Agar Agar (Strange Tofu Custard Pie)

            When I walked into the Chinese supermarket, the first thing that caught my eye was a box full of these strange, brightly colored sticks. They were two to a package and there were yellow, red, green, and white ones. I picked up a yellow one and read the label. I think this easily takes the cake for the most mysterious food product (maybe product of any kind) I’ve ever seen. Obviously, I had to buy it, but what was it? Agar-agar. From the shape and the look of it, I took it to be some strange sort of candy. I looked to the ingredients hoping to divine some clue about its contents and found only two: agar-agar and yellow #5. In a cruelly circular fashion, I had learned that this yellow stick called agar-agar was made of agar-agar and yellow. Finally – though I shouldn’t have been surprised at this point – when I turned it over and read the nutrition facts, I found 0% across the board.

            It was not until I got home and was able to do a little research that I gained any real insight into this mysterious food. It turns out I had not found some delicious foreign candy. In fact, agar-agar is about as close to the opposite as it gets. It is made from seaweed and is used as a vegetarian substitute for gelatin to thicken custards and the like¹. Why they feel the need to dye it unnatural colors I couldn’t say. Once I understood what I had on my hands, I realized I needed a recipe if I was going to eat it (I did actually try it raw and found it flavorless and almost unchewable). I found one that called itself “No-Bake Cheesecake²” and decided to go for it. Quite mysteriously – and appropriately given my previous experience with agar-agar – this recipe included no cheese of any kind. Instead it is a sort of sweet tofu custard. When I put the recipe into action, it didn’t turn out quite the way I’d hoped. The agar-agar didn’t seem to do its job of thickening and the filling remained pretty soupy even after chilling in the refrigerator. Even so, it didn’t turn out too badly and the graham cracker crust added a very tasty crunch. In the end it made for a light, creamy, and very vegetarian-friendly dessert. My roommate actually really liked it.

            It’s hard to say exactly what the agar-agar contributed to the mix, but it is certainly the strangest food product I’ve consumed for this project. It also sounds much more exotic than it is, so it should be useful for wowing people at parties – “I’ve eaten agar-agar!”

1.      http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dairyfreeglossary/g/AgarAgar.htm

2.      http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1931,152172-237192,00.html