Kyoto vegetables– category –

When you hear “a sustainable life,” you might picture eco bags or recycling, but one of the things with particularly great influence in our daily lives is the choice of “food.” Among these, what deserves attention is Kyoto vegetables, the heirloom vegetables of Kyoto. Kyoto vegetables are rooted in the spirit of “local production for local consumption”...

"Shogoin daikon," a Kyoto heirloom vegetable born in the Shogoin area of Kyoto in the late Edo period. Its perfectly round, moisture-rich, soft flesh is resistant to falling apart when simmered and faintly sweet. Drying removes the moisture, producing a springy, bouncy texture and a refined richness and umami within the sweetness...

A commercial dried vegetable made by slicing and drying at our own factory the Kujo green onion known as a Kyoto heirloom vegetable. The green onion’s original fragrance and sweetness are concentrated, and a crisp texture remains even after rehydrating. It is suited to commercial use, especially for Japanese delicatessen, soups, and to...

"Mibuna," a Kyoto heirloom vegetable also familiar in Kyoto pickles. Among them, mibuna cultivated in Hiyoshi Town—the designated production area for Kyo-mibuna—is a gem reputed to be aromatic, with a tangy heat like a herb. Drying softens the faintly bitter flavor, with the heat elevating the umami for a refined...

Each vegetable has its "season," and tasting it in that period lets you enjoy its character best. Kyoto's heirloom vegetables, the "Kyoto vegetables," also include some that come into season in summer, coloring the summer table with juiciness and robust flavor. Here, Manganji togarashi, Kamo eggplant, Fushimi togarashi...

Kamo eggplant (kamonasu), also called the "queen of eggplant," is a summer Kyoto vegetable that represents Kyoto. Prized for its round, hefty shape exceeding 10cm in diameter and its densely packed, thick flesh, it has been cultivated centered on the Kamigamo area of Kita Ward, Kyoto City. Dengaku, agedashi, eggplant steak, and...

"Kyo-mizuna," a Kyoto vegetable essential to the winter table. Prized for a crisp flavor and a crunchy bite, it has the depth to elevate both hot pot and salad. It tends to be confused with the fellow Kyoto vegetable mibuna, but the leaf shape and growth are different things. This article covers, from Kyo-mizuna's characteristics and history to varieties...

Kyoto, boasting over a thousand years of history, has a diverse array of "traditional preserved foods" born from rich seasons and the wisdom of daily life. In an age without refrigeration, the sun-dried vegetables, pickles, and fermented foods devised to make the most of seasonal ingredients without waste still support the Kyoto table today. This article covers...

Kyoto vegetables, which color Kyoto's food culture. Do you dismiss the reason their prices are on the higher side as simply "because it's Kyoto"? In fact, behind Kyoto vegetables' high cost lie a long history and tradition, a unique growing environment, and producers' ceaseless efforts. This article covers why Kyoto vegetables are high...

―Capturing Summer's Life, Coolly, in a Single Dish― A column penned by chef Tamotsu Yoneyama, who runs "Potsura Potsura" and "Utsura Utsura" in Shinsen, Tokyo, earning Michelin Bib Gourmand at both restaurants. How to build summer Kyoto vegetables into a course—that thinking and commitment...

Kyoto vegetables include quite a few names whose readings are hard to guess at first, such as "Shishigatani kabocha" and "mibuna." This article compiles the readings of representative Kyoto vegetables in a list with furigana, and briefly introduces the characteristics of each. The definition of Kyoto vegetables...

―No Salt or Oil Needed—What the Ingredient Teaches Us― A column penned by chef Tamotsu Yoneyama, who runs "Potsura Potsura" and "Utsura Utsura" in Shinsen, Tokyo, earning Michelin Bib Gourmand at both restaurants. When facing a Kyoto vegetable, the "subtraction" a chef should choose...

The gentle ring of "Kyoto vegetables" is everyday life for Kyoto people, and for those living outside Kyoto it's an object of longing, evoking a certain nostalgia. Tied to seasonal events and dishes, they have nurtured a distinctive food culture. Today, with advances in agricultural technology, more can be enjoyed year-round...

A column penned by chef Tamotsu Yoneyama, who runs "Potsura Potsura" and "Utsura Utsura" in Shinsen, Tokyo, earning Michelin Bib Gourmand at both restaurants. Through Manganji togarashi, he speaks of the shifting of "season" and the depth of Kyoto vegetables. The Manganji that changes between early summer and high summer...

Mibuna is one of Kyoto's traditional Kyoto vegetables, prized for its long, slender leaves and soft texture. It looks similar to mizuna, but its leaves have no serrations and are rounded. Its moderate, crisp heat and delicate flavor shine in a wide range of dishes—pickles, ohitashi, stir-fries, and more...

Gift food OEM using Kyoto ingredients is a field that lets you add the value of the “Kyoto brand” to products—value that product development in other regions cannot deliver. In addition to Kyoto vegetables such as Kujo green onion, Shogoin daikon, Kamo eggplant, and Manganji pepper, and up to the pickles, tsukudani, Kyoto sweets, and dashi that Kyoto’s food culture has nurtured, ingredients...

