Oishinbo - Vol. 22 Ch. 207 - Kanten and Love

[MangaDex]

 

[Mugiwara325]

Hope you enjoy this sweet little chapter. I'm here to announce my upcoming upload schedule.
I'm going to be on vacation a couple weeks from now, during which I will be away from my computer and be unable to upload. One chapter will be affected, so as usual, I will also upload an additional chapter to tide the wait.
Very soon after that, I will be away again for Chinese New Year. This one is more extensive so I haven't figured out yet how my upload schedule will be then. I'll let you know when I do.

The upcoming upload schedule is as follows:
[Sun] 25th Jan: Usual Chapter
[Wed] 28th Jan: Usual Chapter
[Thu] 29th Jan: Bonus Chapter
[Sun] 1st Feb: No Chapter
[Mon] 2nd Feb: Delayed Chapter
[Wed] 4th Feb: Usual Chapter

And my schedule should return to normal after that, if only for a short while.

 

[Babymech2]

Hope you enjoy this sweet little chapter. I'm here to announce my upcoming upload schedule.
I'm going to be on vacation a couple weeks from now, during which I will be away from my computer and be unable to upload. One chapter will be affected, so as usual, I will also upload an additional chapter to tide the wait.
Very soon after that, I will be away again for Chinese New Year. This one is more extensive so I haven't figured out yet how my upload schedule will be then. I'll let you know when I do.

The upcoming upload schedule is as follows:
[Sun] 25th Jan: Usual Chapter
[Wed] 28th Jan: Usual Chapter
[Thu] 29th Jan: Bonus Chapter
[Sun] 1st Feb: No Chapter
[Mon] 2nd Feb: Delayed Chapter
[Wed] 4th Feb: Usual Chapter

And my schedule should return to normal after that, if only for a short while.

Thanks for the translation, and have a great break! I love that, in appropriate Oishinbo fashion, she makes a life-changing decision about staying in Tokyo in about one and a half page, and spends four pages on making dessert.

 

[cawfinch]

thanks for the translation, and enjoy your upcoming vacation! i hope ya get to rest and eat well! ✌️

i really liked this chapter-- sweet, straightforward, and introducing an old character in a cool new style! i always love an indirect confession over/via food, the setting and effort really gives an earnest and gentle feeling to what they mean!

 

[d_a_renoir]

Thanks for the chapter. Have fun on vacation!

Food note is a bit wrong. Tokoroten is not just kanten cut into strips. It's actually the reverse. Kanten is dried tokoroten (freeze-dried, to be exact). Though the error is kind of in the chapter too. I'm not sure if the author screwed up again, or if there's something else that went wrong, but still.

The steps that was described to make the "kanten" in the story, drying the tengusa and boiling etc, actually produces tokoroten. Because the tengusa is unprocessed it still carries that "raw" taste of the sea that Ooishi mentioned. That's why tokoroten is usually eaten with non-sweet condiments (but nowadays you do get sweet varieties).
To make kanten, you have to take the tokoroten block, then freeze-dry it. This will reduce that "raw" seaweed taste and make kanten more bland/flavourless (link for more detail).

Now to be entirely fair, if you take kanten-jelly and cut it into that noodle-like strips technically it can be called "tokoroten" too. Wouldn't be surprised if restaurants do this because it's probably much easier than making the traditional tokoroten, but still.

 

[Mugiwara325]

Thanks for the chapter. Have fun on vacation!

Food note is a bit wrong. Tokoroten is not just kanten cut into strips. It's actually the reverse. Kanten is dried tokoroten (freeze-dried, to be exact). Though the error is kind of in the chapter too. I'm not sure if the author screwed up again, or if there's something else that went wrong, but still.

The steps that was described to make the "kanten" in the story, drying the tengusa and boiling etc, actually produces tokoroten. Because the tengusa is unprocessed it still carries that "raw" taste of the sea that Ooishi mentioned. That's why tokoroten is usually eaten with non-sweet condiments (but nowadays you do get sweet varieties).
To make kanten, you have to take the tokoroten block, then freeze-dry it. This will reduce that "raw" seaweed taste and make kanten more bland/flavourless (link for more detail).

