It would be unusual for me to travel and not investigate what a city has to offer food wise.  What makes that town culinarily unique.  Be it a type of food, a special restaurant or the local food markets.  Kyoto is actually renowned for its sake and tofu.  The locals say their tofu and sake is exceptionally good due to the local water.  I will admit that I sampled lots of sake, but sadly didn’t have a chance to chow down on tofu.

When I knew I was going to spend a few days in Kyoto, beside exploring as many heritage listed temples as I could, Nishiki Ichiba was on my agenda.

With only a few days in Kyoto, which would also include a trip to Nara as well as a visit to Osaka, our time was pretty well mapped out.  It turns out that Nishiki Food Markets are the first place the agenda after arriving that afternoon from Tokyo via shinkansen.

Nishiki Markets (Ichiba) is known as Kyoto’s Kitchen, and when you visit it is easy to see why.  Unlike the massive sprawling Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Nishiki is a lot smaller.  The 400 meter long, five meter wide, covered, pedestrian only road runs east-west from Teramachi Street to Takakura Street.  There are about 130 shops and stalls that run down both sides of the road.  I find the markets a lot more friendlier and personable than Tsukiji.

It really is a culinary delight walking amongst the stores and stalls.  You will find all sorts of goodies; pickles, Japanese sweets, dried food, sushi, fresh seafood, vegetables, flowers, sake, rice as well as knives, ceramics and other cookware.  What I love about Nishiki is there is a nice assortment of food that is designed to be bought and eaten as you walk around.  There are lots of samples to be tried as well.  The merchants are friendly and encourage you to try what they have on offer.  Almost everything that you will find at Nishiki is locally produced or procured.

The markets have a very long history .  The first store was set up by a fishmonger around 1311.  During the Edo period (16th century), Nishiki became a true fish market with several wholesale fish stores opening.  Later on the market made the move from wholesale to retail and stores selling items other than seafood opened.  Many of the stores that you see have been there for several generations.

Come for a little walk with me via my photos.  I have only put a few up on Belly Rumbles, to have a look at all of them please pop by my flickr profile.

 Sashimi on a stick, perfect on the go snack.  A selection of tuna, scallop and salmon, marinated in various flavours.

I use to think that we had a great variety of rices in Australia, it becomes very apparent very quickly that we have nothing on the Japanese.

 Various seafood including whale.  What part of the whale I am not quite sure.

More seafood and whale meat, this is known as whale bacon.

 Various fried goodies.

Broad bean, green pea and miso biscuits.  You try the samples and then you just have to buy some, I did.

Katsuobushi (dried bonito) which is then finely shaved to make bonito flakes.

Lego lollies

Shirauo (Japanese anchovy) which have been dried, mainly caught in the Kyushu and Kanto area.

Shirauo with walnuts.  We bought some of these to have with a beer back at the bar.  Mean nasty bar person told us to put them away, not allowed to bring in food.  They were absolutely delicious, soy and sweet flavour, quite sticky.

Dried prawns with chilli.  One or two are nice but they get a bit much after a few.

Dried scallops, ready to eat, got to love their snack food.

Little marinated octopi.  Their heads are stuffed with a quail egg.

Gorgeous presentation of their arrowroot cake.

Various pickles.

Fresh edamame.

You can find me on flickrhere.    

Sara xxx

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The Salt Book, what a fascinating read.  The book covers every aspect of salt you could imagine.  How to salt, when to salt, which salt, why salt, salt trends, salt facts, salt recipes, salt techniques, chefs on salt, salt at the table.  It goes through explanations of types of salts ie, pink salt, fleur de sel, smoked salt.  It even explains how you can make your own salt.

No stone left unturned when it comes to the subject of salt.  The pictures throughout the book are gorgeous as well.  It is much more than a recipe book, a true education in salt.  Authors Fritz Gubler & David Glynn with Dr Russell Keast, have come up with the where, why and how guide to salt.

So many interesting recipes caught my attention, but where to start?  With strawberries as luscious and tasty as they were and passionfruit in abundance, I decide to try the meringue recipe and whip up an Eaton mess.

2.5 from 2 reviews

Meringues

 

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Due to using brown sugar in the recipe these meringues turn out a little darker than usual, with a nice chewy centre.

