Even the traditional heart of Kyoto's food culture, the vibrant humming Nishiki-Koji market, has been penetrated by the arrow of Valentine's Day marketing cupidity.
We spotted chocolate-covered kuro-mame (black soybeans)...
...heart-shaped tofu...
... and even chocolate nama-fu. Who'd have thought that one of the city's most venerable fu makers, the wonderful Fu-ka, would stoop to such commercialism after more than 150 years in business?
Even merchants that would never touch chocolate with a 10-foot monk's stave are cashing in on the occasion. Such as the fresh fish store with its homemade saba oshi-zushi (mackerel pressed sushi), which it was promoting as a Valentine's Day gift. "For people who can't eat chocolate" was the explanation from the matron running the shop.
[apologies for the poor photo]
We felt we needed to try at least one of the above. The people at Fu-ka were so nice and their little shop so attractive that we bought some of the nama-fu home with us.
The appearance was highly promising, somewhere between fudge and a rich ganache chocolate. But it turned out to be a lot less exciting, not sweet at all, with a dense heavy texture and not nearly enough cocoa flavour to satisfy this particular chocoholic.
We clearly need to experiment with it. Maybe if we steam it up... Or pan-fry it with some butter... Or drizzle on some maple syrup and sprinkle a dusting of Ghirardelli sweet cocoa power [which is what we ended up doing].
Anyone got any other ideas?
