The best rice cake is for sure from a rice cake specialist
With a record-breaking heavy snow, East Japan had the largest amount of snow in the forecasting record.
In the traditional East Asian calendar, the beginning of spring (a solar term) passed already, but in Kyoto there is still no sign showing spring is coming soon. Cold weather persists.
Under such a cold weather in Kyoto, let me introduce a shop which can give you warmth♪
Being hailed as the “Kitchen of Kyoto”, the Nishiki Market is a 390 metres long market street full of liveliness attracting both local people and foreign visitors. In the Nishiki Market, there are over 120 shops selling Kyoto seasonal food, Kyoto vegetables, pickles, tofu, etc. When you walk along, you can hear a harmony composed of the voice of people promoting taste-trial and “Ookini~!” (Thank you).
In the Nishiki Market, do you know there is a rice cake shop?
That is “錦もちつき屋” (Nishiki Mochitsukiya). This shop is famous with its performance of making rice cake for a few times a day. Also you can eat the freshly made rice cake there!
(It’s a pity that there’s no rice making performance when I went there…)
So, how about the menu there? From the Kyoto style of Ozōni which we introduced in our New Year blog, to red bean soup, grilled rice cake set, etc. There were so many varieties! Snack and meal were both available. They all looked good and it should be an irresistible menu to a rice cake lover.
I chose the grilled rice cake set “辛党の焼餅B” (salty taste). Rice cakes made with Habutae glutinous rice of the Shiga Prefecture are grilled with Binchotan charcoal, and you can enjoy 5 flavours. In the photo, the flavours (from the left) are cheese, peanut butter, seasoned cod roe, pickled plum with bonito, and grated radish respectively. So many flavours made me did not know which one to start with.
All of them were tasty, but I was surprised by the peanut butter! The texture of the soft rice cake and the mellow taste of peanut with controlled sweetness matched so well. The after taste of peanut was even greater. New deliciousness found!
Another choice of the set is “甘党の焼餅A” (sweet taste), the 5 flavours include white miso, grilled seaweed, red beans, sweet soy sauce and roasted soy bean. This one should also be a touching taste for those rice cake lovers, I think. Next time I would also like to try the sweet one!
When I finished and thanked them for the tasty food I enjoyed while leaving the shop, the staff grilling rice cakes smiled to me and said “Thank you! Please come again next time!”
In this cold winter day, my stomach was warmed by the tasty rice cake and my heart was also warmed by the smile of staff.
★The homepage of 錦もちつき屋 (Nishiki Mochitsukiya)★
http://www.nishiki-mochitsukiya.com/index.html