Kyoto Fair (3) - Three kinds of tofu

During Kyoto Fair, I visited the venue several times. There were many things that were rarely seen in Hamamatsu though they might be available vie the Internet. Tofu products were raw and didn’t last long, so I wanted to buy them on the spot.

As I wrote before, I got ganmodoki in a shop Kyonoyukihonpo (京乃雪本舗). They had a variety of tofu products also and let customers taste them. I visited there again and got three products. The prettiest one was this. It looked like a dessert rather than a side dish.

This tofu is called namayubadofu. It has yuba or soy milk skin on top, and now it has also the same cherry-blossom-shaped hu or wheat gluten as in ganmodoki. I didn’t take out the tofu from the package but ate as it was with soy sauce, using a spoon instead of chopsticks. As I like beautiful-looking food, I enjoyed eating it, feeling happy. The tofu had a rich taste of soy beans. Later I learned from their website that this tofu can be decorated with fruits and nuts! What a pity! Next time, I’ll have one with some fruits or blueberry sauce.

Next day, I tried kyoyuzudofu. Though it looked like an ordinary piece of tofu, it was flavored with yuzu, a citrus fruit. I don’t think such tofu is available in ordinary shops here. The flavor of yuzu was modest but noticeable. I ate it with soy sauce, but as the website implies, salt may be sufficient for this refined tofu.

The last one I had was gomadofu. Though it means sesame tofu, it isn’t tofu in fact, because it doesn’t contain soy beans. Gomadofu is one of the most famous dishes in Japanese Buddhist vegetarian cuisine but is available in supermarkets. Sometimes it may contain additives, but the one in Kyoto Fair was made from just sesame, powdered arrowroot, and kelp powder.

In many cases, gomadofu is sold with a pack of sauce, but the sauce often contains dried bonito broth. This set had sauce with fish sauce contained, so I used soy sauce instead. This gomadofu was smooth and jiggly. It was good with just soy sauce, but it might have been better with some wasabi added.