What to eat in Kyoto
Kyoto eats with restraint and by the season: kaiseki, yuba and tofu, obanzai, soba and udon, Kyoto pickles, wagashi and Uji matcha.

[ ] Try obanzai
    Kyoto home cooking: several vegetable and fish dishes prepared in advance and served from communal bowls. Small portions, many dishes, everything seasonal.
[ ] Try yudofu
    Tofu simmered in hot water with kombu and served with soy sauce and condiments. A temple dish where everything depends on the tofu and the water.
[ ] Try yuba
    The skin lifted from the surface of heated soy milk: delicate and nutty, served fresh with soy sauce or in a broth. A Kyoto speciality.
[ ] Try shojin ryori
    Buddhist temple cooking without meat, fish, onion or garlic: tofu, yuba, seasonal vegetables, seaweed and sesame. Entirely vegan and highly technical.
[ ] Try nishin soba
    Buckwheat noodles in broth with a whole dried herring simmered in a sweet soy glaze. A Kyoto dish, invented in a city without a sea from imported dried fish.
[ ] Try saba-zushi
    Pressed sushi of cured mackerel wrapped in kombu, cut into thick blocks. It comes from the Saba Kaido, the road along which fish travelled to the city salted.
[ ] Try Kyoto pickles
    Pickles made from local vegetables: senmaizuke turnip, shibazuke aubergine and others. They come with rice and fill whole rows of the Nishiki market.
[ ] Try hamo in summer
    A conger-like eel full of fine bones, which are cut through with a thousand knife strokes, served blanched with plum sauce. A summer delicacy and the symbol of July in Kyoto.
[ ] Try Kyo-yasai vegetables
    Local heirloom varieties — shogoin turnip, kamo aubergine, manganji pepper, bamboo shoots — grown here for centuries, each with its own season and method.
[ ] Walk the Nishiki market
    A narrow covered street of shops selling pickles, tofu, dried fish, sweets and fried snacks. It runs from the morning, and most stalls close by six.
[ ] Try wagashi
    Traditional sweets of bean paste and rice flour, changing shape and name with the season. Eaten with bitter tea, which is what makes their sweetness make sense.
[ ] Try yatsuhashi
    Triangles of soft rice dough with cinnamon and bean paste inside, the best-known Kyoto souvenir. A baked crisp version exists too.
[ ] Try warabimochi
    A translucent jelly of bracken starch rolled in kinako soy flour and drizzled with dark syrup. A summer dessert, served chilled.
[ ] Drink Uji matcha
    Powdered green tea from nearby Uji, whisked to a foam. Bitter and thick, served with one small sweet, which is eaten before the tea.
[ ] Try hojicha and genmaicha
    Hojicha is roasted green tea, almost caffeine-free with a caramel note; genmaicha is green tea with toasted rice. Both are gentler than sencha.
[ ] Try Fushimi sake
    Sake from the Fushimi district: soft and rounded thanks to the local soft water, unlike the sharper sake of Nada. One of the country's two main brewing centres.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-kyoto