WHO:
Based in London. Born in England to Hong Kong Chinese parents. Grew up in Germany. Lived in Beijing & New York. Indulges in ‘traveleating‘. Married to a vegetarian. Lives as a carnivore. Works as a Film Examiner at the British Board of Film Classification.
Author of ‘a traveleating journal: japan’, a small guidebook based on the last trip to Japan (Lonely Press, Aug 2010).
Consultant on Chinese ingredients for The Cook’s Book of Ingredients (Dorling Kindersley, Oct 2010).
Shortlisted for the Guild of Food Writers 2009 New Media Award, as the only non-professional food writer in all twelve categories.
- Lamb Chops and Cook Books (le cool london)
- Have Food Blogs Come Of Age? (Wall Street Journal)
- We’re Like Chalk & (Vegetarian) Cheese (Sunday Telegraph)
- The Top 50 Blogs About Good Stuff (lastminute.com)
- Top 10 Travel Blogs (lastminute.com)
- In The Kitchen With (Design Sponge)
- Cookbooks & More: Asian Cooking (Design Sponge)
- Awards for Word of Mouth Writers (Guardian Word of Mouth)
- Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009 (Guild of Food Writers)
- Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009 Shortlist (Bookseller.com)
- London’s best food blogs & websites (Time Out London)
- Food, Glorious Food! (DimSum)
- Film & Food – A Perfect Combination (DimSum)
- Good To Meet You (The Guardian)
Some of my restaurant reviews and posts are published on Urbanspoon, London-Eating and Dim Sum.
This blog is no longer updated except for the occasional food and travel post, and I don’t accept invites to review restaurants, products or events.
WHAT:
World Foodie Guide is a guide to ‘traveleating‘, travelling and eating being my two favourite pastimes. All food & travel posts and restaurant reviews are located under Food & Travel, while my traveleating plan for the next five years is outlined in 25 Food & Travel Destinations: A 5 Year Plan.
I eat well at home too, and like to try out new dishes from around the world. You’ll find these categorised by country under Recipes, while special Chinese ingredients (The Larder) and Chinese food etiquette (Useful Info) are subjects about which I enjoy researching.
HOW:
All the posts can be found via the Page tabs at the top. You can also use Recent Posts and Most Popular Posts in the sidebar, the Search function to find something specific (use quotation marks), or browse using the Tag Cloud, Categories or Archives. Two posts from the Archive appear on the front page every 5 minutes, while the Second Helpings monthly summaries are useful for locating older posts.
PHOTOS:
I am now the proud owner of the superb Leica D-Lux 4, but I started blogging with the Sony Ericsson K800i mobile phone before upgrading to the Sony Cybershot W300.
My photos have been published on San Pellegrino (food & travel articles), Fodors (Mario Batali interview), Whatsonwhen (Mercato dell’Erbe, Bologna) and Square Meal (Baozi Inn).
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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Although I’ve stopped blogging, I thought I would write a short(ish) post about Vancouver, where the vegetarian husband and I spent a week in late September. Given that we ate so well there, it would be remiss of me not to pass on my eating recommendations to fellow travellers. Although I have favourited all my Vancouver tweets, a tweet just isn’t enough to describe a fantastic experience. Please excuse the lack of food photos, as I hadn’t planned on blogging about Vancouver’s culinary delights.
We were staying with good friends in West Vancouver, so I left London with only one restaurant booked, as I knew our hosts would know where to take us. Of course, I couldn’t resist doing some research beforehand, drawing up a mini wishlist. Given that we also went to Victoria and Whistler during this one week trip, plus two evenings of home-cooked meals, there weren’t actually that many meals slots left. Nevertheless, I think we did rather well! So here are my recommendations, in no particular order.
12 Highlights:
- Japadog – I nearly couldn’t fit in a Japadog due to our busy schedule, but fortunately we found time one afternoon when we hadn’t yet had lunch, and our friends took us to one of Japadog’s several stands. As we were ‘off-peak’, we missed the queue but while we were waiting for our Japadogs to be prepared, the queue behind us just grew and grew. I wolfed down the Okonomi ($6.25) – bonito flakes, fried cabbage, Japanese mayonnaise and special okonomiyaki sauce on a sizzling, juicy kurobuta pork sausage. The others had vegetarian Japadogs which were also amazing. We’ve since recreated our own versions at home (bring on the Japadog parties!)
- Vij’s – this seemed to be a ‘must visit’ Vancouver restaurant, according to my research, but I was initially put off by the stories of 2 hour long queues, confirmed by our friends who are regulars and know Vij. However, we all turned up at 17.25 on a Tuesday (five minutes before the doors opened), mentally prepared for a long wait, and got a table for five immediately. The complimentary hot snacks kept arriving as the servers circled the dining room with their bowls and platters, and everything on the menu was scrumptious, including my lamb popsicles (lamb chops). Vegetarians will also be delighted at Vij’s! And if you can’t bear to wait, there is also Rangoli next door, a more casual version of Vij’s and does takeaway too
- West – this was the restaurant I booked from London. It’s a high end place serving contemporary West Coast cuisine, but the service was so friendly and charming that we had a really enjoyable dinner (even their butter was sublime). I chose the seafood tasting menu while the husband had the vegetarian one. Expensive but well worth a visit. Most memorable dish – amuse-bouche of 1cm Heirloom tomato with micro-basil!
