Continuing on from part 1, we left Kinkaku-ji after some time and headed via bus to Nishiki Market.
Nishiki Market is a narrow, covered shopping street filled with hundreds of restaurants and food shops. Because you can find everything from fresh seafood and produce to knives and cookware, the market has become known as Kyoto's kitchen or Kyoto's pantry.
Though it's not exactly in Nishiki Market, I knew we had to track down these adorable animal doughnuts which were located in a nearby shopping arcade.
Floresta Nature Doughnuts have been on my food bucket list for quite some time and I was ecstatic to find them in Kyoto. Floresta was started by a husband and wife team who wanted to make healthy doughnuts for their children. As such, their doughnuts are baked, only using organic ingredients without any additives or preservatives.
We went for the cutest doughnut they had, which was an adorable cat timbit (or doughnut hole for you non-Canadians) with almond for ears! It sat on top of a yellow glazed doughnut with a flower motif. Too adorable.
Like mentioned earlier, the doughnuts are baked so they have more of a cake texture. Not too dense but a little drier than say a madeleine. The glaze was light and scented with vanilla. What I liked about these doughnuts were that they were not too sweet.
Going back to Nishiki Market, my mom bought a grilled scallop skewer for a snack. I had a bite and thought the sauce was way too salty. Overkill when you combine it with the natural brine of the scallop.
KN went for a baby octopus skewer. I'm still amazed that they managed to stuff the head with a whole quail egg!
We also stopped in a nearby Sanrio store. Gudetama will forever be my spirit animal.
You'll see people dressing up in kimonos everywhere in Kyoto!
As we kept walking, we eventually arrived in Gion, Kyoto's famous geisha district. The neighbourhood is filled with shops, restaurants, and teahouses where geisha entertain.
We stopped in a nearby izakaya, called Ichi, for lunch. The restaurant was featured in one of my favourite YouTube channels (watch here if you'd like). Fair warning though, never watch Mike's videos when you're hungry! It looked good enough so we decided to give it a try.
My mom went for the salmon lunch set with three slices of salmon sashimi, ikura (salmon roe), cooked salmon, miso soup, tofu, and rice.
As for me, I tried to order an item that sounded most similar to the pork cutlet Mike featured in his video, but unfortunately it wasn't the right dish in the end. I found the lunch menu to be quite different and slimmed down compared to the dinner menu that Mike ordered from.
The negi miso pork was simply a grilled pork chop served with whipped mash potato and a bowl of rice. Still tasted good (almost like Vietnamese grilled pork), but it wasn't what I initially wanted.
LT went the safe route and chose the chicken teriyaki which, similar to mine, came with creamy mashed potatoes and a bowl of rice.
After we finished lunch, we immediately headed for ... dessert! Kyoto is known for their green tea so you'll find a lot of teahouses and cafes serving matcha parfaits and desserts. Tsujiri is probably the most globally recognized brand (I can't wait for them to open in Edmonton!) but the store had too long of a line. We settled for a neighbouring cafe that had a shorter wait.
Each person had to order an item so my mom got a mango smoothie. Could've been stronger on the mango flavour.
LT got a brown sugar parfait, which came with mochi and cake on the side. The ice cream had a nutty flavour and tasted almost like peanut butter to me. Maybe it was sesame?
I got one of their matcha parfaits, with layers of chiffon cake, green tea whipped cream, red bean, matcha ice cream, and mochi. Too pretty to eat.
They also served us a cup of hot tea at the end which was a perfect way to wash down all the sweets.
This would essentially be the last photo of our day since chaos ensued shortly after. Long story short, we lost both our moms on what would have been Mother's Day. They wandered off, got lost, and we had no way of contacting them. Found them a couple hours later in front of our apartment after a few kind people helped them, thank God. Now I know how parents feel when their children wander off...
- CT
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