October 3, 2016

by Yukari Kimura and Shoko Ota

 What is “Tabe-aruki”

In English, tabe-aruki means ‘eating while strolling.’ It may seem similar to food sold on the streets because it is bought and then eaten right on the spot or while walking. However, the concept of “tabe-aruki” did not exist in past. The action of eating while walking was considered bad manners for Japanese people even just a decade ago. So, this can be viewed as a new trend in Japanese culture.

 

 Selected Tabearuki-foods

 

 Shinkyogoku street

 

Rondon-yaki

Rondon-yaki is a bite-size castella filed with white bean paste. Its taste is light and sweet. It is very cheap, so it is suitable for snack time! One piece is ¥50!
This shop does not accept credit cards, so please prepare cash.

 

Mamezen Cafe

Mermen cafe is an excellent soft ice cream shop.

We recommend the Kuromamt-Kinako and the Chirimen-Sansho flavored ice creams.

 

 Kiyomizu area

清水順正 おかべ屋（’Okabe-ya’ A Tofu restaurant）

This restaurant is a tofu restaurant but also has the cafe and the souvenir shop next to it. You will enjoy tofu, yuba, kinako (soybean powder) and other soy foods there.

The shop, which you can see on the right side in this photo, is their souvenir shop. And you can buy some tabe-aruki food there.

The Kyo-yasai castella baked in the shape of Kyoto vegetables. And the castella contains some kinako. So, it is savory and tastes like soybean powder a little bit.

 

馬鈴 (‘Bazu’―A Japanese sweets cafe)

You can sample various kinds of Japanese sweets in this cafe. For example, rice dumplings, warabi-mochi, shiratama and so on. We want to introduce warabi-mochi. In this cafe it is made in the shape of a rabbit. You can choose from three different kind of sauces: Kuromitsu-kinako (black honey-kinako), matcha (green tea), yuzu (citron).

 

 

Fushimi area

Kyomame-an

Kyomame-an is a sweet made from soybean milk. They use only soybeans grown in Japan. This shop’s most popular item is soft ice cream made from soy milk. You can chose from many different flavors.  They also have monaka (wafer) with silky tofu and green tea tofu.

 

 

Matsuya

Fushimi Inari Shrine is one of the largest and most famous shrines in Kyoto. It is a fox shrine, so a lot of souvenirs with a fox motif are sold there. That is the same for foods; the shrine’s famous miso rice cracker is modeled after the face of the fox. Matsuya has been selling these miso rice crackers for a very long time. Of course it is the stores most popular item. It comes in two sizes: large, Kitsune-chan, and small, Kogitune-chan―kitsune means fox in Japanese; kogitsune is a young fox. They are parent and child and are the representative characters of this shop.

 

Nishiki market street

花よりキヨエ（’Hanayori Kiyoe’ An olive oil shop）

Although this shop sells mostly olive oil, it also sells a variety of tabe-aruki food. For example they sell nishiki-ika (fried squid), karaage, (fried chicken) Nishiki croquette,  and many other flavored croquettes. All croquettes made by this shop use olive oil. (When Japanese people make croquette, they often use salad oil or lard.)

コロコロコ（’korokoroko’ A traditional snack shop)

 

井上佃煮店 (‘Inoue’ A prepared food shop)

This shop began on Nishiki street in 1884. You can buy many prepared foods that use kyo-vegetables (vegetables grown in Kyoto). In addition, we would like to focus on a special product from this shop: the chocolate croquette (￥100).

The croquette’s middle is chocolate! Does that even go together? We would like to recommend this and want you to try it and judge if it’s good or not.