Yudofu

Two local conditions produced it. The first is water. Kyoto sits on a large basin aquifer and its groundwater is notably soft – low in calcium and magnesium – which affects how soy protein coagulates and gives a softer, sweeter tofu. The same water is why Fushimi brews the sake it does.

The second is Buddhism. Kyoto was for centuries the administrative centre of Japanese Buddhism, with thousands of monks eating no meat and no fish. Tofu makers set up around the great temple complexes to supply them, and yudofu is the simplest thing those kitchens did with the product. That is why the tofu houses are still where they are: at Nanzen-ji, below Kiyomizu-dera, in Arashiyama, outside the Daitoku-ji walls.

It is also a winter dish in origin. Kyoto’s basin climate produces a cold, damp winter, and a pot of hot water on the table is doing thermal work as well as culinary work. Eaten in August it loses something.

Do not let it boil. The tofu is being warmed through, not cooked; at a rolling boil the structure breaks down and it goes grainy. If the flame is too high, turn it down – this is expected of you, not an intervention.

Take one block at a time. Drain it briefly against the side of the pot so it does not dilute the dipping sauce. Use the condiments sparingly at first: the point of the exercise is the tofu, and a heap of ginger and shichimi in the sauce turns it into a dish about condiments.

It never arrives alone. A yudofu meal at a specialist house is a set – sesame tofu, dengaku with sweet miso, tempura of seasonal vegetables, rice, pickles, sometimes a small grilled item. The pot is the centre of the meal rather than the whole of it, which is worth knowing before you write it off as insufficient.

Okutan Kiyomizu, in a garden a few minutes below the temple, is the obvious pairing with a dawn start at Kiyomizu-dera – though it closes Thursdays and does not publish its hours, so check before you build a day on it. The older Okutan house at Nanzen-ji dates to the seventeenth century. Arashiyama has several, and the Nanzen-ji approach has a row of them.

For a fuller version of the same tradition, Izusen at Daitoku-ji serves complete shojin ryori courses from ¥4,500 and is open every day of the year but four.

On dietary requirements: the tofu and the broth are vegan, but the dipping sauce usually is not. Standard ponzu and tsuke-daré are made with katsuobushi, dried bonito. Temple restaurants working in the strict shojin tradition will use kombu only; commercial tofu houses frequently do not. Ask specifically about the sauce rather than about the dish.