In Entetsu Department Store, I found a stand of Daishin, a shop selling tokoroten or agar jelly noodles. The sales clerk let me taste a little. Though tokoroten is common snack and available in any supermarket, I found it harder than any other tokoroten I had eaten before. He explained that was because they use high-quality agar weeds from Western Izu. Izu is a peninsula located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture and famous for its hot springs and many sightseeing spots.
On the stand there was a large block of agar jelly, from which tokoroten was made. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to take a picture, but the sales clerk handed me the last packed fresh tokoroten when I wanted to buy one pack. It was intended for two people, and two packs of sauce were also included.
The sauce for tokoroten varies depending on regions. This sauce was made mainly from soy source, sugar, and vinegar, which is common in Central Japan. I remembered that I had green citrus fruits hebesu in the refrigerator, so I made sauce by myself with juice of one hebesu and a tablespoon of soy sauce. For topping of tokoroten, laver and white sesame are often used. As I didn’t have plain laver, I added laver from Korea flavored with corn oil and olive oil. As for sesame, I had ground black sesame, but I didn’t think it was suitable for tokoroten.
This tokoroten was thick and filling. According to the website of Daishin, their tokoroten is so firm that you can make a knot with it. It’s remarkable. Though the sauce didn’t have anything special, I enjoyed the unusual firmness of tokoroten. It was indeed a good product!
In some parts of Japan, especially Kansai District, they eat tokoroten with dark molassess. I also found on the Internet that tokoroten can be used for salad with tomato, cucumbers, etc. I’d like to eat it with kimchi, but where can I find vegan kimchi? Unfortunately, all the kimchi sold in supermarkets contains some kind of seafood.
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