Teacher lin xi described eating tofu in Kyoto, Japan in his collection of essays "Ten Directions and One Thought". He said that after eating the sweet taste of Kyoto tofu, he felt that all Hong Kong ate was a brick of gypsum. "I usually eat tofu in Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong, and I don't feel comfortable in my room. I fantasize about flying and making a special trip to Kyoto to have a good time."

In fact, it is also tasteless tofu. Even with the best materials, the best technology and the best seasoning, how much difference can it make? What makes lin xi and other scholars like him like is the environment of food and the emotional appeal of food.

In these two aspects, there are really few countries whose diets can match Japanese cuisine. And three meals a day and night in Kyoto is the ultimate Japanese sentiment.

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breakfast

/The taste of Cantonese morning tea/

Why are there no open-air breakfast stalls on the streets of Japan? This is a question that many foreign students and tourists have just arrived.

No pancake fruit, no bean curd, no fried dough sticks, no white flour steamed bread ...

"Japanese people usually eat breakfast at home" is indeed the biggest reason. This is related to the Japanese marriage structure: the full-time wife will get up early in the morning to make breakfast and lunch for the whole family, and then the whole family will go out separately after dinner.

For single men and women living in a big city like Tokyo, the few choices for breakfast are to go out with a glass of milk and a piece of toast, go to a convenience store to buy a sandwich with coffee, and find a fast food chain to eat "fast food".

There are many chain stores in the streets of Japan.

But in a slow-paced city like Kyoto, many people don't need to rush to work. Therefore, one of the most emotional enjoyment here is a traditional Japanese breakfast.

In addition to the food orders and buffets provided by hotels and homestays, if you want to sleep in, you can also eat in the tea house after the street shop opens at 90 o'clock. A brunch and a cup of matcha can be eaten from morning to afternoon, which is quite like Cantonese morning tea.

Traditional Japanese breakfast contains several basic elements: rice, main course, side dish, pickles and miso soup.

In Japanese culture, porridge is usually considered as the food of patients. On the contrary, Japanese people are more accustomed to holding a bowl of white rice in the morning and choking.

Goro addicted to plain rice

Of course, the way to eat rice should also follow the tradition. Knocking on a raw egg, adding salty seasonings such as soy sauce and natto and mixing them evenly are the simplest and most traditional protagonists of Japanese breakfast. In Kyoto, I also ate an improved version of raw egg bibimbap-the eggs were frozen one day in advance, thawed for an hour before eating, and then beaten on hot rice. Egg yolk tastes like pudding and is very interesting. This also reflects that Kyoto, a thousand-year-old ancient capital, occasionally shows a little innovation and vitality.

The main course is fish. Japan has a long history of banning meat. Even today, meat is only available in new western food and formal dinner, which is one of the important reasons why Japanese people are rarely obese. In the breakfast that expresses the traditional plot, fish is the protagonist.

Salted salmon is the most common breakfast main course in the past, just like the preserved bean curd and salted eggs in China. With the salty taste, a little can make a lot of meals. In recent years, I may think that pickled fish is unhealthy, so I changed it to grilled salmon, with a pinch of white radish, and I will pour a little soy sauce to taste it. This is the best partner for oily and juicy grilled salmon.

Roasted salmon in Japanese drama Quartet

Salmon sashimi, which was popular in China a few years ago, has been criticized badly recently. Experts say that Japanese people don't eat salmon at all. In fact, the salmon with extremely high fat content has a strong taste. As raw sashimi, it really deviates from the pursuit of "fresh and original taste" of Japanese materials, and it is far less than the "white fish" represented by snapper. However, after roasting and salting, the fat and protein are decomposed into smaller particles, which brings a delicate taste, which is a traditional diet loved by Kyoto people.

The side dishes are usually cooked with jade seeds, and Japanese stock, sugar and eggs are used to form the shape of an egg roll with simple cooking. It is the best choice for appetizing and refreshing breakfast.

There are many kinds of pickles, and a few pieces of laver are indispensable. It is usually wrapped in transparent paper to prevent it from being damp and brittle. There is also a high-end Japanese restaurant that will serve a piece of laver baked on the spot by charcoal fire, which is crisp and hot. There are all kinds of pickles and sour plums, and their main taste is sour, rather than salty pickled vegetables in China. Because pickles are not eaten in Japanese breakfast, but add flavor to meals.

