Japanese Seaweed

Are You
Kelping Me?
There is More
Than One
Seaweed on
the Menu?
by Adam Ledford
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Wrapping your sushi, topping your
okonomiyaki, or floating in your miso soup:
theres a lot of seaweed in Japanese
cuisine. Seaweed consumption has a long
history in Japan. In the Taiho Code of 701,
one of Japans earliest legal codes, some
seaweeds (including kombu, nori, and
wakame) were an acceptable form of tax
payment. Though foreigners have become
more familiar with their flavors over the
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past few decades, seaweed and the full
extent of its culinary applications remain a
bit mysterious to many (at least in
America). Lets have a look at these
delicacies of the deep, their history,
production, and a recipe you can try at
home.
Photo by: Peter Liu Photography
Seaweed is a word applied to a wide variety
of species. They are divided into three
different Phylum: Rhodophyta (red),
Ochrophyta (brown), Chlorophyta (green).
Unlike terrestrial plants seaweeds dont
have roots. They do have parts for
anchoring themselves which may appear
root-like, but they draw their nutrients
straight from the water around them. Like
other plants, they do photosynthesize, so
most seaweed grows in shallow water
where the light can reach them.
Kombu
Photo by: Benjyamin
Kombu refers mainly to Saccharina japonica,
but sometimes to other kelp species. There
is some evidence of earlier kombu
consumption, but it was definitely being
eaten by the eighth century. It grows
mainly around Hokkaido and northern
Honshu, but during the Muromachi period
(1336-1573), new drying techniques were
developed which let kombu be transported
further. By the Edo period it had become
widely used in Japanese cooking. It even
became a mainstay in the cuisine of the
Ryukyu kingdom (modern day Okinawa
Prefecture), roughly 1600 km away! Even
today, Okinawan households consume more
kombu per year than those of any other
prefecture.
Photo by: iris
Kombucha, but no kombu.
You may be wondering, as I once did, if the
kombucha that is so currently popular
amongst the health conscious is made with
kombu. The answer is no. In Japan there
are teas made from dried, powdered
kombu, but that is not what Americans are
buying at Whole Foods these days. The
popular kombucha is black or green tea that
is fermented with a colony of bacteria or
yeast. Its probably from northeast China
or Manchuria and spread to Russia
sometime before 1910. The name
kombucha (referring to this drink) first
appeared in 1995, but the reasons remain
uncertain. People may have thought the
film left by the fermenting culture looked
like seaweed. In Japan this drink is called
koucha kinoko literally red tea
mushroom, though red tea is how
Japanese labels what is called black tea in
English. Does your head hurt now too?
Maybe you should have a cup of tea. Lets
return to the basics.
Photo by: star5112
Kombus most essential role in Japanese
cooking is in providing umami flavor to
most dashi (stock), and dashi is used in a
whole lot of recipes. Kombu does have
many other uses though, like wrapping
appetizers or in pickle making.
Wakame
Photo by: Javier Lastras
Undaria pinnatifida is a large brown
seaweed, usually found in shallow waters.
It can grow in dense stands, making a thick
seaweedy forest. Its also tough, and can
deal with a range of temperatures and
salinity levels. Its native to coastlines
around Japan, Korea, and China, but has
become an invasive species as well (more
on this in an upcoming article). What is
believed to be wakame residue has been
found on Jomon period (14,000-300 BCE)
pottery, showing that people in Japan have
been munching on it for a long time. You
probably know it best from its use in miso
soup.
Photo by: zenjiro
Nori
Photo by: Kattebelletje
Nori, which now wraps your sushi,
originally referred to number of seaweeds,
but came to be applied to a couple species
of red algae of the genus Porphyra. It has
been eaten in Japan since at least the eighth
century. Nori was collected from the rocks,
shells, wood, etc. that it grew upon in
shallow waters.
Photo by: Mr Hicks46
Around the beginning of the Edo period
(1603-1868) it was discovered that the nori
growing in Edo Bay, near Asakusa was
especially delicious. As the capital grew
and reclaimed a lot of shoreline people
began cultivating nori on poles stuck in the
shallows, then on nets attached to poles,
then on large floating nets. Over time Edo
Bay became Tokyo Bay and the waters
became too warm and polluted for nori to
thrive as it once did. There are still a few
closely guarded locations in Tokyo Bay
where nori is grown, and you can still buy
the famous Asakusa nori if you dont mind
throwing down $300 for 72 sheets.
