The Seaweed Man Cometh

As I mentioned in my first post, every so often I'll deviate from my usual school lunch presentations to talk about some other aspect of the food culture here that fascinates me. I didn't expect to post one so soon, but a recent event at my junior high reminded me that there's something I'd love to talk about.

And that event was the arrival of the seaweed salesman! ("...Wait, the what?")

I know, it sounds like kind of an odd thing to get excited over, but I love it when this guy turns up at our school with his big plastic bins of seaweed (海藻 - kaisou) products and free samples.

Many of us in the states are already familiar with nori, a type of seaweed used in sushi rolls to contain all the wacky ingredients we put in our Westernized version of them (people here still get a little freaked out when I tell them that I love things like cream cheese or jalapenos or mangos and walnuts in or on my sushi rolls). But there are many, many kinds of seaweed that are regularly consumed in this country, such as konbu, wakame, mozuku, and hijiki (and don't worry - many of these will show up in the school lunches I'll blog about later). Each one has its own unique color and shape and flavor, and though I never thought I'd say it... I've really become quite a fan of all these different types of seaweed.

To get personal for a moment, before I came to Japan as a study abroad student in college I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Basically, I was told my thyroid didn't work and I would have to take a pill every morning for the rest of my life because of it. Well, that's fun. Everyone loves being told there's something out of wack in their body. So, being the curious soul I am, I began poking around on the internet to try to learn more about what this hypo-whatever condition was and if there was anything else I should do to keep myself healthy.

One interesting thing I repeatedly ran across was the belief that soy products negatively impact the thyroid and, more specifically, can interfere with the absorption of thyroid medication. I'm personally not sure exactly how true that statement is, but I repeatedly read that people with this condition should avoid eating a lot of soy products. Like tofu. And edamame. And miso.

This discovery did not bode well for a student heading to Japan. Furthermore, I studied abroad in Nagoya, a city famous for it's extremely prevalent red miso. Delicious red miso, I should add, that I was happy to encounter in, on, or with just about everything I ate over there... so staying away from soy products was kind of out of the question for me.

"But wait a minute," I asked myself. "If soy products are this detrimental to thyroid function, how come the entire country of Japan doesn't have rampant thyroid problems like this?" (A common question to ask yourself, no?) I decided to poke around on the internet some more. And it turns out (according to the sites I stumbled upon) that a big factor in maintaining a healthy thyroid in a food culture rich in soy products is a food culture equally as rich in mineral-packed seaweed products. A good balance is everything, I guess!

So not only are these seaweeds interesting and tasty, but they're quite healthy for you too! Especially because of the iodine and selenium they contain, which I hear boosts thyroid hormone production. We've all heard that Japan traditionally has a very healthy food culture, and this part of it is just one of the many reasons why I suppose.

So, getting back on topic - what does one buy from a seaweed salesman? Well, as I mentioned before, there are many different kinds of seaweed to choose from, and they come in a variety of products. Konbu is a type of seaweed often used to make soup stocks in Japan, but there's nothing wrong with eating it as-is as well.

The seaweed man (as I like to call him) sells a jar of slimy konbu threads mixed with soy sauce, sugar, and coarse grated wasabi. This is a faculty favorite, and I've bought it twice now myself. You're supposed to put it on top of rice, but I've found that it also tastes really good on veggies too (cucumber being my favorite).

 

Yeah, it looks kind of gross, but trust me - if you can get over the "icky" factor of eating slimy foods, there are a lot of tasty things to be found in Japan. 

He often puts this stuff, called "natto konbu," with some sashimi wakame for all of us to sample. Sashimi wakame is, I believe, the main product that he sells. It's basically just wakame, a type of seaweed commonly found in miso soup, that you can also just eat as-is (hence the "sashimi" in the name, since you can eat it "raw" like the raw fish dish here known as, of course, sashimi). You can also buy dried wakame to put in soups or chadzuke (a simple dish of rice served soaked in tea with various toppings like salmon, pickled plums (umeboshi), spicy cod roe (tarako), sesame seeds, bits of seaweed, etc.).

You can also buy softened hijiki seaweed to mix into onigiri (rice balls), finely cut bits of nori to put on salads or pasta dishes (I do this ALL the time), or you can even just buy a big ol' bag of various seaweeds mixed together that you can eat straight up as a seaweed salad. There really is a surprising amount of products to choose from. As one of those Americans who knew nothing of Japanese seaweed outside of sushi nori before moving here, I've been pleasantly surprised by the variety of seaweeds I've had the pleasure of eating. It's still hard for me to believe, but... I really do love seaweed! If you ever get the chance to sample these foods, I strongly recommend you do! (And while you're at it, try Korean nori too! I down those salty little sheets of crisp seaweed like potato chips.)