One of the highlights of Mount Koya was eating this type of food, which is a vegetarian specialty that originated in Buddhist temples. At Kumagai Temple, where we stayed in Koyasan, we ate shojin ryori prepared by the monks day in and day out–fine by me! Thinking of you, Alan Stein, during these meals.

The typical shojin ryori meal consists of three vegetable dishes and a soup, which is “ichi ju san sai” in Japanese. The highlight at Kumagai-ji was a delicious sesame tofu, on par with that I have eaten in Kyoto. The primary dishes were accompanied by a wide array of pickles and mikan, what we call Clementines, typically served in winter. A contemporary touch was added by a whole cherry tomato stewed in a sweet wine. Scrumptious!