Cai Lan has a girlfriend who is from Kyoto. He said that the best breakfast in Japan was to spend the night at his girlfriend's house and eat rice and miso soup cooked by his girlfriend the next morning. I don't have his happiness, but it's also an interesting experience to sit at the window of a street shop in Kyoto, eating authentic Japanese breakfast and looking at the newly awakened ancient city.

02

lunch

/Human feelings and traditions in the market/

To some extent, Osaka is like Shanghai and Kyoto is like Beijing.

For the residents of Kyoto, the life at the foot of the emperor's foot for thousands of years always gives them a natural sense of superiority. Laughing at Osaka people who only recognize money and Tokyo people who have no education is the content of many Kyoto people's daily chat.

Imperial palace of Kyoto emperor

Although since the Meiji Restoration, in order to better command various state machines, the Imperial Palace of the Emperor has moved to Tokyo, but Kyoto still retains the Imperial Palace of the Emperor with only totem significance and no use value. Many Kyoto people still stubbornly believe that the Emperor is only going to Tokyo on business, and Kyoto is his real home.

What is bred by this atmosphere is a society interwoven with human feelings and traditions. For Kyoto people, acquaintance relationship is very important, and spending more time to maintain old friends just reflects that they are more pursuing the feelings of "flowing water" than "fast food" and "staged" communication.

Therefore, if you want to have a lunch with the most local flavor in Kyoto, you must go to the most popular and humane place. As one of the few farmer's market formats still preserved, Kam Market is a good choice.

Kam Market is different from Heimen Market in Osaka and Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. If the latter two are one side of the diversified living conditions of metropolis, then Kam Market vividly shows the complete urban temperament of Kyoto: a tourist destination in the eyes of foreigners, a hidden city in the eyes of literati, an ancient inheritance in the eyes of believers, and daily necessities in the eyes of housewives.

In all fairness, the narrow facades and simple kitchen utensils in the brocade market are really not suitable for chefs to play their cooking skills, but the benefits of the farmers' market-freshness-are remarkable.

Sashimi is a dish that can best reflect the freshness of ingredients. In a disposable plastic bowl, sea urchin sashimi opened on the spot and tuna sashimi sliced on the spot are filled. Without dipping or adding wasabi, it is better to directly pour small bottles of cooking soy sauce and eat it on the street than sitting in a high-end kiosk.

And the layers of sugar, glutinous rice and adzuki beans are distinct, retaining the most pristine sweetness. And fruits were originally used for offering sacrifices to the gods and serving the emperor. Of course, there is no room for small tricks and fancy in front of spiritual idols. The so-called simple taste of the avenue lies in the small mutton soup and great happiness.

Barbecue is the handle of the market. Japanese barbecues are very different from those in China. There is no cumin, no pepper and almost no seasoning. Bake it until it's half cooked, dip it in soy sauce, or add nothing, and eat the natural taste of the ingredients. Rock oyster is a kind of wild oyster, which is not as expensive as Xianfeng Toe Oyster or Hyogo Oyster. Its shell is thick and its meat is small. It is most suitable to be made into a civilian food roasted with open fire. Add a piece of butter and bake it until the shell of oyster is black. The natural saltiness of seawater in oyster meat shrinks just right.

Mullet roe was originally a delicacy in Taiwan Province, and people in China used it to fry garlic sprouts and rice. The Japanese way of eating is to cut it into pieces, bake it slightly crispy with a spray gun, and eat it with white radish slices. Maillard reaction and carbonization reaction form a burnt taste on the surface of roe slices. Although it is expensive, it is really a good thing to eat while walking in the market.

One-night drying is a kind of thing that all kinds of seafood are salted and dried overnight. It naturally has a strong taste and is also very suitable for barbecue. One-night dried bamboo pod fish, golden pheasant fish and squid are all sold in the barbecue stalls in Jin market. They are put on bamboo sticks like kebabs in China. You can ask the store for a kumquat sauce to accompany them, as if you can smell the sea breeze coming from the Japanese sea.

Like most merchants in Kyoto, the brocade market was closed early, and basically at 4 pm, shops closed one after another. Therefore, it is not a wise choice to go to the brocade market for dinner. Even if there are a few scattered ones who insist on opening the door until evening, the categories are not rich enough and the taste is not good enough-to some extent, the taste of restaurants is always inversely proportional to their service attitude.

