Food Diary - Mishima-Tei, Kyoto

Matsusaka beef (松阪牛), Mishima-Tei, Kyoto Honten

In our summer trip to Kamikochi, we also went through Kyoto, mainly because I wanted to catch the Gion Matsuri. It turned out to be a damper, because of the passing Typhoon Nangka. Although I did find some lovely fabric (nani IRO! and others) at a fabric shop called Handicraft Dream at the AEON Mall.

But the upside is we got to lunch at Mishima-Tei (三嶋亭) again.

Appetiser (snow cod with peppers), Mishima-Tei, Kyoto Honten

Mishima-Tei is a venerable old sukiyaki restaurant at the corner of Sanjo and Teramachi streets. Their website states that they have been around since the Meiji era, with 140-year-old traditions continuing unchanged, and the restaurant is now managed by the fifth generation.

Mishima-Tei is all about matsusaka beef sukiyaki (松阪牛すき焼き). The ingredients used at Mishima-Tei are fresh, quality ingredients. The yolk of the egg is firm and orange - a clear sign of its freshness and quality. The meat, obviously, is beautifully marbled. I like the Japanese term for this: 霜降り, shimofuri, which literally refers to frost.

Matsusaka beef sukiyaki (Kansai-style), Mishima-Tei, Kyoto Honten

Sukiyaki at Mishima-Tei is in the Kansai-style, i.e. the meat is first heated before the sauce is added. A piece of lard is first used to oil the pot, following which they liberally sprinkle in the sugar.

They then place the thinly sliced beef into the pot. As the meat cooks on one side, they then pour a little of the sauce over the meat - not enough to cover it - before swishing the meat around in the pot and then turning it over.

Matsusaka beef sukiyaki, Mishima-Tei, Kyoto Honten

After the first round of beef, they again oil the pot with the piece of lard, sprinkle ob more sugar, and then add the remaining ingredients before adding more sauce.

The remaining ingredients are added to the pot in order of the time they take to cook, and these ingredients usually consist of onions, eggplant, shirataki (konnyaku in noodle form), shiitake, Japanese leek, shungiku, tofu.

Finally, when these ingredients are almost cooked, they turn them over, then add the rest of the beef and a little more sauce.

At the start of the meal, we are served a bowl of piping hot, fluffy Japanese rice and ground beef furikake to sprinkle on. Finally, to end the meal, we are served dessert, usually fresh fruit. This meal, we were served Japan's high quality domestically produced pineapple. (At the previous trip, we were served Japanese grown musk melon.)