Category Archives: Food

Spring Morel Dinner

Farro with Morels and Spring Vegetables

Those of you who know us are aware that DD’s been an avid mushroom forager for a couple of years now.  Through our friend Brian, DD became the proud owner of the seminal Mushrooms Demystified, Mycologist David Arora’s 976-page tome on possibly everything you may want or wish to know about mushrooms in the U.S.A., with a focus on the West Coast.  DD also has Arora’s pocket-book-sized version, All the Rain Promises and More, and has liked it so much as an introduction to mushroom study that he’s given it as a gift on several occasions.  Over the past 2.5 years, my husband has lovingly and obsessively pored over these now dog-eared books, and is pretty much able to identify many fungi based on observed characteristics (cap colour, kinds of gills, whether it stains when bruised, smell, etc.).  DD has successfully foraged for our favourites – Porcini, Chanterelles, black trumpet mushrooms, even Matsutake and many other not-so-prized specimens in-between.  Morels have been his white whale, and until this past weekend, efforts to find them have proved sorely unfruitful.  But, thanks to Hank Shaw of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, DD finally struck morel gold on Saturday. Continue reading →

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Kichisen, Kyoto

Kichisen Counter

We should have asked.  We had noticed the young man standing by the sidewalk – not so much in the middle of the walkway, but on the edge, somewhat nonchalantly, looking around – crisp cream shirt, black trousers.  He stood in front of a quiet, understated entrance whose signage we did not initially see; we also didn’t want to gawk and only glanced in its direction (we thought it could have been someone’s residence).  We should have just asked, “Sumimasen, Kichisen wa, dochira desu ka?” (Excuse me, where is Kichisen, please?)

It took us an hour by Kyoto’s city bus to get to Kichisen on the other side of the city, approximately the same time estimated by Google walking directions.  It’s a good thing that we left the Shunkoin Guest House with plenty of time.

Kichisen was our first truly fancy meal of the trip, selected because of Michelin, recommendations and accounts by Kyoto Foodie, and some research on Chowhound. Continue reading →

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Goma Dofu

Goma Dofu at the Hug Hovel

How can a dish with no sugar in it be such a stunningly tasty dessert?  We fell in love with a number of things while in Japan, one of them being a fantastic dish called Goma-dofu, or sesame dofu.  It had a creamy, savory-nutty sweetness that was terribly addictive.  Note that it’s not actually soy-based tofu though; it’s made of ground sesame seeds and kuzu starch, and makes for a great vegan dish.  Kuzu (or Kudzu) is a perennial ornamental vine that’s a member of the pea family, and originally hails from Asia where its root starch is used primarily as a thickener for soups, stews, and sauces.  In Japan it’s used in both savory and sweet treatments.

We ate a number of tasty goma dofu dishes while we were in Japan, and before we had even returned to the states I vowed that I would try to replicate it at home.

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But What About the Food?

Beautiful way to start our meal - Kikunoi Roan

Hassun course at Kikunoi Roan: skewer of miso-marinated avocado, smoked salmon and Tai liver; grilled squid with nori seaweed and egg yolk; fava beans, mountain yam “butterfly;” poached egg-bearing octopus; Tai sushi with Kinome pepper leaf; Yurime lily root petals; Udo stalk petals; ikura.

Indeed, what about the food?  The trip was planned after all, in CCDD fashion, around food.  It’s been absolutely glorious – from the high-end to the low, from street food or market stands to Michelin-starred establishments and smoky izkayas, train station ekiben or small ramen-yas filled with salarymen… we’ve been eating very, very well.

In Osaka, I think I quite had my fill of takoyaki; DD kept wanting to sample these wherever we went, and we ended up tasting some from 4 different vendors.  We also loved sushi fresh from Kuromon market and Endo Sushi in Osaka’s Central Wholesale Fish Market, similar to, but not as big as Tsukiji.

Okonomiyaki in the Dotonbori

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In search of Sakura

Bugbears in bloom: Ume no Hana in Kenrokuen

We’d read that the best times to visit Japan were either in the Spring or Autumn.  DD, reluctant to miss porcini season in the Bay Area, made the decision easier and we selected springtime for hanami, or flower-viewing – when most of the country goes crazy for the beautiful pale pink cherry blossoms that are spread so widely across the entire nation.  We arrived in Osaka to find it a bit chilly and indeed, a bit too early for sakura; buds were still green and tight among the trees we saw…

After a few days in Osaka, we traveled by shinkansen to Takayama, a mountain town in Central Japan known for their well-preserved old town of machiya, or merchant’s houses.

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Day 1: Breakfast at Kuromon

Om nom nom nom sushi!

Breakfast at Kuromon Sanpei

A note: These update posts will be pretty minimal – but I’ll try to write with as much detail as time allows, as well as include photos.

Where to begin? Even while wandering around at midnight in the Dotonbori, a quintessential Osakan entertainment district, running parallel to the Dotonbori canal, one couldn’t get a true sense  of the crazy energy from even more Osakans and other Japanese (very few foreigners here, from what DD and I can tell) who emerged and filled the streets around the Kuromon Market, Den Den Town (or Osaka’s version of Tokyo’s electronics district, Akihabara), and the Kappabshi Dogugai, a restaurant-supply area also filled with eateries and other food establishment.  After we got to the end of the Dogugai, we managed to stumble upon the Takashimaya department store, where we encountered one of Japan’s fabled depa-chika food halls for the first time.

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Pea Sprouts/ Snow Pea Leaves


Sauteed Pea Sprouts

Note: I originally wrote this post on my old blog, delectation.  I haven’t found a great way of easily porting old posts over, so I’m attempting this manual method for now. I’m also slightly editing and updating the post from its original.

I adore this vegetable. It is, without a doubt, my favourite green, the foodstuff which I am constantly craving if I go more than a couple of days without it. Some of the Chinese restaurants in the city offer pea sprouts. Sometimes they are indeed the sprouts themselves, tiny, thin-stemmed multitudes, like so many green needles, crisp and crunchy in fragrant garlic sauce. Other restaurants, such as Brother Seafood Restaurant on Irving and 19th, the Go-Go Cafe on Irving and 19th (note: now closed), and Ton Kiang on Geary, actually serve pea leaves (Ton Kiang lists them as “Snow Pea Tips” on their menu) — which I’ve come to prefer over the more traditional sprouts.  If you’re near the Tenderloin, Ken’s Kitchen will deliver within a certain radius (i.e., Alamo Square).  In the restaurants I believe they can also be called Tom Yau, or To Miao, or even Tau Miao.

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