Author: The Salt Book

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• 80g light brown sugar
• 4 egg whites
• 100g caster sugar
• fine sea salt

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 120?C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Sift the brown sugar into a bowl with a good pinch of sea salt. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Then add the caster sugar in three equal portions, beating until the whites are glossy and stiff. White still beating, gently sift the brown sugar from the bowl on to the egg whites, ceasing as soon as it is incorporated.
2. Use a tablespoon to place dollops of meringue on the baking tray, leaving plenty of space between.
3. Bake for 50 minutes then turn off the oven and, leaving the door slightly ajar, let the meringues cool before removing.

1.2.4

To make Eaton mess is very easy.  Just make the meringues as above.  Once they have cooled and you are ready for dessert, break up your meringue, add strawberries and passionfruit pulp.  Mix through some cream and bingo, Eaton mess.

There are a few recipes that I want to try in the book.  A while back I bought myself a Himalayan salt block which I have been itching to try.  There are two great recipes in the book that use a salt block, Scallops with vanilla salt and scallop carpaccio.  Did you know that beside heating a salt block you can also freeze it giving great results.

If you would like to purchase your own copy it is available from Arbon Publishing.

Sara xxx

Belly Rumbles received a copy of The Salt Book, with much thanks, from Felicity of Arbon Publishing.

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I am always wary when Chefs or personalities come out with a product or just put their name and face to it.  So when I saw Donna Hay’s new range of prepared mixture goodies on the shelves at Woolworths, it did make me go hmmm. I will admit I am not a big Donna Hay fan.  Don’t get me wrong, I love any Aussie woman that makes a name for herself, go Donna.  I am not as Donna crazy as some people, I don’t buy her magazine (not for many many years anyway) or watch her TV show regularly.  I do admire her as a business woman very much.  Though if I see her do her pasta twirl one more time!

The mixes  were on special for the introductory price of $6.99, normally they will retail for $7.99.  The range seems to be only stocked at Woolworths and is nowhere to be seen on Coles’ shelves.  Initially my first impression was $7.99 is expensive for a pre-mix.

The packaging is in the Donna Hay blue, of course!  Which makes it quite distinctive on the shelves when sitting amongst the other products.

I decided to try the macarons.  Macarons in a pre-mix?  If they worked, I would have to give her credit.  I know of home cooks that have spent quite a bit of time perfecting the art of macaron making, gone to classes, it’s not easy.  Many times have I seen the excited tweets of “I have feet!” grace twitter, referring to the “foot” that appears on the macaron if you are successful.

The pre-mix states it has no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.  A pack is said to make 12 macrons and each one has approximately is 670kj

Donna says on the pack “Macarons are one of my favourite treats, so I’ve turned them into a simple baking mix.  They are a crisp, delicious biscuit with a  soft, chewy centre, sandwiched with a rich chocolate filling.  The best quality ingredients have been measured and weighted for you, so it’s just like baking from scratch, only easier, with the wonderful homemade flavour.  Happy Baking!”

Ingredients:  Egg mix:  sugar, eg white powder, starch (tapioca or maize).  Almond mix: almond meal, sugar, starch (tapioca or maize)

All you need to add is 2T of cream for the choc mix and water to the egg  mix.

The process of making them is very easy to follow and does not require any special talent at all.  Would be a great one to make with the kids.  I did make one mistake, and that was not using two trays and cooking the whole batch at once.  I placed the macaron mix on one tray and left some mix in the bowl which I placed on a tray once the first batch had cooked.  Reason being is I only have my bottom oven working at the moment.  I could have squeezed two trays in and should of.  If you leave the mix sit for any length of time after you make it, you will not get feet!

I followed Donna’s instructions and spooned the mix on.  Take my advice, if you know how to pipe, pipe the mixture on to the trays and you will end up with a perfect result.

They were gooey where they had to be, crisp where you wanted them to be.  I achieved feet and the choc filling was divine.

I am not a big pre-mix person, I tend to like to make things from scratch.  I am impressed and would buy the product again to have in the cupboard for when I just wanted to whip something on the spur of the moment which was a little on the indulgent side.

Donna, well done, I am very impressed!

Sara xxx

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