tokoroten

English

Etymology

From Japanese 心太 (tokoroten).

Noun

tokoroten (uncountable)

1. A dish in Japanese cuisine made from agarophytes, traditionally by boiling tengusa (Gelidium amansii) and then allowing the mixture to congeal into a jelly.
   • 1925, The Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, volume 12, page 42:

     Vendors now sell gold fish through the streets, along with hawkers of tokoroten, or sea-weed jelly, and gaily decorated wind bells.

   • 1991, Yasushi Inoue, translated by Jean Oda Moy, Shirobamba, London, Chester Springs, Pa.: Peter Owen Publishers, →ISBN, page 189:

     You ate peanuts and tokoroten, so you’re probably past saving.

   • 2008 July 15, Audrey Wilson, “Cooking with Japanese jello”, in Hawaii Tribune-Herald, number 197, page C2, column 6:

     About 350 years ago, it was discovered accidentally when Lord Shimazu had some unused tokoroten left in his garden in Kyoto. It was winter and very cold. The tokoroten congealed at night, and when the sun came out, it dried out.

   • 2010, Stefan Gates, Stefan Gates on E Numbers, Octopus Publishing Group, →ISBN:

     In Asia, agar is used in many traditional dishes, such as red bean jelly, tokoroten noodles and mitsumame.

   • 2019 January 17, Shingo Masuda, “Discover Asakusa’s charms aboard ‘kimono rickshaws’”, in Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 137th year, number 351, page A9:

     The main course was fried beef cutlets, followed by tokoroten, a jellied agar garnished with dark molasses, for dessert.

   • 2021, William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi, compilers, History of Azuki Beans Worldwide (300 BCE to 2021): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook, Lafayette, Calif.: Soyinfo Center, →ISBN, page 111, column 2:

     (206) Agar-agar (Gelidium corneum. Tengusa). Use to make tokoroten or kanten.

   • 2022, Avinash Mishra, editor, Algal Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals: Benefits, Opportunities, and Challenges, Bentham Books, →ISBN, page 5:

     Limu manauea (Hawaii); agar-agar (Philippines) / direct human food; source of food-grade agar; used in the production of tokoroten

Further reading

• tokoroten on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Japanese

Romanization

tokoroten

1. Rōmaji transcription of ところてん
2. Rōmaji transcription of トコロテン