- Dundarave Fish Market, West Vancouver – our friends’ local restaurant, where we bumped into many of their friends. The restaurant is casual and also sells fish and seafood from a counter. We had the freshest steelhead salmon, simply grilled, served with rustic soya maple glaze sauce. An absolutely wonderful first meal in Vancouver
- Savary Island Pie Company, West Vancouver – our friend took us here for a quick lunch. It’s one of her local favourites and I can see why. They serve delicious soups (we tried mushroom and lentil) plus a stunning salmon pie with a crumbly, light crust. The company is particularly famous for its pumpkin pies (sweet)
- Salt Spring Island Coffee – on Main St and 27th, we came across this by chance while doing some shopping in South Main’s second-hand shops. The coffee (the organic Fairtrade beans are roasted on Salt Spring Island, one of the Gulf Islands) and my hot chocolate were so incredible that we went back inside to tell one of the servers. He made me high five him, a first for me…
- Yaletown Brewing Company, Yaletown – this is where I had the most magnificent BBQ short rib sandwich (5 hour braised and pulled short ribs with Nagila Pale Ale infused BBQ sauce), served with fries. One of the best memories of the trip. The pizzas are also excellent, as are the beers (you can order small tasters)
- Meinhardt - excellent gourmet grocery store which reminded me of Dean & Deluca or Zabar’s in NYC. I bought cute tins of Meinhardt mini cookies – lemon almond thimble cookies and mini choc chip ones. These would make great presents (except that I couldn’t bear to give mine away!). There is also a small café next door
- Granville Island Public Market – this was on my wishlist right from the start, and a pleasant afternoon was spent walking around admiring the fresh produce from local farmers and producers. I stocked up on small Thomas Haas handmade chocolate bars (heavenly) and baby jars of local honey to take home as presents. While you’re there, you must walk around the rest of Granville Island, with its artisan shops (I loved Paper-ya), restaurants and cafés. And don’t forget The Lobster Man for the freshest seafood to buy and take home with you
- Bridge’s, Granville Island – a fantastic place to have lunch. Get a table on the decked area right by the waterfront. The Wild BC Salmon Burger is tasty, as is the Crab and Halibut Cake Burger
- Spinnakers, Victoria, Vancouver Island – I chose Spinnakers because not only is it Canada’s first brewpub, but the gastropub food is supposedly excellent (sourced from local Island producers) and it has a small Victorian B&B next door with five rooms, each uniquely decorated. I started with smoked pork ribs, followed by rare seared halibut and clams. Unfortunately the husband couldn’t manage the 6 local cheese and beer taster, the main reason for our visit!
- Whistler Farmers Market – open every Sunday from June 20th to October 10th, 11-16.00. We were very lucky to catch the farmers market while visiting Whistler over the weekend. It’s a brilliant introduction to some of the local produce and we bought some unbelievable dill pickled cucumbers and unusual varieties of carrots that we’d never seen before. For more information about the producers, click on the link and go to ‘View Our Merchants’
If I’d had more time, I’d have:
- Tried all the other varieties of Japadog
- Eaten Chinese food in Richmond or Chinatown
- Tried omakase sushi & sashimi at Tojo’s
- Visited the Gulf Islands for local food and nature, and the incredible West Coast Trail hike of Vancouver Island to see more nature
- Okanagan Valley for a few days of wine tasting and local food
Vancouver did seem rather expensive, but the quality of food and service was extremely high. Almost everyone with whom we came into contact was passionate about the food they were serving and very knowledgeable about their dishes and ingredients. You’d be hard pressed to find this in some London restaurants. I therefore heartily recommend Vancouver to all food lovers!
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
]]>I’m back briefly to let you all know about my latest project, a small 80 page photobook called a ‘traveleating’ journal: japan, based on my three Japan posts from the trip last November. It was so much fun putting this together and I relived the entire trip during the editing process. I received plenty of help from vegetarian husband Garson Byer, who also let me use some of his photos.
The book is for sale at the Blurb bookstore for £14.45 (excluding shipping) and you can preview the first 15 pages by clicking on the image above. All profits from the sale of each book (the profit for a soft cover copy is £1.50) will be sent to Beijing-based charity Crazy Bake, which is run by an old friend of mine. Mentally challenged patients are taught to bake bread for sale, and the money that they raise helps them to become more self-sufficient.
Please help by telling friends and family. I’d like to raise as much money for Crazy Bake as possible…
Thank you!
Helen Yuet Ling Pang
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You’ll find here all the food & travel or ‘traveleating‘ posts from my various trips. Over the next five years, I’ll be travelling on a regular basis and adding more cities and countries to the list at the bottom of the page.