Merchants, of course, go home and enjoy life after work-this is the biggest benefit of a slow-paced city. In the evening, standing on the edge of Yakawa, you can see the lights lit up by countless people. I think this atmosphere is much warmer than standing on the sky tree in Tokyo and watching the brightly lit night scene in the business district.

03

dinner

/Customs inside and outside izakaya/

A long time ago, Japanese people didn't eat dinner.

This life custom originated from the influence of China culture in the Tang and Song Dynasties. In ancient China, people practiced two meals a day. The first meal was called Chao Shi, also called Gou, at about nine o'clock in the morning. The second meal is called feeding, also called dining, at about three o'clock in the afternoon.

This kind of two meals a day, which is in line with the rhythm of "working at sunrise, taking a rest in the day", didn't end until the invasion of the western culture of three meals a day in Meiji era. However, in Kyoto, an ancient capital full of nostalgic atmosphere, the tradition of keeping dinner simple and going home to solve it is still maintained, and most food shops close early.

But experiencing the night food in Kyoto is not without a place to go. At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, after supper, izakaya's business became lively. Different from bars in Britain and America, izakaya in Japan not only provides all kinds of sake, shochu and beer, but also has quite delicious appetizers. If you are not full, the staple foods such as fried noodles and fried rice will also give the best comfort to your hungry stomach in the middle of the night.

At the same time, as a place that pays equal attention to catering and socializing, izakaya is more lively than ordinary cooking places, and there is no noise in bars, which is quite consistent with China people's understanding of the value of food. Moreover, when dining in izakaya, you don't have to follow the rules of the separate dining system. When a kind of snacks are served, everyone grabs food and the atmosphere is good. Coupled with the waiter's attentive attitude, many Chinese people will drink their glasses and forget to return.

In fact, many snack foods in izakaya have deep roots with China.

Most of izakaya's "Tangyang" in Kyoto has maintained a very high standard, which is different from the tempura brought by the Portuguese in the17th century. The meat salted first and then fried, and the garlic-scented seasoning are very different from the light Japanese diet in the general concept. The most interesting thing is that no matter how humble izakaya is, Japanese Tang Yang will be carefully shaped and fried, and then served with beautiful utensils. This is in stark contrast to the Korean fried chicken beer that does not seek appearance. It must be said that the Japanese have reached a high level of aesthetics, and this is a nation with a particularly developed aesthetic sense of life.

Tofu soup is another bright spot in izakaya. A piece of kelp is spread at the bottom of the pot, and simmered slowly to let the umami ooze. After the whole piece of tofu in the soup is tasted, it is extremely simple to dip it in soy sauce with a bamboo spoon. This kind of food from China is regarded as a "delicious" product in the country of origin, and it is fried, braised and stewed in chili pepper; The Japanese, on the other hand, are getting farther and farther on the road of "original taste". This is a dramatic expression of the two sides of tofu, and it is also a vivid embodiment of the coexistence of Chinese and Japanese cultures.

Udon is also worth a try. Unlike the simple noodles made of kelp and bonito flowers with a little soy sauce in ordinary restaurants, Udon in izakaya has a much more fireworks flavor. In addition to sliced fried tofu and fish cake, there is also wild duck meat with skin shredded, and the soup head is more delicious. This kind of noodles from Fujian, which is between wheat flour and coarse flour, is very similar to Chinese soup powder. As a snack in izakaya, it is refreshing.

It's past zero when I came out of izakaya. At this time, the streets of Kyoto are another scene: the old man in old clothes has messy hair and slow pace, the office worker with a hangover is frowning, and the checkout counters of convenience stores that are open 24 hours a day are all replaced by Southeast Asians. This is the other side of exhaustion and truth under the glamorous and reserved appearance of Kyoto on weekdays.

They constitute a part of the three meals a day and night in this ancient capital, and also reflect another light of its independent temperament. For example, Shu Guozhi described the city: "I stood under the eaves of Kyoto at the beginning of the lights, watching the light rain outside the eaves. Suddenly, this kind of blue-gray tone, which is the most difficult to rest, smells a kind but distant sadness, which seems to come from the depths of the hearts of people who lived here 30 years ago or 500 years ago."