By Cristina Mulder, Semester at Sea, Spring 2017
Breakfast is the best meal of the day. Staying at a hostel in Kyoto, I realized why this is actually true. This breakfast was not your usual eggs, toast and bacon kind of thing. At this place they had rice, curry, potato salad, miso soup, and a wide selection of bread. I tried a little bit of everything. The curry rice and potato salad were actually a great combination. The curry was a little bit spicy, but thankfully I had the potato salad to help me with the spiciness. Then came the miso soup, which came in a small packet, so you had to pour the hot water into your bowl and then put the miso paste in. Finally I ended my breakfast with a slice of peanut butter toast and a nice cup of coffee.
Trying to get lunch after 2pm in Kyoto is almost impossible, but there’s always Lawson’s convenience store. You can get almost anything to eat in this store, from sushi rolls, to hot buns, to fried chicken. I got the spicy tuna roll, a shrimp and vegetable wrap, and some spicy chicken nuggets. The sushi was very good; you could barely tell that it was pre-made and came in a sealed container. The spicy chicken nuggets however, were not as good as Anthony Bourdain made them seem; they were very chewy and did not taste like real chicken at all. After this quick and inexpensive meal, we walked through the market looking for something sweet. I tried the best donut I have ever had; it was crème brûlée flavored and they made it right in front of us! Dessert was definitely one of the best parts of the trip.
