On Food and Cooking

Kelp,
kombu

Laminaria

species

Soup    base    (dashi),

salads, fried   (Japan)

Wakame Undaria
species

Miso    soup,   salads

(Japan)

Hiziki Hizikia
fusiformis

Vegetable,  soups,  “tea”

(Japan, China)

Seaweed and the Original    MSG

It   was     a   seaweed     that    provoked    a

breakthrough     in  the     understanding   of

human   taste   —   and also    brought the world

the  controversial   food    additive    known   as

MSG.    For better  than    a   thousand    years,  the

Japanese     have    been    using   the     brown   alga

kombu   as  the base    for soup    stocks. In  1908

a   Japanese    chemist,    Kikunae Ikeda,  found

that    kombu   is  an  especially  rich    source  of

monosodium  glutamate   —   in  fact    it  forms

crystals    on  the surface of  dried   kombu.  He

also     found   that    MSG     provides    a   unique,

savory   taste   sensation,  different   from    the

standard    sweet,  sour,   salty,  and bitter. He