All the restaurants that I’ve visited and written about are categorised by city or country. Most of them are located in London, my base. I’ve recently stopped rating restaurants, as I think ratings can be too subjective, but I’ll continue to describe my experiences in as much detail as possible, so that you can decide whether you should visit a particular restaurant or not.
Please click on the links below to browse through the various ‘traveleating‘ posts and restaurant reviews, and feel free to leave comments within the posts. I’d love to hear from you if you have food & travel tips and suggestions for any of these destinations. They would be really useful for other readers too.
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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Welcome to The Larder, where you’ll find my research into the origins and background of certain foods and ingredients, particularly Chinese ones.
Please feel free to leave comments within individual posts if you have any questions, suggestions or thoughts…
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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All the recipes on World Foodie Guide are listed here by cuisine.
Most of the recipes are for simple, home-cooked food using fresh ingredients. At home, we cook each meal from scratch, and it’s just as quick to do this as heating up a ready meal in the oven. It’s also much healthier and cheaper. More recipes can also be found within individual book reviews in the Book Reviews section.
You may be interested in reading about special Chinese ingredients in The Larder and Chinese food etiquette in Useful Info.
Feel free to leave comments within posts for individual recipes if you have any questions, suggestions or thoughts…
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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CHINESE FOOD:
CHINESE FOOD ETIQUETTE:
Please feel free to leave comments within individual posts if you have any questions, suggestions or thoughts…
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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I decided on my last day in Japan to retire from food blogging. I’ve been blogging intensively for over two years and have reached the point where I’m mentally very tired and would like to do something different. I have loved writing about food, sharing my eating experiences and most of all learning from readers, whether it’s a suggestion for preparing a dish or a restaurant recommendation. I’ve also immensely enjoyed meeting, both online and face to face, like-minded people who are passionate about food. If it weren’t for my fantastic readers, I would have stopped a long time ago.
Writing the final lines of the Tokyo post was difficult, and I felt a mixture of emotions – sadness that it was my last proper post and also relief that it was my last proper post. My blog has dominated my life for its entire existence and I suppose I always assumed that I would just continue with it. People have suggested writing fewer posts or only writing when I travel, but I’m an all or nothing person. I either have to blog as much as I have done or stop completely. There’s no middle road for me. However, I’ll keep World Foodie Guide live for as long as possible and try to answer as many comments as I can.
As for me, I’ll continue to learn about photography, travel (25 Food & Travel Destinations) and perhaps even write a historical novel. The husband will be able to eat food that doesn’t need to be photographed first and the cats will have more of my attention. And of course I’ll still be enjoying my food!
Thank you to each and every one of you for reading…
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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We spent six days in Tokyo between various trips to Kyoto (see Kyoto Tales), Numazu and visiting the Jigokudani snow monkeys in the Japan Alps (see Snow Monkeys & Soba Noodles). As this was my fifth time in Tokyo, I chose to concentrate on my favourite places, as well as visit a few areas new to me…
Trip 1: Tsukiji – breakfast – Hamarikyu Garden – Sumida River trip – Asakusa – lunch – Kappabashi-dori
This was my first visit to Tsukiji fish market, although I came very close to going on my last trip. Before the jetlag wore off, I decided on an early morning outing to this gigantic wholesale market, which has been in its current location since the 1923 earthquake. Even with jetlag, I knew it would be impossible for us to arrive for 5am, but 6.05 was a respectable enough start! Countless varieties of seafood were on sale at the hundreds and hundreds of stalls and the sheer volume was overwhelming. We also had to be alert at all times to avoid the numerous mini forklift vehicles scooting up and down the aisles at top speed. The people at Tsukiji can be brusque, but they are there to earn a living, rather than accommodate tourists. A friendly ‘ohaiyo gozaimasu‘ works wonders and one vendor even drew me a little map to direct us to the sushi bars. These are located near the other shops and stalls that sell all manner of food produce from pickles to cutlery (and divine matcha ice cream!) and which are just as interesting as the main fish market itself.
My sushi breakfast was a welcome respite from the manic hustle and bustle of the fish market. The husband went for a wander while I chose a place with no queue. I wasn’t prepared to queue for my food nor make him wait two hours for me. My opinion is that the fish is equally fresh no matter where you eat it at Tsukiji, so why follow the hordes of tourists? I sat with three Japanese people at the small counter facing my extremely friendly and entertaining sushi chef, who was most proud of his creations, and loved being photographed too. My breakfast cost ?2600 (£18) and was worth every yen. I left my sushi bar feeling very pleased with myself, especially as there were ridiculously long queues outside certain establishments by 7.45am.
Hamarikyu Detached Garden, situated on an island and surrounded by an ancient walled moat, is a 12 minute walk from Tsukiji (although it doesn’t open until 9am, so we had coffee to kill time). This was the first shogun’s hunting ground in the 17th century before it became a subsequent shogun’s residence. After a brief stroll around the tranquil grounds – there is also a pretty teahouse that serves tea and wagashi or Japanese sweets – it was finally time to take the 45 minute Sumida River boat trip up to Asakusa (the first boat leaves at 10.35am). The quicker route would be by subway, but traditionally, this is how the Japanese travelled to Asakusa and you’ll see a different view of Tokyo from the boat.
