When we talk about seaweed, everyone will think about sushi. The best way to eat seaweed is with the mighty rolled sushi. You can say it’s the most suitable combination among foods, but there are many ways to enjoy your crispy seaweeds apart from sushi.
For seaweeds lovers, they could create thousands of creative ways to eat their crispy seaweeds. Seaweeds contain a lot of minerals and even have more vitamins C than orange. Seaweeds could help you with controlling your appetite. They are low in fat but rich with soluble fibre, which aids digestion and helps to control the blood sugar level.
Origin of Seaweed
Seaweed is a type of algae that has been used as a side dish for centuries. It was widely exported to China for special guests or King’s meal. The ancient Hawaiian used 60-70 species of seaweed as food and medicine. Seaweed started to gain popularity as people begin to use it in sushi making.
Traditionally, seaweed was consumed as paste form before sheet form came along in Tokyo around 1750. They used the same method as making Japanese paper. The general term for seaweed is nori.
Nori was once being rejected caused by the misunderstanding about the nori’s three-stage life cycle. British psychologist or known as Mother of the sea who deep learns about the sea creature saves the nori industry with her knowledge.
Endless Of Seaweed Snacks
The healthy snacks started to gain popularity since it’s good for health and convenient. You can eat it anytime you feel like to munch something. Nori is not that different from chips, except that nori is healthier than chips.
With the invention of roasted seaweeds or seaweed snacks, industries make it more flavourful with the taste of tom yum, bbq, wasabi, and so on. You can add the seaweed snacks into your soup and give some flavour. The seaweed will absorb water and turns like raw seaweed.
Various Seaweed Snacks
1. Kelp
Kelp is the most in-demand and most available seaweed. It is rich with iodine and calcium, but you need to eat in the right quantities because too much iodine will affect your health.
2. Arame
Arame or so-called sea oak has a mildly sweet flavour which is famous as a side dish. It is kelp and brown. Arame is beneficial to skin and hair care.
3. Kombu
Kombu is another type of kelp that can be eaten fresh. It is usually sold in black thick dried form. It can be an instant ingredient to make seaweed soup. Korean always put kombu seaweed in main miso soup which is commonly served on a birthday. Kombu cannot be eaten in dried form; it needs to be soaked before eating.
4. Wakame
Wakame is often used in Japanese meals. It is a dark leafy green and contained a lot of iodine, calcium, and magnesium. Wakame tastes a little bit salty and can be cooked with soup or used as a seasoning in your green salad by grinding the dried wakame.
5. Dulse
Dulse is often enjoyed as snacks. It is red and known as red algae. It tastes slightly like bacon and contains a high amount of dietary fibre, magnesium, and calcium.
Where to Find Various Seaweed Snacks
You might want to try various kinds of seaweeds, and you can find most of them at Seaweed Club.
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