Summer Kanten (Japanese Seaweed Jello)
by kyogashi maker Kameya-Kiyonaga

No, it’s not soap! This is a kind of Japanese sweet called Kanten. Kanten comes from seaweed, and you can buy it in sheets or in ground up powder form, just like you would gelatin or pectin.

You stir it into a hot liquid, pour into a form, and let it cool in the refrigerator. It then turns into a jello-like solid, though not as squishy. Depending on how much sugar you incorporate into the recipe, the sweet could be categorized as a Youkan. (Kanten is what it’s made of and covers a greater variety of seaweed jellies regardless of sugar content.)

Here in Kyoto this place sells them in blocks. They taste syrupy sweet, and are meant to be sliced up and served with green tea as a sort of tea cake.

They often make patterns by pouring multiple layers and stacking them, and then pouring a final clear layer over it all to give the impression that things are floating. Different food ingredients such as red bean or broken rice are often incorporated to simulate textures.

The block pictured above is indeed vegan. The design is meant to simulate a night sky. There are little gold flakes in between the two layers ❤︎