Kyoto's cuisine is marked by an interplay between ingredients and seasonality. The city long served as Japan's capital, during which time it developed a unique culinary culture that lives on to this day. That culture includes dining on hamo, a kind of eel, at open-air, riverside restaurants, and feasting on fine vegetables that evolved thanks to Kyoto's distinct terroir. Kyoto's colorful, elaborate cuisine is the basis of fine Japanese cooking. Discover what makes Kyoto so delicious: so "oishii."