Wakame

Wakame (ワカメ, wakame), Undaria pinnatifida, is a sea vegetable, or edible seaweed. It has a subtly sweet flavour and is most often served in soups and salads.

Sea-farmers have grown wakame in Japan from the Nara period. It has been nominated as among 100 of the world's worst invasive species according to the Global Invasive Species Database.

Names

The name "wakame" was derived from the Japanese name wakame (ワカメ, わかめ, 若布, 和布).

Etymology

In Old Japanese, me stood for edible seaweeds in general as opposed to mo　standing for algae. In kanji, such as 海藻, 軍布 and 和布 were applied to transcribe the word. Among seaweeds, wakame was likely most often eaten, therefore this me especially meant wakame. It expanded later to other seaweeds like kajime, hirome (kombu), arame, etc. Wakame is derived from waka + me (若布, lit. young seaweed). If this waka is an eulogistic prefix, same as the tama of tamagushi, wakame likely stood for seaweeds widely in ancient ages. In Man'yōshū, in addition to 和可米 and 稚海藻 (both are read as wakame), nigime (和海藻, soft wakame) can be seen. Besides, tamamo (玉藻, lit. beautiful algae), which often appeared in Man'yo-shu, may be wakame depending on poems.

Seaweed

Seaweed refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae that live near the seabed (benthic).

The term includes some members of the red, brown, and green algae. Seaweeds can also be classified by use (as food, medicine, fertilizer, filtration, industrial, etc.). The study of seaweed is known as phycology.

Taxonomy

A seaweed may belong to one of several groups of multicellular algae: the red algae, green algae, and brown algae. As these three groups do not have a common multicellular ancestor, the seaweeds are in a polyphyletic group. In addition, some tuft-forming bluegreen algae (Cyanobacteria) are sometimes considered to be seaweeds — "seaweed" is a colloquial term and lacks a formal definition.

Structure

Seaweeds' appearance somewhat resembles non-arboreal terrestrial plants.

Salad

A salad is a dish consisting of small pieces of food, which may be mixed with a sauce or salad dressing. They are typically served cold. Salads can incorporate a variety of foods including vegetables, fruits, cheese, cooked meat, eggs and grains. Garden salads use a base of leafy greens; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads. Other types include bean salad, tuna salad, fattoush, Greek salad, and somen salad.

The sauce used to flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing; well-known types include ranch, Thousand Island, and vinaigrette.

Most salads are served cold, although some, such as south German potato salad, are served warm. Some consider the warmth of a dish a factor that excludes it from the salad category calling the warm mixture a casserole, a sandwich topping or more specifically, name it for the ingredients which comprise it.

Salads may be served at any point during a meal, such as: