This is a typical shopping street in Japan. What makes those special is that the street is covered. Therefore, you can shop even when it rains. In fact, that what we did a very rainy day in Kyoto last week. We went to the Nishiki market with more than one hundred shops all related to food.
The Nishiki market has been at the center at the Kyoto residents for a long, long time. It started several centuries ago with many stores that have been operated by the same families for generations.
Vendors use baskets, wood barrels, big bamboo bowls and trays to present their produce. You can recycle this idea when you set a buffet table. The key is repetition. So stick to one or two containers for the entire table.
You find all types of shops from the ones that sells upscale food in nice packaging, sweets to the fishmonger and more exotic item like this quail egg inside an octopus head.
Do not worry, you find plenty of more accessible food. For lunch, you can buy ready-to-eat food from vendors like meat on skewers or grilled fish. You can also sit at a table in one of few Japanese restaurants. That is what we did. We ate at a delicious udon place.
And it is at the Nishiki market that I bought my personalized Aritsugu cooking knives.
