🇯🇵 Kyoto

The food of a thousand-year capital

Kyoto's food rests on a history of being the capital for a thousand years. With the imperial palace and countless temples and shrines, and fine ingredients and craftsmen gathering from across the country, it refined a light, dashi-forward Kyoto cuisine, the temple food of tofu, yuba and fresh gluten, and the delicate wagashi nurtured by the tea ceremony. Being a basin far from the sea, it also runs deep in inventive fish dishes like pike conger and dried cod, and in a culture of long-keeping pickles. Not flash, but the careful stacking of ingredient and effort — that is the thinking beneath a Kyoto plate.

Three faces

Here, Kyoto is split into three routes with distinct characters. First Nishiki — the four-hundred-year "Kyoto's kitchen," a market street where you can nibble on the spot the ingredients that hold up Kyoto cuisine: dashimaki, soy-milk doughnuts, octopus-and-egg. Then Gion and Hanamikoji — the geisha district at the gate of Yasaka Shrine, where the culture of sweets and matcha lingers thick, in matcha parfaits, nama-yatsuhashi and a bowl of tea. And Arashiyama — the scenic spot of Togetsukyo and bamboo, an open route where you take fresh croquettes and sakuramochi with the riverside view. Kitchen, geisha district, scenic spot: together the three show the breadth of Kyoto's food.

How to eat in Kyoto

To eat your way through Kyoto, mornings have the edge. Popular shops in Nishiki and Arashiyama's specialities can sell out by early afternoon, and cherry-blossom and autumn-leaf seasons are very crowded everywhere, so aim for the morning. Nishiki and Gion are close by subway and Keihan, joinable in a day, but Arashiyama sits a little out from the centre by Randen or JR, so it suits a half-day of its own. Geisha districts and markets are also places of daily life and business, so carry your food-walk rubbish out and refrain from photographing private lanes or people without consent — keep some care for the place.