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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Japan 2013: Kyoto Foods & Ninja Restaurant

There are some great food options in Kyoto. It's a beautiful city with wonderful culture and sights as well.

Some of the food we had in Kyoto:

Ginkakuji - the Golden Temple, was the first stop we made in Kyoto. At the end of the trail are snack and gift shops.
Green Tea Ice Milk (with mochi) 300Yen~ My first time trying this. Awesome! Super fluffy ice with the best green tea. The best matcha I've ever had in my life is definitely in Kyoto.
Green Tea Soft Serve 300Yen~ Me and my soft serves. hehe. YUMMY!

Lunch time outside Kinkakuji - the Silver Temple.
We walked by a small restaurant where you have to take your shoes off and sit on a platform. Always like those. :)
Kitsune Sansai (rice with slices of deep fried tofu and mountain vegetables) 650Yen~ I wanted something light and this was perfect. Light but still had good flavor. Felt pretty healthy eating this.
 

Unagi (bowl of eel and rice with Suimono - Japanese style soup) 1,200Yen~ Probably the cheapest unagi rice I've seen. They typically run 1,800+ Yen or so. The eel was super tender.
 

Gion Corner - a cool area where you can see geishas and old style buildings.
Sesame Chou Cream Puff (black sesame and custard) 250Yen~ Black sesame! Of course I had to try it. The cream puff was huge. And so tasty. Bad idea to eat it so close to dinner time though. haha. I was super stuffed!
 

Soft Serve! :)

Fried Chicken Stand
Kyoto Style (with green tea salt) 200Yen~ Never had matcha salt before. Pretty cool. It went really well with the fried chicken.

Churro Star
Churro (with matcha sugar) 190Yen~ MORE matcha!! OM NOM NOM!

Strawberry Banana Crepe (with whipped cream and chocolate sauce) 330Yen~ Crepes are always fun. Keep in mind we ate all these foods in ONE day! hahaha.
 

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We found this Ninja themed restaurant in Kyoto and decided to check it out. So freaking awesome! All the staff members were dressed in ninja gear. They lead you thru a dark tunnel from the entrance to the dining area. Which are little caverns per table. It's like private dining!

Ninja Kyoto Restaurant & Labryinth
http://www.ninja-kyoto.co.jp/

They offered several set menus as well as a la carte. We figured since we're here, might as well do the set menu! We chose the 10 course summer special menu for 2,800Yen~ per person.

Shuriken Star Blades Grissini (with sour cream dip). Grissini is basically a crisp breadstick or cracker. This was so cool! Crackers shaped like ninja stars. The presentation was awesome. I didn't even notice the black crackers when they first served it. I thought the twigs were something edible. haha.
 

Octopus Sashimi. Pretty fresh, but quite chewy. It was hard to eat.

Potato Salad (topped with crispy potato bits). They did "tricks" with the food. The egg was not a real egg! It was actually the sauce for the salad. The creamy sauce over the potatoes was fantastic. The crispy potatoes on top added texture and more flavor. This was my favorite dish of the night. :)
 

Soup. Pretty good. A creamy soup with edamame in it. I didn't finish it though since I knew we had a ton of courses left to go...
 

Steam Fish with Chinese Sauce (with tofu and veggies). Very light and healthy. Not my favorite dish... the fish was overcooked.

Ninja Style Black Fried Chicken. Very cool presentation as well. The black stuff on top is actually garlic bread crumbs. It's not burnt or anything. Added so much texture to the dish and delicious garlicky-ness. Did I mention how fun this meal is??!! :P
 

Black Enchantment (sweet and sour tender pork). When they served this, the waiter said it's time for dessert! I was excited because I love dessert. Duh! haha. But then he told us, "No! It's not!" It is a pork chop disguised as a ice cream bar. Can't say I wasn't disappointed. haha. But this was really good. The pork was cooked well and the sauce was very interesting.
 

Eggplant Sushi. I don't like eggplant. But I tried this anyways. I did not have a second piece tho. haha.

Icy Bonsai (milk, black sesame, and matcha ice cream). Now it's time for dessert for reals! :P Really cool presentation. The dirt was chocolate cookie crumbs and 3 different flavors of ice cream underneath. The black sesame was by far my favorite. Yum!!
 

Snowy White Frog (cheesecake on chocolate cookie). Cute! Looked better than it tasted but totally fun!!

During the meal, a ninja came in a did magic tricks for us!! It was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had. Definitely go check this out when you're in Kyoto. :)

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