Shizuoka's food cultureKnow

The Izu Peninsula is the home of tokoroten and is famous for producing the highest quality amagusa in the country.

This amagusa and spring water from the foot of Mt. Amagi are used to make this soup, which is painstakingly made using the traditional "boiling method" (a traditional method of directly boiling the amagusa and then removing any other foreign matter).

With just one bite, the scent of the sea and natural sweetness fills your mouth.

Amakusa fishing has been practiced on the Izu Peninsula for about 1600 years, and it is said to have been used as an ingredient in tokoroten and as fertilizer.

Amakusa belongs to the family Amanita of the order Amanita, and the two varieties that are mainly used for tokoroten are called Makusa and Oobusa. Makusa is mainly harvested in Nishiizu, and produces soft and sticky tokoroten, while Oobusa is harvested more in Higashiizu, and produces thick, hard, firm tokoroten.

In Izu, tokoroten has long been eaten in households, made by poking the simmered and solidified tokoroten noodles made from agar seaweed with a poker and eating the long, thin pieces that come out. It was also sold in sweet shops, and was apparently an essential soul food for children as a snack.

At Yagisawa Coast in Nishiizu, agarwood is actively harvested and sun-dried from spring through early summer, creating a scene that looks like a red carpet has been laid out on the coast.

 Ingredients

Amakusa, vinegar

How to eat

The agar is washed and boiled with water and vinegar. The liquid is strained and poured into a mold to set. It is then pushed out with a poker, and the long, thin tokoroten is eaten with vinegar or soy sauce.

It is often eaten with garnishes of mustard and sprinkled with green laver, or as a sweetener with soybean flour or brown sugar syrup.

It is eaten casually as a light meal or snack. Tokoroten is produced all year round and can be eaten in any season, but it is in season during the Amakusa fishing season, which runs from the end of May to early summer every year.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Our local cuisine）

[Contact]
Nishiizu Town Tourism Association
https://www.nishiizu-kankou.com/
0558-52-1268