Daily camera., 1898-06-22
sUCCULENT SEA WEED.
Kelp Is Eaten by Californians as
q Salad.
A Food That IL Much Relished by the
Chinese-The Weed Will Soon Glass
with Frogs Legs and
Such Dainties.

There is possibility that within the
next year or so we will have seaweed
on our tables as regular article OF
diet. Not as heavy food on which to
do big days work, however, but more
as relish, as we now use lettuce and
radishes. That seaweed is capable OF
being used as an article OF food we
have only to go to the Chinese for proof,
for these people have been eating the
stuff for centuries.
Californians have always appreciated
the algae from the standpoint OF the
beautiful. Many visitors to our coast
carry away an album with pressed sea-
weeds. But now it is being regarded
seriously as a novel dainty for epicures.
An analysis of the kelp shows that the
nutritious matter contained is small,
but the gelatinous, slightly sharp flavor
is said to be delicious when ones palate
becomes educated to it.
Like oysters and olives, which deli
cate viands some people care for nat
urally, some acquire the taste for after
painful effort, and most people have
thrust upon them, the connoisseures
will have to educate the palates of the
people before they can thoroughly ap-
preciate the seaweed.
Should the taste for this unique food
assume large proportions, California
could undoubtedly compete with Japan
in supplying the markets, as the edible
variety grows in rrofusion here.
The Chinese dly the kelp, press it
into thin round cakes, which are then
put into water and boiled They be-
come soft aud expand so that when
ready to eat they are about three times
the size they were before boiling. They
are either eaten alone or served in con-
junction with chicken or meat. Nor is
China the only place where some va
riety of the algae is used as common
article of food.
The Alaria Esculenta, commonly
called Bladderlocks, is regarded both
in Scotland and Ireland as very tooth
some dainty; it is accorded the same
degree of respect that the French be-
stow upon frogs legs. 1t is usually
eaten raw or plunged in boiling water
and then removed Immediately, serv-
ing it either hot or cold.
While there seems every possibility
that the seaweed will be given place
on our menus, it will never become a
staple article of food, owing to it's in
digestibility. Dr. William A. Setchell,
of the University of California, who is
professor of botany and well-known
contributor on seaweed subjects to
scientific journals, said that there was
not single variety of seaweed that con-
tanned enough nutritious substance to
make it highly valuable as a food but
that if properly prepared the weed
might tickle the palate at the expense
of terrific labor on the part of the di-
gestive organs. Prof, Setchell has just
returned from collecting seaweeds in
the vicinity of Fort Ross. He was ac-
companied on his tour of investigation
by C. P. Mott, assistant in the botany
department. Together they succeeded
in securing 80 varieties, among them
the kind that is used in the manufacture
of iodine.
Prof. Setchell recounted that the
Scotch lady with whom he and Mr.. Mott
boarded at Fort Ross was extremely
fond of the Bladderlock variety, and
was very anxious that they should find
some of it, as she had not tasted any
since she had left Scotland.
Perhaps the variety that will gain
the greatest hold on a certain portion
of the community is the Fucus vesicu-
losus, which is said to be the most
efficient remedy for obesity. One au-
thority on algae says that were this
variety used as the basis for an anti-fat
remedy it would mean thousands of
dollars to the manufacturer and pro-
portionate falling off in flesh among
those afflicted with superabundance
of fatty tissue.
1t is predicted that before long sea-
weed will be put on bills of fare in the
principal restaurants here, alongside
the place of honor held by frogs legs,
Welsh rarebit, and sparrows' tongues.
San Francisco Call.