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Seaweed can be quite tasty. It's more that people are simply unfamiliar with the notion that they could be eating it. Even though of course a lot of Japanese an

Seaweed can be quite tasty. It's more that people are simply unfamiliar with the notion that they could be eating it. Even though of course a lot of Japanese and Korean cuisine involves it. I like Korean seaweed soup for example. And lots of people enjoy sushi. And of course the broth in ramen often contains seaweed as well. I looked into getting my hands on some seaweed to experiment with in the kitchen a while back. Unfortunately my ignorance is a bit of a non starter. We have fantastic Asian stores here in Berlin but deciphering the labels is a challenge for me. Both because I need glasses for the fine print, don't read Korean, and the English/German translations are not that meaningful to me either. I'd say that's the main challenge: ignorance. People simply don't know that they can buy it, where to buy it, what to buy and what recipes they can use it in. A solvable problem but a bit of a hurdle short term. There are probably plenty of people that like me are curious enough that there is a market for this stuff. I buy food because I eat it, mainly. The whole carbon sequestration topic is a separate one for me.

1letterunixname 4y ago
Maybe to you. Sales would show otherwise.
saiya-jin 4y ago
Seaweed contains quite a lot of heavy metals, so its as healthy as farmed salmon - looks nice on paper, but reality is much worse. Taste is Ok to me (at least wakame), not something I would willingly indulge in daily or in larger amounts but I can see easily why nontrivial amount of people would have issues with it. Good luck trying to persuade small kids, 'ewwww gooooey' and bye.
zdragnar 4y ago
The texture is quite unpleasant for most people who don't grow up with it, and eating it regularly isn't great for you. The dried / nori is too dry and fragile to hold up in most dishes. The rehydrated stuff you'll find in soups or wakame has a fairly novel texture that's good in small doses but I think would struggle to hold up as a substitute for most Western veggies. That's just to get people to eat it. Then, you have fears over iodine overdosing (thyroid problems) and heavy metal contamination (probably? less of a concern). It is also high in both potassium and vitamin K, which is hard on people with kidney issues or who are on blood thinners for heart problems. All in all, I don't see it as being much more than a novel condiment outside of the dishes you already find it in (sushi, wakame, soup).
- euroderf 4y ago
  I like it wrapped around rice crackers and yup, it's dry and fragile. Tasty tho.
- jillesvangurp 4y ago
  I don't know, I definitely did not grow up with this and don't find it so offensive. You're maybe projecting your subjective preferences? As for the health consequences and nutritional value. Loads of Asian people eat this very regularly and live quite long lives. Japan has had some people live very long and breaking age records. Also, it's a generally healthy population as far as I know. Of course add a bit of variety to your diet and don't over do it. Probably good advice for almost any food. I never meant to suggest to replace vegetables with sea weed.
  - zdragnar 4y ago
    I happen to rather like it, but my wife can't stand the texture. In any case, I wasn't replying so much to whether or not it can be occasionally enjoyable in the right dishes, but the GP post of > - Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing. in combination with > - Massive ($10-20e12 USD) investment to make a dent in climate change, in the form of automated kelp processing ships AND genetic modifications/breeding to favor rapid growth. There is no possibility of a few artisanal farmers in skiffs doing anything measurable except selling small batches to $4000/jar cosmetics companies. I totally agree that more people should try it. I totally disagree that human consumption is going to sufficiently drive commercial investment to the point of impacting climate change.

1letterunixname 4y ago

Maybe to you. Sales would show otherwise.

saiya-jin 4y ago

Seaweed contains quite a lot of heavy metals, so its as healthy as farmed salmon - looks nice on paper, but reality is much worse. Taste is Ok to me (at least wakame), not something I would willingly indulge in daily or in larger amounts but I can see easily why nontrivial amount of people would have issues with it. Good luck trying to persuade small kids, 'ewwww gooooey' and bye.

zdragnar 4y ago

The texture is quite unpleasant for most people who don't grow up with it, and eating it regularly isn't great for you. The dried / nori is too dry and fragile to hold up in most dishes. The rehydrated stuff you'll find in soups or wakame has a fairly novel texture that's good in small doses but I think would struggle to hold up as a substitute for most Western veggies. That's just to get people to eat it. Then, you have fears over iodine overdosing (thyroid problems) and heavy metal contamination (probably? less of a concern). It is also high in both potassium and vitamin K, which is hard on people with kidney issues or who are on blood thinners for heart problems. All in all, I don't see it as being much more than a novel condiment outside of the dishes you already find it in (sushi, wakame, soup).

euroderf 4y ago
I like it wrapped around rice crackers and yup, it's dry and fragile. Tasty tho.
jillesvangurp 4y ago
I don't know, I definitely did not grow up with this and don't find it so offensive. You're maybe projecting your subjective preferences? As for the health consequences and nutritional value. Loads of Asian people eat this very regularly and live quite long lives. Japan has had some people live very long and breaking age records. Also, it's a generally healthy population as far as I know. Of course add a bit of variety to your diet and don't over do it. Probably good advice for almost any food. I never meant to suggest to replace vegetables with sea weed.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  I happen to rather like it, but my wife can't stand the texture. In any case, I wasn't replying so much to whether or not it can be occasionally enjoyable in the right dishes, but the GP post of > - Not enough people enjoy seaweed as a food because it's just not appetizing. in combination with > - Massive ($10-20e12 USD) investment to make a dent in climate change, in the form of automated kelp processing ships AND genetic modifications/breeding to favor rapid growth. There is no possibility of a few artisanal farmers in skiffs doing anything measurable except selling small batches to $4000/jar cosmetics companies. I totally agree that more people should try it. I totally disagree that human consumption is going to sufficiently drive commercial investment to the point of impacting climate change.