Photo by: Koji Horaguchi
For hundreds of years it was eaten in a wet,
paste-like form. The dry, sheet form was
invented in the early 18th century based on
the paper making process. After being
rinsed, strained and chopped into fine
pieces the nori is put into a wooden frame
on a bamboo mat in a bucket of water to
make a sheet. Everything is then removed
from the water and the bamboo mat with
the nori sheet is set out on a rack to dry in
the sun. After drying, sheets of nori are
usually roasted.
Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker
In 1949, British scientist Kathleen Mary
Drew-Baker discovered that nori has three
distinct stages in its life cycle. She found
that during one of these stages nori grows
on oyster shells and similar surfaces. This
discovery led to the practice of collecting
oyster shells and using them to seed, an
innovation which led to an upscale in nori
production. There is a monument to
Kathleen Drew-Baker at Sumiyoshi Shrine
in Uto City, Kumamoto Prefecture, where
she is honored as the mother of the sea
every April 14th.
In 2010 another nori-related scientific
discovery was made. Scientists found
evidence that Japanese people have a
genetic advantage in getting nutrients from
nori. Exclusively in people of Japanese
ancestry, the scientists found gut bacteria
which produce an enzyme for breaking
down algal carbohydrates such as those
found in nori. There are certain marine
bacteria that produce similar enzymes, and
they hypothesized that in the past such a
marine bacteria was ingested and
transferred the genes for making the algae-
eating enzyme to the human gut bacteria.
They speculate that this is only found in
Japanese people because such gene transfer
events would be rare, and due to the
volume of seaweed eaten by the Japanese, it
would have been far more useful to them
than most other people.
Aonori
Photo by: Norio NAKAYAMA
Its not just the name; aonori and nori are
from different families. Aonori can refer to
algae of a couple different genera in the
Ulvaceae family. It makes a great topping
for dishes like yakisoba, takoyaki, and
okonomiyaki, adding a little extra umami.
Hijiki /
Photo by: Janne Moren

Sargassum fusiforme grows attached to the
rocky bottoms of coastlines, but is
sometimes ripped free by waves or weather
and continues to live in a more free floating
manner. Some hijiki is cultivated, but when
harvested from the wild divers cut it with
sickles during low tide in springtime. In
the store you can find just the little leaves
or leaves and stems together. Just make
sure to thouroughly rehydrate or youll be
in for a long chew.
Photo by: Kattebelletje
Hijiki contains all sorts of mineral
goodness, being high in calcium, iodine, and
magnesium. However studies have found
that hijiki also contains potentially harmful
levels of inorganic arsenic, and currently
the food safety agencies of the U.S., U.K.,
and Canada advise against eating it. The
Japanese government responded with a
report that conceded that eating more than
4.7 grams of hijiki a day could exceed
tolerable levels of inorganic arsenic, but
pointed out that the average daily
consumption in Japan is only 0.9 grams. So
far, no known illnesses have been linked to
hijiki consumption.
Arame /
Photo by: Rakuten
Eisenia bicyclis is a small species of kelp
native (seemingly exclusively) to Japan. It
is a stiff, woody stem with two feathery
fronds growing from the top. It has a mild
flavor, so its used in a wide variety of side
dishes, soups and salads.
Umi budo
Photo by: David Pursehorse
The name means sea grapes, and you can
see why. Not unlike grapes they, pop
pleasantly in your mouth, though umi budo
are slightly salty, not sweet like their vine-
dangling counterparts. Known to the
scientific community as caulerpa lentillifera,
vertical stems of tightly packed spheres rise
from long horizontal stems that spread
across the ocean floor. Umi budo are a
popular dish in Okinawa, usually fresh with
a side of soy sauce, or as part of a salad.
Allez Cuisine!
Photo by: jamesjustin
Ive only touched the surface of the many
tasty sea veggies used in Japanese cuisine.
Whats your favorite seaweed? Hopefully
youll be inspired to go cook. I know
writing this made me start to crave some
umami filled goodness. One way to
experience a lot of that great seaweed flavor
is by making tsukudani, seaweed simmered
in soy sauce and mirin. You can eat it with
rice or put it in the center of onigiri, but be
careful. Its potent. Ill leave you with this
simple delicious recipe. Its for kombu, but
you can try it with other seaweeds too.
Bonus Wallpapers!
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Sources:
http://glendalecommunitycollege.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/nori-
japans-most-famous-seaweed-part-i-
history-and-traditional-use/
http://justbento.com/handbook/johbisai/homemade-
shio-kombu-kombu-no-tsukudani
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100407/full/news.2010.169.html
https://seaweedindustry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aonori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_lentillifera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakame
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