Every time I go back to Tokyo, I like to go to Asakusa, and we went twice this time. It is a little touristy, but I love walking up the busy stall-lined Nakamise-dori and looking at the traditional toys and food products (including snacks like the Kaminari Okoshi thunder rice crackers), before reaching the spectacular Senso-ji Temple. Not be missed are the little and much quieter streets and alleys off Nakamise-dori, where our lunch restaurants and other old shops selling knives, paper and other goods were located.
For our first lunch, we returned to Daikokuya or Big Black House (although this time we went to the larger branch with tatami seating) for their famous tendon or tempura donburi – tempura on rice with a strong soy-based sauce. The tempura is coloured dark brown from the sauce, which is ever so tasty! A Japanese friend took us there on our last trip and we were keen to eat there again. The second lunch was at Asadori, which specialises in kamameshi, a traditional dish of rice steamed in soup and various ingredients and served in an individual (and very hot) pot. The Take combination at ?1600 (£11) provided me with three rice bowls’ worth of delicious rice with seafood, mushrooms and other vegetables.
Kappabashi-dori, the wholesale restaurant supply district, is another place I’ve always wanted to visit and it’s close to Asakusa (about a 15 minute walk west of Senso-ji). The length of the street is about a kilometre, so it’s great for a stroll, especially for foodies. I particularly liked Soi, an interior design shop that wouldn’t look out of place in Meguro or Daikanyama. The ceramic pieces are simple but very desirable. I bought a couple of furoshiki (Japanese folding cloths), but could have easily left with half the shop’s contents.
Trip 2: Ameyoko – Ueno Park – Yanaka
Ameyoko Market (Confectioners’ Alley), running along the railway tracks by Ueno station, was apparently the traditional place to buy ame or candy during the Edo period. It became a black market after the Second World War and many American products were sold (‘Ame’ also stands for America). Now practically anything – clothes, hats, shoes, food products – can be found at the hundreds of shops, usually at a discount. Ameyoko is particularly crowded before the New Year as people stock up on traditional foods and gifts.
From Ameyoko we used this excellent National Geographic walking tour of Old Tokyo to walk through Ueno Park to reach the neighbourhood of Yanaka. Yanaka survived both the 1923 earthquake as well as the Second World War bombings, and is a rare example of a shitamachi (Tokyo’s old downtown) district, with old houses packed in narrow alleys, as well as traditional food stalls. It was a pleasant area to spend the afternoon.
Other places:
Kagurazaka is another well-preserved shitamachi area, with a mixture of traditional shops and trendy boutiques and cafés. Friends took us there for a delicious Italian lunch at Scugnizzo!, followed by afternoon tea and manju (steamed wheat buns with a sweet bean jam filling) at Mugimaru 2, a tiny, hip establishment. Manju options (?140 each) included azuki jam in a black sugar bun, azuki cinnamon jam in a tea-flavoured bun, sweet potato jam in a white bun and sesame azuki jam & cheese in a wild grass bun. All are recommended!
I go to Tokyu Hands every time I’m in Tokyo. It’s a gigantic multi-storied shop selling all manner of household and hardware goods, stationery and other useful things you never knew you needed. I usually visit the Shibuya branch, but my friend recommended the one in Ikebukuro as it’s better organised. We still managed to spend over two and a half hours there, starting on the 8th floor and ending up in the basement. Amongst our purchases were little woollen socks for our dining chair legs to stop them from scratching the wooden floorboards (what a brilliant idea!). If it’s your first time at Tokyu Hands, allow half a day to explore. Seriously.
Something fun to do at the weekend is visit an antique or flea market, of which there are many in Tokyo. The trick is to find one that is open on the Sunday (this seems to be the most popular day) that you’re in Tokyo. Some will open from dawn to dusk and in light but not heavy rain. Luckily for us, Yasukuni Shrine antique market happened to be open every Sunday in November. There were weird and wonderful things for sale, from samurai swords and World War Two rifles to old ceramics, cameras and toys. It’s also great for taking photos of people…
The head office of the company where I used to work is based in trendy Omotesando, so I know this area well, particularly for shopping. Two restaurants we were taken to for lunch are expensive for dinner, but offer reasonably priced lunch menus. Gokaku served mostly vegetarian food (don’t let this put you off, as the dishes are very creative!), such as lotus root manju lightly fried in a special sauce, and figs with tofu paste. Apart from a few vegetarian side dishes, I had the spectacular iberico pork donburi.
