Gion Matsuri, which is the famous festival in Kyoto, has already started. The coming of summer of Kyoto! Gion Matsuri is also called Hamo Matsuri. “Hamo, which is a pike conger, is the indispensable food in Gion Matsuri and typify the food of summer of Kyoto.”

This phrase that is the typical one in Kyoto on summer reminded me that I saw beautiful photos of “Hamo bento (boxed lunch including Hamo)” at “insert (advertisement)” of “Depachika”. In Japan, not less than 5 inserts are delivered along with newspaper to each house every morning. It has a dreadful effect that they lead us to the desire and a great deal of consumption. I don’t know whether or not other countries have such things.



Now, let’t return to the Hamo. It is a long fish like an eel, and its feature is innumerable bones. According to one article, Hamo which size is 1.1 meters has 3,500 bones which are like needles.
Then how to eat it? The secret of cook is technique of “Hamo no Honekiri” that is a cut at meat with bones to 26 per 3 centimeters, but must never cut the skin at the same time. In Kyoto, without this technique, people do not call him a respectable cook.
It is because Hamo has strong vital energies, even though it has innumerable bones, that Kyoto people have been eating it for prevention of heat exhaustion. It is said that, a long time ago, the fact that only Hamo kept living from sea in which fish was caught, to Kyoto even though without cold storage is bearing out the strong vital energies.


I went to “Nishiki ichiba (a market)” which is called “Kyoto no Daidoko (the kitchen of Kyoto)” to see the shape of Hamo. I found Hamo that Kyoto people have been eating there. Hamo which is raw, boiled, baked, and “kushi Hamo (skewer Hamo)”, “Hamo Sushi”.





I was also lured to go to “Depachika (basement of department store; In most of the Japanese department stores has the food department there.)” by the “Hamo bento” of “insert”. There are many people at “Depachika” (at Daimaru) which is so lively. The voice and the smile of shop assistant rouse the desire of purchase. However if you ward off it calmly, “Depachika” has the worth of utilization.

One of them is “shishoku (a sample for eating)”. If you are interested in “tsukemono (Japanese pickles) of Kyoto”, you can taste the various samples of them there. There was “shisyoku” of “Hamo sushi” when I went to there. And because a lunch and a dinner of “shinise ryotei (the high-class Japanese-style restaurant of old standing) of Kyoto” is too expensive, if you feel hopeless of tasting them there, you may go to “Shinise sozai uriba (in which you can buy some “sozai (side dishes)” and “bento (boxed lunch)” of “shinise ryotei” at a reasonable price)” at “Depachika”. Of course you can not taste the luxurious atmosphere and chinawares there. “Hamo bento” of “insert” is a bit expensive, but it is cheaper than eating in “ryotei”. In addition, “bento” of “Depachika” has more kinds of “sozai” than supermarket ones. “Bento” vary in price from 500yen to around 4,000yen. After 17:00, you can buy some “bento” and “sozai” which is discounted (from 100yen to 500yen) from the price.