カフェで提供している白玉ぜんざいに付けて出す細切り塩昆布が切れそうなので、彦根の佃煮などを売っている店に寄ってみたところ、前回あった場所に目指すものはなく、店の人に聞くと今は置いていないとのこと。「ふ◯っ︎◯」という袋はスーパーにもあるけど、少しランクが上のものを買いたかったので、仕方なく他の食品店に入って若い店員さんに「塩昆布ありますか？」と聞くと「？？...」。もう一度同じ質問をすると「何に使うものですか？」と、どうも「シオコブ」が何か分かっていない様子。それで「お茶漬けにしたり、ぜんざいに付けたりとか....」と言うと、奥に行ってすぐ戻ってきて在庫が分かるアプリで調べて、置いていないことが判明。
結局、家に帰ってネットで注文したのですが、店頭から消えていたことも、若い店員さんが塩昆布を知らなかったことも時代の流れなのか、ちょっとした驚きでした。
In our cafe, we serve a sweet red bean soup with sticky rice dumplings and it comes with SHIO-KONBU (shredded salted kelp) on the small dish. Since the kelp is coming short, I went to the store in Hikone where I always buy it. However, I couldn't find it on the shelf. The shopkeeper said that they didn't keep it in the store anymore. Then I went to another store. I asked the young female shopkeeper if they had SHIO-KONBU. She seemed not to understand my question, so I repeated the question again. Then she asked me what it is used for. I said it comes with Ochaduke (a bowl of rice soaked in green tea) or with Zenzai (a sweet red bean soup). She went to the rear of the store and after coming back to me, she checked it on her mobile and said to me that the store didn't have it.
In the end, I ordered it on the internet at home. It was too bad that I couldn't get it in the local store and the young shopkeeper didn't know what SHIO-KONBU was.