The other restaurant was Ariso-Tei, which specialises in seafood from Fukui prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast. Next door is their shop selling all specialist food products from the area, as well as ceramics, chopsticks and other interior design goods. From the several lunch set menus, we ordered the anago (eel) teishoku, soba with tempura set (one with a clear soy sauce-based dipping sauce, the other with a spicy grated daikon or white radish version) and I had the grilled mackerel and gindara (black cod) in a special yuzu miso sauce. The gindara was one of my favourite dishes of the trip, along with the iberico pork donburi…
While shopping, I discovered homeware shop J-Period in Omotesando Hills shopping complex, selling beautifully designed ceramics, chopsticks, kitchen utensils and countless other items. I managed to walk away with (just) a mini round hinoki wood tray from Atami, a set of three condiments jars and a shichimi togarashi bamboo dispenser for around £80. Have a look at the products on their website and tell me that I did well for not spending more!
A pleasant area to go furniture and interiors shopping is Meguro (one long street full of shops), while nearby Daikanyama has many boutiques and restaurants. We were taken by friends to Shisenan Teuchi Soba, a small soba restaurant on a residential street in Meguro (teuchi soba means the soba noodles are handmade by the chef). This was one of our favourite meals of the entire trip and I found out afterwards that Shisenan is featured in the current Miele restaurant guide. The chef uses only 100% pure buckwheat and the noodles were phenomenal (he also runs soba classes every Tuesday for ?4000 (90 mins)). The menu is only in Japanese, and reservations are accepted for dinner but not lunch. We arrived before it opened at 11.45 to secure four of the 16 seats, in the tatami seating area. Highlights included the freshest yuba (the skin by-product of tofu) I’ve ever had, in the form of yuba sashimi, sobagaki, a large soba dumpling similar to polenta and served with wasabi, nori and soy sauce and the two types of satsuma age or fishcakes which were amazing. We each then had a different soba dish and mine seemed to be the favourite – hot duck dipping sauce with cold noodles. The meal was finished with soba-yu, the hot water in which the soba was boiled, to drink either straight or mixed with the remainder of the dipping sauces. It might sound strange, but it’s delicious and supposed to be good for you…
Nishi-Azabu is near Roppongi Hills and full of small hip restaurants and bars that are hard to find. We were taken by another set of friends to their favourite restaurant, Hale Kai’s (2-16-4 Nishi Azabu, Tel: 03 3400 8012), where we had one of the best evenings of the trip - incredibly creative dishes, excellent company and relaxed surroundings. Highlights included fresh oysters with yuzu and wasabi sauce, seared katsuo (bonito) with ankimo (raw monkfish liver) and grated daikon, Hale Kai’s original lobster stock cheese risotto (out of this world!) and scallop and uni (sea urchin) cream spaghettini with salmon roe. There was also a very special secret drinking place we were taken to afterwards, but as to its location I am sworn to secrecy…
Last but not least, I have to mention the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum in Yokohama, which was actually our very first port of call after stepping off the plane! The recreation of a 1960s Tokyo shitamachi district (old downtown), in which the eight restaurants and other facades are located, is really well done. I had planned to try a small bowl of ramen or Chinese-style noodles (there are full size and ’sample’ sizes) from each of the ramen restaurants located there, however, due to the onset of jetlag, one sample-sized bowl from Harukiya (representing Tokyo), was enough to fill me up. The system of buying a ticket from a vending machine outside each restaurant was also complicated as I don’t read Japanese, but a kind policeman in costume and a restaurant attendant helped me out. I even managed to explain in Japanese that the husband was vegetarian, which was no mean feat after having just landed. I shall return with a very empty stomach next time to try the other seven varieties…
And finally one more place – the Ninja restaurant in Akasaka-Mitsuke, where my Japanese stepmother-in-law took us for dinner. Although it’s a themed restaurant, Ninja was a lot of fun, and full of Japanese diners in suits rather than packed with tourists. Each set of guests is greeted by a masked ninja who leads them through narrow and dimly lit corridors for ‘training’, crossing over a trap bridge, before finally reaching the table (in our case in a private dining room). The husband enjoyed his vegetarian set menu, while I absolutely loved the magic tricks that a ninja performed in between courses. They were simple but impossible to work out!
There were far too many places that I couldn’t visit this time, but there is always the next trip! I had the quirky neighbourhood of Shimokitazawa on my list, along with Nishi-Ogikubo, an area famous for its antique and second-hand shops (about 23 minutes on the train from Shibuya). I should also have done more research into the shops at Jiyugaoka, Ebisu and Hiro-o, as I like home interiors and design shops and there are many of them there.
Practical Information:
A tip – you don’t need to speak or understand any Japanese to get by in Tokyo. However, life would be easier, and it would be polite, to use a few basic phrases such as thank you (domo arigato or even more polite domo arigato gozaimasu), please / excuse me / sorry (sumimasen), good morning (ohaiyo gozaimasu), good evening (konbanwa) and delicious (oishii). I speak very little Japanese (based on lessons from nearly 20 years ago), but it was fun to practise. I also had to explain the husband’s complicated dietary requirements in Japanese, buy train tickets, ask for directions and ask for people on the phone. And humour always works!
