The wakame wars

It's Tuesday, raining, and I find myself wrapped up in a silent war with wakame. The seaweed has no idea we are fighting, so clearly it is winning.

It started late last week, innocently enough, as these things do. I had picked up the seaweed during an ambitious moment on my lunch break. My friend, who is Japanese, had let me tag along to the grocery store for a shopping lesson. In the past, she's patiently answered questions such as “where is the sushi ginger?” and “what's the kanji for rice vinegar?”

Last week, I wandered into the wakame, the moist seaweed that often shows up as the bed under seared tuna or floating alongside noodles in udon. Unlike nori, the dried, flat version that wraps sushi or enhances sashimi, wakame looks like it came straight from the sea. It's wavy and chewy, like kale, but with a subtler flavor of green. I found myself agreeing to my friend's instructions: wash off the salt really well, seep in boiling water for just a few seconds, then use. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I brought the wakame – wet, salted, green, shredded – home. Into the fridge it went, a small, heavy-ish plastic bag set atop the top shelf. But over the next few days, my mood shifted. Lunching at neighborhood restaurants beckoned. Cereal for dinner with a movie felt like a treat. And still it loomed, that seaweed, behind the refrigerator door. By Sunday I was treading nervously in the kitchen, circling widely, like a golfer dreading a 20-foot put. I peaked in again this morning. It hadn't moved an inch, the stubborn bastard.

Funny thing, because Wakame isn't exactly known for its patience. Underwater it climbs like kudzu. The weed takes over reefy shelters and pushes out the algae that sea urchins and fish eat. For Korea, China and Japan, where wakame has been harvested for centuries, the rapid growth makes for good crops. But this weed gets around and finds unsuspecting neighbors off-guard. (Don't I know it). Twenty years ago it was first discovered in waters off Wellington and has grown, quite literally, to be a problem there.

Perhaps the kiwis would be more forgiving if they heard this: Wakame also is suspected of fighting fat, specifically, bulges found around the belly. I can't speak for New Zealand, or anyone else really, but I say “Get that little baggie out of the fridge and onto the dinner plate!” It's a tad long for a bumper sticker, but it beats “fucoxanthin,” the compound in the seaweed that initiates the slimming. Japanese chemists have found this mouthful-of-a-word causes fat mice to conjure up a special protein that converts their pudge into energy.

This being a story of the sea, there is a catch. This “thin” compound inside wakame is wound up so tightly in the seaweed's own protein structure that you'd have to eat an ocean's worth to get the same results as those in the lab. “Fucoxan,” I say, with my own special accent.

So here I am, five days later, at a wakame stand-off. I just went in for an apple, whistling ever so carelessly, and the vegetable barely bothered to sigh. I'm beginning to be reminded of the start of more than one relationship, only this time I haven't even had a decent meal yet. I've got a potential dinner in my fridge that could, in my scientific dreams, mean one step closer to buttoning up my skinny jeans. Instead I sit here typing. Figures. Something tells me that if I continue this battle much longer, I'll have to restock my fresh wakame.

Which is what I do. Out with the old, in with the new. And like most things taken for granted, the wakame salad comforts comfortably. Even overdue, exaggerated truces are worth the wait.

Wakame salad

Prep wakame according to package. I used the wet, salted version. First wash off salt, then cover with boiling water until pliable to your liking (it took barely 2 minutes for me to be happy). Drain and set aside to cool. The dry version, I hear, just involves steeping in hot water longer.

Add equal parts shredded cucumber and carrot (I had about 1 1/2 cups of each) to a large bowl. Add a small handful (2 to 3 tablespoons) chopped pickled ginger, 1/4 thinly sliced red onion and 1 whole diced avocado. Once cool, slice wakame into manageable pieces and add to bowl.

Make dressing: 1 tablespoon each miso, soy sauce, sushi vinegar (rice vinegar with sugar added). Add about 10 or so drops of sesame oil. Add about 1/8 cup of hot water. Mix and taste against the vegetables before adding.

Pour dressing over salad and toss. Add protein if you like -- leftover chicken, shrimp, baked tofu. I had tofu on hand for a nice, light summer dinner. Serves 3 or so for dinner, 4 to 6 as a side dish.