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Bekko
Bekko — soy-flavored agar jelly with swirled egg
Melted agar is seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, then set with egg trailed in like threads — its amber color flecked with egg said to resemble a tortoiseshell hair ornament, giving the dish its name; in the west of the prefecture it goes by "yubeshi" instead.
- Origin: Toyama
- About 260 km northwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A savory egg-and-agar jelly flavored with soy sauce. Beaten egg drifts through the amber-colored agar like scattered clouds, giving a smooth, almost slippery bite alongside a gentle springiness. A faint sweetness meets the soy sauce's savor with each bite, and in some areas it is seasoned with salt instead, turning paler in color — its handsome look is said to have long suited it to celebratory tables.
How it's made
A stick of agar is soaked in water for about thirty minutes, then torn apart and squeezed dry. It goes into a pot with water and is melted over low heat, seasoned with soy sauce and mirin once dissolved. Off the heat, beaten egg is poured in a thin stream so it trails through the liquid, then set in a mold to cool. How the egg is poured is said to change the pattern seen in each cut slice.
Why it took this shape
Eggs were once a costly ingredient, and this dish is said to have been cherished as a treat reserved for special days. Its current name is said to come from the resemblance between the amber jelly flecked with egg and a tortoiseshell ornament. Some areas sweeten it further for a treat, while others keep the seasoning restrained and serve it as a side dish, a difference said to run region by region.
Before you go
- How to shop at a supermarketHow to choose prepared foods, sashimi, and packaged sushi, when discount stickers tend to appear, region-only specialties, buying by weight, the checkout and bagging flow, and sampling etiquette at a local supermarket.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Agonoko UmaniThe roe of egg-bearing flying fish, caught only in early summer, is simmered in stock and soy sauce as an Oki bar snack. Its large grains and dense, sticky texture are prized as a delicacy said to be scarcer even than the fish's flesh.
- Funa MisoCrucian carp is simmered slowly with soybeans for around five hours, then finished in a sauce of red miso and coarse sugar. A freshwater fish dish of the Kiso rivers' lower basin, made with fatty winter carp simmered until the bones soften through.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Toyama
- Bai no NimonoWhelks from the deep waters of Toyama Bay are simmered whole in their shells — said to appear at celebrations thanks to a play on words suggesting doubled good fortune, with smaller whelks simmered and larger ones eaten raw.
- BurishabuThin slices of yellowtail are swished briefly through kelp broth, said to cook only the surface while leaving the center rare — versions using Himi's branded winter yellowtail are considered a particularly luxurious cold-weather treat.
- Genge no MisoshiruEelpout, a deep-sea fish covered in a gelatinous layer, is cut into chunks and simmered into a miso soup — long treated as an unwanted bycatch of sweet shrimp fishing, its flavor has since been reappraised and spread beyond the fishing villages that first ate it.
- Himi UdonA hand-stretched udon developed in Himi, Toyama, in the mid-Edo period by adapting somen-making techniques from Wajima. It was once presented to the Kaga domain as tribute.
- Hoonko RyoriA catch-all term for the dishes served at houonko, the memorial gathering held on the death anniversary of Jodo Shinshu's founder — the season's better vegetables and wild greens are said to be set aside for it apart from everyday use, with the devout Gokayama area of Nanto known for hearty stews of dried greens and local tofu.
- Hotaruika no SumisoaeBoiled firefly squid, its eyes removed, is paired with scallion and dressed in a mustard-vinegar-miso sauce — a spring dish built on squid said to have been fished from Toyama Bay's shores since the Edo period, rising in shimmering shoals each March to spawn.