Japan Times – all in English and a great resource for planning where to eat or what to do from a more local perspective
TokyoTopia – helpful for Tokyo planning particularly if it’s your first trip
Bento.com – a reliable site for Tokyo restaurants research
Tokyofoodcast – a blog featuring food & sake in Tokyo, with useful photo tour guides of areas like Ameyoko and Yanaka
Japan Planning – my original post on researching the Japan trip has more details.
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This incidentally is my ‘last’ post on World Foodie Guide. I’ll write a short post very soon to explain why I’ve decided to stop blogging. All the restaurants we visited in Tokyo deserve their own special posts and far more detailed write-ups than I’ve given them, so I feel bad that I’ve packed them all into one long post! Thank you for reading…
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Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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After travelling to see the Jigokudani snow monkeys (see Snow Monkeys and Soba Noodles) in the Japan Alps, we returned to Yokohama to repack our bags before leaving early the next morning for Kyoto, Japan’s old imperial capital.
Planning the three days was harder than I thought. I had to drop many of the items on my wishlist, including day trips to nearby Osaka and Nara. It would also have been wonderful to spend the night at the Buddhist temple on Koyasan (a World Heritage site) and sample shojin-ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine). Most of all, I wanted to return to Kobe, where I had one of the most memorable meals of my entire life, a simple but spectacular dish of Kobe beef. In the end though, rather than rushing about trying to fit in multiple locations, I decided to plan a relaxing three day stay in Kyoto. It’s easy to forget how exhausting travelling can be.
Kyoto Day 1:
Arashiyama is a renowned area of natural beauty to the west of Kyoto and popular in the autumn for viewing the changing leaf colours. Best of all, it’s just a 15 minute train journey from Kyoto station. As the ryokan check-in time wasn’t until 2pm, I thought it would be a good idea to arrive at Kyoto station, leave our bags in coin lockers and head out to see the famous symbol of Arashiyama, Togetsu-kyo, the wooden (and concrete) ‘Moon Crossing Bridge’, and wander through the bamboo forest.
I had planned a shojin-ryori lunch at Tenryu-ji Temple (?3000, ?5000 & ?7000 set lunch menus, plus a ?500 admission fee to the temple grounds), however they were fully booked when my friend called to make a booking a month in advance. I then briefly considered Nishiki and their kaiseki bento lunch box as well as Sagano for their yudofu (Kitcho, with its recently awarded three Michelin stars, offered unaffordable kaiseki at ?35-40000 /£232 – £265 (prices from a few years ago)). In the end, I decided to just turn up and see…
Arashiyama turned out to be very touristy, with teenage schoolchildren everywhere. The best part was the bamboo forest, which would have been even more magical without the rickshaws and the Japanese tour groups. I took one look at Togetsu-kyo and was most unimpressed. A simple lunch of kitsune udon, zaru soba and zaru udon saved the day. There are many restaurants lining the road where Tenryu-ji Temple is located, but somehow we managed to find one that didn’t have a single domestic or overseas tourist (Aratozuki, Tel: 075 882 9884, towards the Togetsu-kyo end). Incidentally, the addition of a creamy raw quail’s egg into the dipping sauce really made a difference!
Dinner had been booked weeks in advance at the 120 year old kaiseki restaurant Rokusei Nishimise, just a few minutes away from the hotel, so that was another reason not to splurge on lunch. Kaiseki ryori is the haute cuisine of Kyoto and if you’re visiting the city, it shouldn’t be missed. Kaiseki restaurants usually offer lunches which are a more affordable way of sampling kaiseki, perhaps in the form of a bento box or set lunch menu. Many of the luxury ryokan also offer kaiseki dinners. The formal meal follows a rigid structure, with multiple small dishes following each other in a traditional order. Fresh, seasonal ingredients are emphasised and much time is spent on each creation, hence the steep prices.
The Rokusei menu was analysed in depth and translated for me by three different sources before we settled on the Teoke Kaiseki set menu (?7350 / £49) and the Hana set menu (?8400 / £56). The ‘real’ kaiseki dinner menus were out of our price range (from?12,600 /£83.50 to ?31,500 / £210), given that we had to stick to our two week budget. Strict instructions had also been conveyed to the restaurant regarding the husband’s dietary requirements.
So it turned out that he had the better meal and better dining experience, whereas I was felled by a dish early on in the meal, of chawanmushi (egg custard) with suppon (soft shell turtle). I have to say, it was one of the most bitter and foul-tasting dishes I’ve eaten in living memory. I felt like Mr Bean when he ordered steak tartare by mistake and was literally looking for places to dump it. In the end, I swallowed half of it before conceding defeat and abandoned the rest. That one dish overshadowed the rest of the meal and I left still reeling from the shock. The husband was beaming though! However, please don’t let my description of one small dish affect a visit to Rokusei that you may be planning. Everyone I mentioned it to had heard of it, whether in Kyoto or Tokyo, and I would still highly recommend it. My favourite part was the food served in the teoke (a pail made out of cedar), which I think is how Rokusei used to deliver their bento boxes in the old days. Just don’t nod when the server asks if you can eat chawanmushi with suppon!
