The Easy Grace of Yamato Culture in a Nara Breakfast Nook

Menu

• Medley of local vegetables in season
• Satoimo (Japanese taro) simmered with umeboshi
• Deep-fried eggplant in cold broth
• Seven-pickle assortment
• Yamato chagayu (tea gruel)
• Yamato hōjicha (roasted tea)

Breakfast this morning is served in the sun-filled dining room of Nazuna in Nara. Along with gallery-boutique Tsukikusa (right next door), the restaurant is one of the main attractions of Akishino no Mori (Akishino Forest), a wooded site on a hill in a residential neighborhood near Akishinodera temple, famed for its early Buddhist art. Tasteful Japanese-style wooden buildings are surrounded by trees and shrubs of all kinds, many of them fruit-bearing. Ishimura Yukiko, owner of the popular Nara cafe and shop Kuruminoki, has been nurturing this little Garden of Eden since 2004.

The vegetarian breakfast that greets us at Nazuna is vintage Ishimura. Like Akishino no Mori itself, it is a charming display of the season’s bounty. Each ingredient is prepared lovingly and presented with unostentatious flair, with careful attention to each detail. Though far from lavish or ornate, the colorful and appetizing spread almost invariably elicits exclamations of delight.

The morning sun illuminates the cheerful interior of Nazuna.

Born in the city of Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture, Ishimura worked in new store development in Osaka before marrying and moving to a suburb of Nara. She quickly fell in love with the easy grace and refinement that seems to come so naturally to natives of this ancient capital.

“Everything made in Nara is produced with amazing skill and care,” she marvels. “Not just its old temples, but also its rice, its tea, its produce, and its crafts. And yet, it’s a relaxed, unassertive aesthetic with no hard edges. That’s what I love about it.”

Ishimura strives for the same qualities in her cooking. The key, she says, is restraint—refraining from needless embellishment, preserving some “empty space.”

“For example, I’ve learned to put the seasonal vegetables in a simple medley, rather than tinkering too much. Nara vegetables pack so much taste on their own. I want the full impact of those flavors to come through.”

Breakfast in Nazuna’s sunny dining room is a perfect way to start a new day refreshed in body and spirit. On our visit, the menu consisted of the following:

Medley of local vegetables in season:

Wild udo (shoots of Aralia cordata), bamboo shoots, fuki (giant butterbur), warabi (fiddlehead fern), and tara no me (shoots of Aralia elata).

The menu at Nazuna is centered on “Yamato vegetables,” including both edible wild plants and heirloom vegetables native to the region. Some are harvested early in the season (hashiri), others at their peak (shun). Traditionally, the gathering of edible wild plants begins in risshun (beginning of spring), which falls in February. Although the days are still cold, the plants are already sprouting underground, and the youngest shoots are considered great delicacies.

Satoimo (Japanese taro) simmered with umeboshi

There’s nothing quite as comforting as a warm bowl of simmered satoimo (Japanese taro root), a starchy tuber with a creamy texture. Nazuna keeps it simple, simmering the taro in dashi broth along with fragrant umeboshi (pickled plums), and garnishing it with yuzu zest.

Deep-fried eggplant in cold broth

The richness of fried eggplant, complemented by a garnish of finely shredded ginger, adds a dimension of depth to the morning meal.

Deep-fried eggplant in broth is served in an antique Korean bowl with a garnish of finely cut ginger.

Seven-pickle assortment

Nazuna’s cheerful plate of homemade pickles is as colorful as an artist’s palette. This morning’s assortment includes white turnips with yuzu, deep brown narazuke (gourd cured in sake lees), bright green cucumbers, purple eggplants, and red radishes, all cut and presented to maximum effect.

Nazuna’s colorful assortment of homemade condiments includes pickled baby turnips, cucumbers, eggplant, and radish, as well as konbu kelp simmered in soy sauce and mirin (tsukudani).

Yamato chagayu gruel (rice gruel cooked in roasted tea)

Chagayu, or tea gruel, is a Nara breakfast tradition dating back centuries. At Nazuna they use premium Hinohikari rice, grown locally, and boil it—not for very long—in hōjicha, brewed from roasted tea leaves.

Yamato hōjicha (roasted tea)

As one might expect, Nara produces excellent tea, and hōjicha, made by roasting the tea leaves, is one of the specialties of the region. Ishimura seeks wider recognition of Nara’s fine food products, some of which she produces and sells herself.

One of the delights of dining at Nazuna is the way the food is paired with ceramics from Ishimura’s collection, many of them antiques. Among the dishes described above, the vegetable medley, satoimo, and eggplant are all served in Korean ceramics of the Yi dynasty.

Sprigs of magnolia from the spring garden frame a typical breakfast scene at Nazuna. The entrance to Akishino no Mori. A view of the restaurant’s bright, clean dining room. The fireplace is lit from late fall through early spring.

Akishino no Mori

Address: 1534 Nakayamachō, Nara, Nara Prefecture
Phone: +81-(0)742-52-8560
Website (in Japanese only): http://www.kuruminoki.co.jp/akishinonomori/

Nazuna is currently taking lunch and dinner reservations. Dinner reservations are limited to weekends and holidays. It is necessary to make inquiries about breakfast.

A 15-minute taxi ride away from Yamato-Saidaiji Station.

(Originally written in Japanese. Photos by Kusumoto Ryō. Series title written by Kanazawa Shōko.)