Nishiki Market is an essential sight-seeing spot for food lovers visiting Kyoto. This 400 year-old market extends for 400 meters between Teramachi and Takakura and has the reputation of being a place where you can find anything! Almost everything here is locally produced and reasonably priced. Filled with all kinds of colorful sights, unusual smells and the cries of the market traders this is a lively location and a favorite haunt of photographers! Here below are some photographs, videos and spherical images from our own stroll down Nishiki. [Read more…]
Mund Shokudo
UPDATE: Sadly Mund Shokudo closed in December of 2016. We wish Masuda Ryohei all the best with his new working ventures.
Among all of Japan’s muggy summer cities, Kyoto is held to be the muggiest. Sheltered as it is by mountains on 3 sides, it sits in a natural narrow basin. Come summer, the humidity rises from its plentiful crystal streams, springs and rivers – and stays there, for there are no cool breezes to blow it away. In this intense sweltering heat, the spirit droops, passions flag and one’s appetite wilters with it. Is it possible to consume anything other than crushed ice and macha ice cream in this sultriest of seasons? Fortunately, generations of canny Kyoto homemakers have devised seasonal obanzai dishes to pique your palate in any weather. Obanzai ryori is the traditional cusine of the ordinary Kyoto home kitchen. The dishes, of vegetables, seafood and soups in varied combinations may appear at first glance to be just as ordinary. However, using only the freshest seasonal ingredients and sophisticated seasonings they are highly nutritious and perfectly suited to Kyoto’s intense climes. Many restaurants in Kyoto specialize in serving this humble obanzai cuisine and one such restaurant is Mund Shokudo: a little diner in central Kyoto offering good old fashioned wholesome Kyoto dishes with a subtle creative flair.
The owner and cook, Masuda Ryohei, having worked for years in other people’s kitchens, went independent and opened up his own business last February. He’s created a nice space too. The white walls are decorated with artwork by his friends and the white counter top with colorful fresh vegetables and those traditional obanzai side dishes. As you sit at the counter and watch him prepare your meal you can see that he relishes his new found freedom and he is certainly giving free rein to his creative instincts for the menu changes every single day. Indeed, one of the reasons I love coming here is that I can learn a little something new about Kyoto cuisine every time I visit. [Read more…]