There is something I love eating, but it's so repulsive that I have to eat it alone. Practically under cover of night. It's green and slimy and salty. It's seaweed. I love eating seaweed.
And not because it's insanely nutritious, either. Who cares about that. I actually love the taste.
There, I'm glad I got that off my chest. I've been carrying this shocking and embarrassing secret around with me for years. But seaweed is ready to out into the light! Once, it was just another trendy food for macrobiotic-noshing celebs like Victoria Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow. But behold! A seaweed salad recipe in the New York Times. Everyone's going to be eating it now, right? Hello?
I swear, this is the first time I've ever come across a seaweed recipe online. And I read a lot of food blogs! People are not writing bloggy love letters to seaweed. People are not writing articles on how tasty toasted nori snacks are. You know that black stuff wrapped around your sushi rolls? You can get it in snack packs. Where is the seaweed love?
Know what's awesome? My ultimate seaweed dish: A bowl of brown rice with long, luscious strands of seaweed, a poached egg, olive oil, toasted sesame seeds, and sriracha sauce. Mock if you want, but my seaweed bowl is just the right amount of salty-savory-tart-spicy and it makes me feel like a superhero.
DON'T SAY "Ew that's nasty!" Don't say it! I know you're thinking it.
Supposedly, eating seaweed-enhanced bread for breakfast burns extra calories, like you just ran on the treadmill. (To that I say -- which would most people hate doing more, eating seaweed or running on a treadmill?) And while that sounds suspicious, it is true that seaweed is ridic nutritious. It's loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, calcium, iron, folate, and magnesium. But like I said, that's not why I eat it.
Nope, I eat it because I'm weird like that.
Anyone else love eating seaweed? Can I get a witness from my seaweed-loving peeps?
Images via khawkins/Flickr, Annie Chun