans and mochi and macha jelly and macha ice cream. what could be better in the summer heat.

japanese spring wagashi

these wagashi [japanese sweets]are for late spring and evoke to iris and water, and the fresh green plum that are in the markets now. they are made from mochi and sweet white bean paste and are from a historic shop in gion.

more restaurant kitchens

i love how intimate and tiny the restaurant kitchens are, especially those of the fancy gion restaurants. also note the cool kitchen geita [shoes].

hand made food from silk

i have been amused by this tiny shop in nishiki market, tucked in among all the food shops. it sells beautiful veggies and sushi hand made from chirimen silk crepe.

mochi pounding

mochi, pounded rice,often used for sweets and senbei. here is a movie of the rice being pounded at a mochi shop in nishiki market.

nishiki market

spent a lovely day at nishiki market, a 100 year old, mind-blowing covered food market in kyoto. every version of fish, pickles, pickled fish, seaweed, tea, veggies, and the most beautiful sweeties in the world [though, maybe not the tastiest].