Heavenly Parfait

We're having quite the heat wave here in Boston. It's going to remain in the mid 90s for the rest of the week. Hot days like these make me yearn for the cool fall weather. I find myself daydreaming about my favorite season and the wonderful honeymoon we had last year. I'm very late in sharing these pictures but I hope you'll enjoy these upcoming posts about the Japan portion of our trip :)

The hot weather is making me think of ice cream so I'll start our Japan recap with our trip to Gion Kinana :) Michael aka Kyoto Foodie wrote a great post about it. I knew we had to make a stop there. We got the seasonal chestnut autumn parfait and it was amazing! There was a beautiful balance of textures and flavors from all of the components of the parfait - the candied chestnut, the chestnut mousse, the biscotti, the cake pieces, the ice cream, and the mochi. Only twenty of these are made daily. James and I went to the shop right when they opened at 11am and all of the seats were filled within 30 minutes. (So remember to get there early if you want one of their seasonal parfaits!)

I love the presentation with the teacup and pot...so simple and pretty. 

We also ordered the highly recommended kinako (roasted soybean flour) dekitate ice cream. Dekitate ice cream are ice cream that are just made. Since they haven't been frozen yet, they are very creamy and super smooth. The flavor is delicate and unlike anything I've tasted before. Oh what I would give to eat it again!

The shop is easy to miss if you're not looking for it ;)

Thank you Michael for the wonderful recommendation. I agree that it's definitely a "do not miss" if you are in Kyoto :)