Kyoto Day 2:
Higashiyama (the Eastern Mountains) is said to be one of Kyoto’s most charming & well preserved areas. Although there is no getting away from the tourists and schoolchildren (the above photo is most deceptive!), I must admit I rather liked Higashiyama. We certainly spent enough time in the area, eating both lunch and dinner there. The streets Ninen-zaka and Sannei-zaka on the way up to Kiyomizudera temple are packed with restaurants and small shops selling specialist food products (Kyoto is famous for pickles, snacks (rice crackers, cream puffs & a million and one types of wagashi (Japanese sweets served with tea) and arts & crafts. I stocked up on shichimi togarashi, my favourite Japanese seven spice pepper, and also yuzu with pepper at a specialist shop, established in 1655, that only sells shichimi togarashi, called Shichimiya or Shichimi Shop (2-221 Kiyomizu). The little packets make fantastic presents as well.
Lunch had been booked at Okutan, a famous yudofu ryori restaurant with a branch near Nanzenji temple and one near Kiyomizu. We chose to go to the latter branch (Tel: 075 525 2051, at the junction where Ninenzaka meets Sanensaka). We had no idea where the restaurant was, and by coincidence stopped in front of it to check the characters of its name in the guidebook, looked up and we were there!
Yudofu is tofu simply cooked in a pot in a kombu (kelp) broth, then eaten in small bowls with hot soy sauce and chopped spring onion. It has become a Kyoto specialty because good quality tofu requires good quality water, which Kyoto happens to have. We ordered the yudofu course (?3150) and the special tofu course (?4200). The only difference was that one consisted of a very silky-smooth tofu while the other had a slightly rougher, but still incredibly smooth, texture. Preceding the yudofu courses were yam soup (as light as foam), sesame tofu with wasabi, grilled tofu with sweet miso and vegetable tempura. Okutan is all tatami mat seating and is a veritable maze of dining rooms, some private, and we were fortunate enough to be seated by the tranquil Zen garden.
After that delicious and healthy lunch, we went to visit 400 year old Tenneiji temple. The temple belongs to a friend’s family, and so we were shown around not only the spectacular gardens, which are open to the public, but also the interior, which is only open to relatives of those who are buried in the temple grounds. We relaxed over a bowl of frothy matcha and marron wagashi (chestnut sweet) and the temple owners also gave us tickets for the night opening of Kiyomizudera temple. The temple is usually closed at night, but we had just arrived for a special few weeks of night openings at various temples, to enable visitors to admire the autumn leaves in beautiful temple settings.
After a quick dinner at Kamanza on Ninenzaka (Tel: 075 531 1719) – namafu dengaku (wheat gluten grilled with miso paste), yuba set course (yuba is the skin by-product of tofu and heavenly when served fresh) and unagi don (grilled eel on a bowl of rice) – we wandered back up the hill to Kiyomizudera temple. At around 8.30pm, it wasn’t particularly crowded, and anyway the temple complex and grounds are so enormous that it was quite easy to wander around and appreciate the views without feeling claustrophobic. Another good time to visit Kiyomizudera is at 6am when it opens, to avoid the tourists.
Kyoto Day 3:
Located in eastern Kyoto, the Philosopher’s Walk is a 1.8 km leisurely stroll down a cherry tree-lined canal from Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion) in the north to Nanzen-ji in the south, with various temples along the route. As our ryokan was located closer to Ginkaku-ji, we started at that end, fueling up on a couple of custard and matcha cream puffs made with brown rice (and a warm rice cracker made with shichimi togarashi). And before we started the walk, an elderly Japanese man on his bicycle approached us and gave us a lengthy description of how to find Honenji, with peaceful temple gardens that are free to enter, before apologising for his (perfect) English! Naturally we followed his directions and it was most definitely worth a short visit (there are signs if you want to go too). The Philosopher’s Walk was easily one of my favourite parts of the Kyoto trip, as it was magically tranquil (I could just imagine how unpleasant it would have been with hordes of tourists). After all, the time should be spent philosophising while strolling down the canal and admiring the scenery…
Nishiki Market is Kyoto’s famous food market, located one block north of Shijo-dori, running from Teramachi-dori on the east to Takakura-dori on the west. There are over 140 stalls selling everything from fish, tofu products to pickled vegetables and Kyoto’s chefs all shop at Nishiki, as do locals. The well-known Aritsugu knife shop is at one end of the market (a friend said that when she gets married, she wants her father’s wedding present to be a set of Aritsugu knives!). The market is covered and there is just a narrow path down the middle. Again, when we visited (Saturday around noon), it was just some locals doing their food shopping. There are also restaurants and stalls selling snacks such as okara (soymilk) doughnuts.
We ended up having lunch at Katsukura, a famous tonkatsu chain (although I didn’t know that at the time when I found it by chance near one end of Nishiki market). I ordered 70g of the Yonesawa Sangen fillet cutlet (I prefer fillet to the other option, loin) (?1280) and the husband had yuba and vegetarian croquettes. We had to make our own tonkatsu sauce (no Bulldog brand here!), by grinding roasted sesame seeds in a pestle and mortar and adding a variety of condiments – yuzu in a thinner sauce, the standard sauce and a rich, thick one. This was then poured onto the tonkatsu, which was unbelievably tender and succulent. Finely shredded cabbage could be topped up at any time, and there was a jar of pickles on the table to eat with rice. This was an excellent meal considering it was unplanned!
