Friday, November 20, 2015

Japan 2015 - Kyoto's Nishiki Street Food Market

Although the Central Japan portion of our tour ended in Toyama, there was a two-day extension in Kyoto, my favorite tourist city in the world.

I love going to food markets wherever I can find them: Paris, New York, Tokyo and especially Kyoto. There the Nishiki Street food market is open six days a week, throughout the day, and one encounters wonderfully fresh food products as well as an abundance of exotic prepared items, from Kyoto's renowned pickles to freshly ground hot pepper spices.

In my unofficial foodie-in-chief of our group, I volunteered to lead a tour of the Nishiki market, which my companions enjoyed immensely.

Some of the highlights of our stroll through the market are below, more or less in the order of our visit (I have tried not to repeat my post of November 6, 2013 too much):

Real chestnuts, not to be confused with those at Zeniya
A weird product, octopus head stuffed with quail egg (photo by Jan Golann)
Shrimp, dried and caramelized
Fried scallop adductor muscles - things we throw away: who knew?
Sea snails
Tea roaster and freshly roasted teas
Assorted mini fish for rice - a super rich source of calcium
Seaweed products, fish and Kyoto style natto (I think)
Steaming oden (mostly various fish cakes and vegetables)
Omelet making 101 and the final result
Cucumbers pickled in miso
The eel guy has various qualities and sizes
Prepared garlic (I don't know how this is used)
One of my favorite stands: the ichimi and shichimi  hot pepper spice grinder.
Mochi tea sweets
Real wasabi root, not to be confused with the powdered stuff
Fancy rice crackers
Although one can find many of the same items, beautifully presented, in the basement floors of the major Tokyo and Kyoto department stores, you can't beat a tour of the Nishiki Market.

Bobby Jay

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