agar 復習

　京都でまったり和菓子をいただいてみてはいかがでしょうか。

A FIELD GUIDE TO THE BOUNCY, CHEWY DELIGHTS OF KYOTO, JAPAN'S BEST MOCHI AND WAGASHI

There’s a Japanese stereotype that American sweets are super sugary and brightly colored. This isn’t wrong, particularly when compared to the subtlety of Kyoto’s wagashi. Their flavors are gentle and earthy, and their colors parallel the landscape: understated but lush hues of green, pink, and brown.

Instead of the flour, eggs and butter that go into Western pastry, the primary ingredients of wagashi are beans, sticky rice, agar agar (seaweed gelatin), and various starchy roots—with raw sugar, matcha, and sweet toasted soybean flour called kinako as flavorings. (Vegans, rejoice: traditional varieties contain no animal products!) As strange as beans in dessert may seem to the uninitiated, the notion of savory beans (think chili con carne) is utterly shocking to many Japanese. In the most refined wagashi, legumes take on the texture of marzipan.

http://www.saveur.com/best-mochi-wagashi-kyoto-japan

　今回はagar(agar-agar)/ˈeɪɡɑː(r)/に注目しました。文中ではseaweed gelatinと説明がありますが、辞書で確認いたしました。Oxford Dictionary of English(Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)には、"a gelatinous substance obtained from certain red seaweeds and used in biological culture media and as a thicker in foods"と定義されておりました。『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「かんてん;（東インド諸島産の）テングサの類」、「（バクテリア研究用の）寒天培地」と載っておりました。語源はマレー語です。
　ちなみに寒天は他に"Japanese isinglass"や"Chinese isinglass"などとも呼ばれているようです。（Gomez）