Summer Foods in Japan: Trying out Supermarket Tokoroten

Tokoroten is a Japanese dish that is often eaten during summer. It is made from dried Tengusa (or Gelidium Amansil, which is a kind of seaweed) that is boiled, turned into jelly, and cut into a noodle-like shape by using a special equipment called “tentsuki.”

Ways to enjoy it!

This delicacy is seasoned depending on the region.

In Kanto, it’s more on the salty and sour side. Soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin (sweet rice wine), powdered seaweed, karashi (mustard), and seaweed are the typical ingredients for its sauce.

In Kansai, on the other hand, usually uses fruits, kinako (toasted soybean flour), or kuromitsu (brown sugar syrup).

Where to have it?

The first time that I’ve had Tokoroten was in a ryokan (Japanese inn) where I stayed during my trip. However, you could also order it in tea houses and restaurants or even buy it in supermarkets--- which I’m going to focus on in this blog!

Finding Tokoroten

Upon looking for Japanese summer foods to write about, I found Tokoroten and googled if I could easily make it on my own. When I saw the process, I thought that I could do it, but I was a little bit lazy. LOL. Thus, I researched again if I could just buy it in supermarkets or online.

I did find one on Amazon, but it was a little pricey and it’ll take a while before I can receive it. That’s why I decided to go to the nearest supermarket and search for my Tokoroten.

The Tokoroten I bought from the supermarket

Supermarket Tokoroten

I saw various kinds of this delicacy at my local supermarket. Some have sauce included in it and some didn’t. Moreover, most of it was cut already, hence I didn’t need to use a tentsuki--- you could easily buy it in Daiso.

Anyways, the Tokoroten I bought only cost 100-yen and already has a sauce, which I think was soy sauce, vinegar, mustard, and toasted sesame seeds. It was easy to prepare. I just needed to drain its water, wash it thoroughly, and then add all the ingredients.

After washing the Tokoroten

Verdict

My husband and I didn’t like it very much.

At first, we didn’t add the mustard, because I wanted to avoid eating spicy food. On our first bite, we tasted a very weird flavor. My husband described it as dishwashing liquid, but for me, it was more like the water in the swimming pool.

Then, I told my husband that we should probably put the mustard to kill that awful flavor. After adding it, the mustard flavor became dominant, hence we could have more bites of the Tokoroten. HOWEVER, it still had that dishwashing liquid or swimming pool water aftertaste.

It was really disappointing because I was really looking forward to trying it out. I did wash the tokoroten thoroughly and it wasn’t expired or anything. Maybe I should have washed it longer until that swimming pool smell disappeared.

This may be a negative experience, but this doesn’t stop us from eating Tokoroten. I’ve had it before and I liked it. But, I haven’t tried it with a sweet sauce, so maybe I’ll try that and look for a better quality Tokoroten.

How about you? Have you tried Tokoroten? Share it in the comment below.

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