Now to be entirely fair, if you take kanten-jelly and cut it into that noodle-like strips technically it can be called "tokoroten" too. Wouldn't be surprised if restaurants do this because it's probably much easier than making the traditional tokoroten, but still.

Holy shit!

I wondered if I may have made a terrible lapse in research, but it turns out...yeah it was probably a lapse in research BUT ALSO,
The common idea of what 'tokoroten' is seems to be just kanten cut into strips, like was suggested in the chapter. Kariya likely grew up with this understanding of tokoroten, not realizing there's a stricter formal definition to it. When I tried searching with this particular difference in mind, I did get several other articles, all in a 'Did you know?' sort of tone.

I will be amending the Gourmet Notes shortly, but the chapter's translation shall remain as is, since it reflects what the author himself wrote down.

 

[d_a_renoir]

Holy shit!

I wondered if I may have made a terrible lapse in research, but it turns out...yeah it was probably a lapse in research BUT ALSO,
The common idea of what 'tokoroten' is seems to be just kanten cut into strips, like was suggested in the chapter. Kariya likely grew up with this understanding of tokoroten, not realizing there's a stricter formal definition to it. When I tried searching with this particular difference in mind, I did get several other articles, all in a 'Did you know?' sort of tone.

I will be amending the Gourmet Notes shortly, but the chapter's translation shall remain as is, since it reflects what the author himself wrote down.

Well, in the chapter Ooishi made a comment about tokoroten having a taste of the sea, which is characteristic of tokoroten and would not happen with kanten. So I do think Kariya did know that kanten and tokoroten are made with different methods, not just the same food in different shapes. The problem is identifying what part in the process makes it different.

Based on the narration I think his understanding of the difference is the drying part. Like his idea is that tokoroten uses fresh tengusa, while kanten uses tengusa that is dried until it turns white first.
But everywhere that I read, they say even if you use sun-dried tengusa, the jelly-thing you get after boiling and chilling is still tokoroten. Or, even if it's called something else, Kariya was still missing the final drying process. All of the sources I found say that kanten needs to have that final freeze-drying step (it's literally the origin of the name kanten itself).

 

[Mugiwara325]

Well, in the chapter Ooishi made a comment about tokoroten having a taste of the sea, which is characteristic of tokoroten and would not happen with kanten. So I do think Kariya did know that kanten and tokoroten are made with different methods, not just the same food in different shapes. The problem is identifying what part in the process makes it different.

Based on the narration I think his understanding of the difference is the drying part. Like his idea is that tokoroten uses fresh tengusa, while kanten uses tengusa that is dried until it turns white first.
But everywhere that I read, they say even if you use sun-dried tengusa, the jelly-thing you get after boiling and chilling is still tokoroten. Or, even if it's called something else, Kariya was still missing the final drying process. All of the sources I found say that kanten needs to have that final freeze-drying step (it's literally the origin of the name kanten itself).

That seems about right. Kariya knows that tokoroten is different, but doesn't make clear how it's different. The chapter just treats it like another thing under the umbrella of 'kanten'.

Either way, I've updated the Gourmet Notes to reflect the misunderstanding. This is what the Notes are supposed to do in the first place, to correct outdated information. It would be really embarrassing if they continued to be wrong.

 

[d_a_renoir]

That seems about right. Kariya knows that tokoroten is different, but doesn't make clear how it's different. The chapter just treats it like another thing under the umbrella of 'kanten'.

Oh really? Interesting, I personally read it as there being a clear enough distinction even in the story.

My thought reading this was that Kariya just detailed the kanten part because making it from scratch is something that most people would not do, and not everyone would be familiar with the process. While on the other hand, I assumed he didn't bother explaining how to make tokoroten because there's nothing to say. Making it from the tengusa directly is normal, even when making it at home, so maybe he thought that the readers need no explanation for this.