Powder processing of Kyoto vegetables is one of the few options that lets you translate a regional brand into a product at the raw-material level. Kujo green onion, Manganji pepper, Shogoin daikon, Kyo-kurenai carrot, Mizuo yuzu—the heirloom vegetables Kyoto has long nurtured excel in every respect: color, aroma, and story. Food OEM...

The strength of requesting ingredient-processing OEM in Kyoto lies in access to Kyoto vegetables, heirloom vegetables, and Kyoto-grown ingredients, and in a quality-control system backed by the culture of long-established makers and artisans. By combining processing techniques such as drying, powdering, and extract extraction with Kyoto-grown ingredients, you get something beyond mere OEM manufacturing—a...

Dried Kujo Negi powder is a commercial raw material made by drying and finely powdering the Kyoto heirloom vegetable "Kujo negi." Compared with white negi types, it has a gentler aroma and stronger sweetness, with a vivid green retained all the way to the leaf tips—it is adopted in food OEM for topping instant noodles, furikake, and adding color and aroma to baked-good dough...

Commercial Kujo negi distributes "Kujo negi," one of the traditional vegetables that represents Kyoto, in three types—fresh, frozen, and dried—as a raw material for ramen shops, food manufacturers, boxed-lunch factories, and the like to use stably. To make the most of its distinctive sweetness and aroma and deep green, the optimal form for each use...

The Types and Classification of Japan's Negi | Broadly Divided into 3 Lineages. Negi is a vegetable essential to the Japanese table, but its varieties are astonishingly diverse. From what's sold as "naga-negi" at supermarkets, to the Kyoto heirloom vegetable "Kujo negi," to Gunma Prefecture's "Shimonita negi," and even Western leeks...

Right now, product development that makes use of “regional individuality” is drawing attention. Among these, foods using heirloom vegetables and Kyoto vegetables are strongly supported for the gift market and inbound-oriented products, thanks to their visual beauty and rarity. Especially now, with inbound tourists increasing, region...

Product Overview of Dried Manganji Togarashi. "Manganji togarashi," a Kyoto vegetable originating in Maizuru City, Kyoto Prefecture, is a sweet chili prized for its thick-fleshed, large size and refreshing aroma. Even when dried, the flesh's thickness and hearty bite remain as-is, with a fresh aroma like a green chili and a clean flavor standing out...

Product Overview of Dried Kyo-Kurenai Carrot. "Kyo-kurenai carrot," prized for its glossy, vivid red color and rich sweetness, is a Phytorich variety developed by Takii & Co. A Japan-born carrot created by crossing gosun carrot and kintoki carrot, it contains lycopene, the source of its vivid color...

Product Overview of Dried Kamo Eggplant. "Kamo eggplant," a traditional vegetable cultivated in the Kamigamo district of Kyoto for over 300 years. Its flesh is fine-grained and firm yet soft, with the property of resisting falling apart when simmered. Drying makes the flesh's firmness even stronger, with a refined aroma and sweetness standing out...

Commercializing an attention-grabbing fruit tomato from Kyotango. We received the “yarisugi tomato”—grown in Kumihama, Kyotango, in an environment so harsh it is called an “athlete vegetable,” with sweetness and tartness packed densely—from Wada Farm and made it into a product. High-sugar tomatoes are hard to dry...

A project toward establishing radish as a regional specialty. This is a project started as a means of regional revitalization, initiated by Mr. Nomura, who grows radishes in the Kyotamba area of Kyoto. Agriture CEO Kojima supported the web system construction and the back end including SNS...

In Kansai, centered on Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara, there are many traditional vegetables handed down since long ago. Each has its own appeal rooted in that land's climate and culture, and they're still beloved on the table and at market. This article covers the characteristics and representative varieties of Kyoto vegetables, Naniwa vegetables, and Yamato vegetables...

You may have heard the phrase "Kyoto vegetables" at least once. Nurtured through a long history in the ancient capital of Kyoto and developed alongside Kyoto's rich land and culture, Kyoto vegetables are packed with an appeal not found in other vegetables. This article covers the difference between Kyoto heirloom vegetables and brand vegetables...

In the streets of Tokyo where high-rises stand, rich farmland once spread, and vegetables of each season were grown locally. "Edo Tokyo vegetables"—such as komatsuna, Takinogawa gobo, and Naito togarashi, whose names still remain—are urban traditional vegetables handed down since the Edo period. But the city...

Fushimi togarashi is one of the Kyoto vegetables originating in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto Prefecture. Prized for being long, slender, wrinkled, and vividly green, it bears the name "togarashi" (chili) but is a kind of sweet chili with almost no heat. For that reason, children and those who dislike spicy food...

What Is Horikawa Gobo? The Difference from Ordinary Gobo. Horikawa gobo is a Kyoto vegetable cultivated in Kyoto for about 400 years. Certified as both a "Kyoto Heirloom Vegetable" and a "Brand Kyoto Vegetable," it's known as a rare Kyoto vegetable used even at high-end restaurants. General...

