美食在东瀛之京都篇

It's been almost 3 weeks since I was back from Japan and several times, I wanted to blog about our superbly fun trip. Each time, I chickened out. haha....There really is too much to blog about and I don't know where to start! Luckily, Huilin and Vivian are more hardworking than me.....So if you are keen to read about our daily dose of adventure in Japan, pls go to either http://charly906.multiply.com/ or http://lunchbox009.blogspot.com/. Since one writes in English and the other in Chinese, it really caters to all sorts of readers. Heehee...So what you will read in my blog is a review of all the yummiest food we had, which to me, is the essence to making this trip such a success.

京都篇：

If you want to experience traditional and cultural Japan, Kyoto is definitely the place to go. The stunning Kiyomizi built on stilts and surrounded by a burst of color of the surrounding forest, the golden Kinkakuji standing on tranquil water, the peaceful garden of Ryoanji Temple and the elegant geishas strolling along the streets of Gion mark a wondrous beginning to our 9 day tour. It really made me regret not bringing my Alpha 700..but I suppose that is a motivation for me to return there one day. On to the main topic of interest....

1) 豆水楼（Tousuiro):

I've always loved tofu and hence, one of my top priorities was to find this highly recommended restaurant in Kyoto - Tousuiro. The main restaurant is located at Kiyamach nearby Sanjo-Ohashi and faced Kamogawa River. They have one branch restaurant at Gion, which we chanced upon while trying to find Gion Corner and naturally, that was the one we patronised.

Tousuiro has a Lunch-time special menu and 2 fine course menus. Because of our budget, we ordered the slightly cheaper Higashiyama course (東山コース). The course consisted of some fine seasonal dishes and Yudoufu (湯豆腐) made by Oboro-dofu (おぼろ豆腐 made by 100% domestic soybeans). Yudoufu is served steamboat-style, in a cute wooden tub made by Sugi (Japanese ceder) wood. As the yudofu was free flow, we ordered 2 rounds of it and by the end of dinner, our stomach was filled with the sweet and rich taste of the finest tofu of Kyoto.

2) 红豆婆婆的小店：

In 阿信's《浪漫的逃亡》, he recommended this small dessert shop in Ninenzaka (二年坂, which is a very very "evil" street as we spent so much time and money here, both on food and shopping) and this was written:「一生懸命，意思就是用一生的承諾來做一件事。都用命來熬紅豆了，還能不好吃嗎？一口熱茶，一口紅豆湯，一口麻糬，從每一樣食物不同的口感中，你能感覺到微妙的用心。一生懸命的賭注。我們通通吞到胃裡帶走。茶香的溫熱、紅豆的甜蜜，糯米的纏綿，二年坂上不起眼的小店，紅豆婆婆用一顆一顆的紅豆，為無數的人編織著小小的華麗回憶。有機會慢遊二年坂，別忘了走近小店中，吃一個婆婆78萬分之一的手製麻糬喔。」

When we saw this raving review, we could not resist trying to find the shop and with our limited knowledge of Jap, we finally located this little shop after 2 hrs. The steaming red bean desserts and mochi served in this shop really warmed us up in this cold autumny day. I guess the only complaint was that every customer in the shop has to order at least 1 item, and so we had 4 big desserts to eat. There goes our waistline.....

Besides the above 2 recommended restaurants, we also tried alot of yummy food along ninezaka and sannensaka such as the flavourful fishcake, macha mochi-like kuey and gigantic cream puff. If you ever go to Kyoto, take some time to explore it. I'm sure you'll find many treasures...