It wasn't just the cherry blossoms, magnificent as they were, that we came to Kyoto for. We were also there to soak in — and slurp up — the history. By which I mean, a visit to the wonderful old Honke Owariya.
When it comes to history, there are very few restaurants in Japan (or anywhere else in the world) that can outdo Owariya. As the wooden signboard outside proclaims, it was founded in the 6th year of the Kanshou era [寛正六年] — that's 1465 by the Western reckoning.
The building itself is not that old, though — maybe a century or so. But it's still one of Kyoto's classics, both inside and out.
Through the gate with its indigo noren curtain you find a small waiting area, complete with bamboo bench, flower arrangement (currently sakura, of course)...
...and a large ceramic urn in one corner in which young wasabi plants poke up through a bed of moss.
There are dining rooms upstairs, but they've been given a recent make-over and are less atmospheric (plus the staff tend to usher everyone up there, unless you insist and are prepared to wait).
The place to sit is on the ground floor, in the simple zasshiki (tatami) room, from where you look out onto the hallway or (if you pull back the washi-covered screens that function as windows) that exquisite litte garden.
For nigh on 550 years, Owariya's specialty has been soba noodles. That's what you and everyone else — including Kyoto's aristocracy (the imperial family too, by all accounts) and Buddhist hierarchy since ages past — are there to eat.
But it's such a special place that I try to spin out the occasion as much as possible. So I like to start with a beer and some simple side dishes.
Two classic sobaya nibbles: itawasa (above) — kamaboko fish "cake" with a small mound of grated wasabi to go in the dip; and yaki-nori (below), small squares of nori seaweed...
The nori is served inside a well-worn wooden box...
...and it's kept warm — and more importantly (especially in the humid summer) nice and crisp — by a sliver of burning charcoal which is hidden in the bottom compartment. You can just glimpse it through the vents cut into the side of the box. And this (below) is what it looks like deconstructed.
Owariya's menu [of which a full English version is also available] is lengthy and features a few unusual styles — such as with rikyu-fu, dumplings of wheat gluten, a Kyoto specialty.
There are also seasonal specials that are not on the standard menu — such as the tempura of young bamboo shoots, fresh and tender...
We rounded our meal off with a serving of soba-zushi, the rolls of noodles encasing morsels of cooked shiitake and tamago-yaki omelet, both sweetened in the standard Kyoto style...
We were well satisfied, and not too full that we didn't have the energy to go round to Owariya's other shop, which sells okashi sweets, most of them also containing buckwheat flour. Another Kyoto classic!