Manganji togarashi is one of the summer Kyoto vegetables that represent Kyoto. Though a member of the chili family, it has almost no heat, and because it's large, thick-fleshed, and sweet, it's also called the "king of chilies." With few seeds and easy to eat, it's used for suyaki and nibitashi...

A column penned by chef Tamotsu Yoneyama, who runs "Potsura Potsura" and "Utsura Utsura" in Shinsen, Tokyo, earning Michelin Bib Gourmand at both restaurants. We share what he feels about the power of ingredients and producers' aspirations as he faces Kyoto vegetables in the daily kitchen. The customer's expression a single dish creates...

When cooking, what always comes to mind is "how to listen to the ingredient's voice." Above all, I think the relationship between Kyoto vegetables and dashi is a presence that answers that question head-on. A Kyoto vegetable has flavor that stands out even simply boiled. But by adding dashi, that individuality...

As a chef, the time spent thinking "what drink shall I pair with this dish" is actually very enjoyable. As much as finishing the dish itself, what sways the customer's expression is "pairing." What cup to match with a dish centered on Kyoto vegetables. That moment...

When talking about cooking, our eyes inevitably go to seasonings and plating, but in truth, I think most of a chef's work is a dialogue with "heat control." Whether to go high flame, or low and slow. That single judgment can utterly change a vegetable's face...

What always comes at the end of cooking is the step of "plating." After cutting, applying heat, and adjusting the flavor, the moment of setting the dish on the vessel. Here, the dish's impression changes greatly. It doesn't change the flavor itself. But the color, texture, and shape a vessel holds, when they meet a vegetable...

Kintoki carrot (kintoki ninjin) is one of Japan's traditional varieties, cultivated in the Kansai region including Kyoto. Its greatest feature is a vivid red color distinct from ordinary orange Western carrots, an ingredient often used at celebratory occasions such as osechi and New Year's simmered dishes...

Cooking is something you taste by putting it in your mouth. So it tends to be thought, but in reality it begins much earlier. The green aroma that rises when you put in the knife, the sweet scent that drifts the moment it's put over the flame. That aroma reaching the nose is, for a chef, the first signal, and for the eater...

"Kujo negi" is a green negi that represents Kyoto, certified as a Kyoto heirloom vegetable with about 1,300 years of history. It's an ingredient essential to Kyoto cuisine—Kyo-udon, Kyoto hot pot, and as a garnish—prized for the sliminess of its leaf flesh, the sweetness that increases in winter, and its rich aroma. This article covers Kujo negi's position as a Kyoto vegetable...

The fun of cooking, I think, is actually hidden in very small places. For example, "the cut." Even the same vegetable becomes an entirely different dish with a single way of putting in the knife. How you listen to the vegetable's voice—a chef's work appears in that moment. Shogoin kabura...

Shishigatani kabocha (shishigatani kabocha) is one of Kyoto's traditional vegetables, with a history of being brought to Kyoto from present-day Aomori Prefecture in the Edo period. A Japanese kabocha prized for its distinctive gourd-like shape and gentle sweetness, its delicate flavor distinct from ordinary Western kabocha...

As a chef, you constantly face the question of "how to handle seasonal ingredients." Vegetables are living things. Their most beautiful moment arrives in only a brief span, and their face utterly changes with a single shift in temperature or rain. That's exactly why how to deliver the "flavor of only now" to the customer...

Vegetables have a "season" for each period, and eating them in that period lets you enjoy more deliciousness and nutrition. Autumn Kyoto has an abundance of flavorful Kyoto vegetables. In this season, when it cools and the appetite grows, incorporate Kyoto vegetables—prized for a cozy sweetness and richness—into the daily table...

When I'm cooking, the phrase "hi-ire" (applying heat) carries a certain special resonance. Do you sear it all at once over high heat, or coax the heat in slowly over a low flame? Depending on your distance from the fire and how much time you give it, the very same ingredient reveals a completely different face. But one day I realized...

Every vegetable has its season, and by enjoying them season by season you can savor flavors unique to that time of year. Spring, along with the start of the new fiscal year, is when fresh vegetables line the shop shelves. Vividly colored, full of character, spring Kyoto vegetables include Kyoto bamboo shoots, hanana rape blossoms, and Kyoto udo—all shaped by Kyoto's climate and land...

Shogoin kabura is one of Kyoto's heirloom vegetables, a turnip known for its large, round shape. Among turnips it boasts one of the largest sizes in Japan, and it is famous as the ingredient for Kyoto's specialty senmaizuke pickles—a true seasonal signature of Kyoto's winter.

Shogoin daikon is one of Kyoto's heirloom vegetables, characterized by its large, round shape. It takes its name from Shogoin in Kyoto's Sakyo Ward, where it was first cultivated in the Edo period. In the early Showa era, it began to be grown in the Yodo district of Mimaki Village in southern Kyoto (around present-day Kumiyama)...

The "Kyoto vegetables" that color Kyoto's winter are packed with deep sweetness and umami, slowly nurtured through the cold. As temperatures drop, vegetables store up sugars, so Kyoto vegetables that come into season in winter grow sweeter and taste all the better in hot pots and simmered dishes. Here we introduce Kujo green onion, Shogoin daikon...