Kamonasu Dengaku

This dish grills round, hefty Kamo eggplant and tops it with sweet dengaku miso. Its round fruit, over ten centimeters across, is packed dense enough that it holds together even under long cooking, keeping its bite, and the fragrant, lightly charred miso is said to bring out the eggplant's sweetness. Among Kyoto's traditional vegetables, it's especially well regarded, said to carry real heft and presence.

Sliced into rounds, Kamo eggplant is fried in plenty of oil until soft all the way through. Miso is reduced with sake, mirin, and sugar to make the dengaku topping, spread over the grilled eggplant, and lightly charred. Whether made with white or red miso, it's said each brings out a different character worth comparing side by side. A scattering of kinome, sesame, or poppy seed is also favored as an accent of fragrance or texture, it's said.

Kamo eggplant is said to have first been grown in Shimotoba village along the Serikawa river before spreading to Kamigamo, which became its namesake growing area, said to be cultivated on fertile fan-shaped land between the Kamo and Takano rivers. It's known as a difficult vegetable to grow, yielding only about half the fruit of an ordinary eggplant per plant and prone to uneven color, but that same density of flesh pairs well with oil, which is thought to be how the grilled, miso-topped dengaku style came to be, and it's said to be widely known as a signature summer vegetable of Kyoto.