After lunch, we did a spot of shopping around Shijo Kawaramachi, the shopping area located along a stretch of Shijo Dori and Kawaramachi Dori. I was pleased to come across the main branch of the famous Yojiya, a cosmetics shop at the corner of Hanamikoji-dori and Shijo-dori. Founded in 1904, its best-selling product is aburatorigami or facial oil blotting paper dating from 1920, which actors and geisha traditionally used over their thick make-up. I stocked up on these as well as yuzu-flavoured lip balm.
I also developed an obsession for furoshiki or Japanese wrapping cloths and must have bought around 10 or 12 on the trip, mostly from a small chain called Raak (there is also Enveraak). Each shop sells different designs, so furoshiki fans, be warned! There are a myriad of ways in which furoshiki can be used, such as to make tissue box covers, water bottle holders and bags, and they can also be framed.
In terms of food shopping, we came across Eirakuya, an elegant shop dating back to the Edo period, selling wagashi and tsukudani or preserved vegetables and fish. The manager invited us to sit down for tea and to sample the products we were interested in, namely yuzu jam (which incidentally is sublime! Eirakuya is a perfect place to select food gifts and souvenirs. We also bought some apple-based wagashi for friends.
The day concluded with a stroll down Pontocho Alley, a traditional geisha entertainment area, and lined with tempting restaurants (for the next trip) before making our way back to Kyoto station and returning to Tokyo, tired but happy…
A few things I didn’t get to do but were on the list:
Owari-ya is one of the oldest soba-ya (soba restaurant) in Kyoto. Located near Kyoto Imperial palace, it’s recommended by Durston and also fellow foodie Simon P, who ate there recently. It is open from 11:00-18:30 and closed on Wednesdays
Toji Temple market is supposed to be the best for vintage Japanese crafts, and also offers street food. It takes place on the 21st of each month.
Fushimi Inari shrine (2 hour hiking trail) – located just outside JR Inari Station, the second station from Kyoto on the JR Nara Line. The train ride takes 5 minutes and costs ?140 from Kyoto Station.
Practical Information:
Travel -
It is expensive to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto if you buy standard tickets (?13,200 (£88) one way), but we had bought Japan Rail Passes (£191 for a 7 day pass) from the UK to cover all the other train journeys on our trip, so the travel budget was effectively taken care of. I used Hyperdia to research train times and reserved the seats after activating our Rail Passes at Narita airport. The journey takes around 2 hours 40 minutes on the Hikari shinkansen (the Nozomi is the fastest train by about 20 minutes but isn’t covered by the Rail Pass). We travelled from Shin-Yokohama, so the journey was slightly shorter.
There are different ways to reach Arashiyama from Kyoto, but for us, the quickest route was from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama on the JR Sagano (or Sanin) line. The journey takes 15 minutes and costs ?230 one way. Central Arashiyama is just a short walk away.
Hotel -
As Kyoto was added to the schedule at the last minute (six weeks is last minute for me!), I had a minor panic trying to find a hotel as most were fully booked for the two nights that I wanted. The ryokan I had my eye on were also expensive, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to stay in a business hotel. It was a relief when The Three Sisters Inn Annex informed us that they could accommodate us. Run by three sisters, it’s a five minute walk from Heian Shrine, with no meals included, plus a private bathroom (essential for us). The annex caters for non-Japanese visitors only, while the main inn has been around for 14 generations, although I only discovered all this after making the booking (see Japan Times article). Two nights cost ?36340 (£245) total for 2 people.
The Three Sisters Annex
89 Irie-cho
Okazaki
Sakyo-ku
606-8322 Kyoto
Tel: 81-(0)75-761-6333
Fax:81-(0)75-761-6335
Guidebook -
I was last in Kyoto over 20 years ago, and with hardly any recollection of it, decided to buy Diana Durston’s Old Kyoto, a guide to all the traditional artisan shops, ryokan (traditional Japanese hotels) and restaurants that are unfortunately dwindling in a fast-changing city. Although it was written in 1986, it was reprinted a few years ago and many travellers to Kyoto swear by it. I found Rokusei and Okutan through the book.
Useful links -
- Kyoto Guide – a most informative guide to Kyoto, and where I found our ryokan & transport tips
- Kyoto Foodie – regarded by many as the definitive guide to all things gastronomical in Kyoto
- Chubby Hubby’s Kyoto Guide 2009 – although all their restaurant recommendations were beyond our budget, it was still a useful guide to take with us
- Financial Times: Kyoto’s Haute Cuisine – an informative article on kaiseki cuisine
- Japan Planning – my original post on researching the Japan trip
- Snow Monkeys & Soba Noodles and Tokyo Stories – the other two posts from the Japan trip
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
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