wakame

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

While all these words refer to edible sea plants, they differ in type and use. 'Wakame' (裙帶菜) is a soft, dark green seaweed with a mild sweet taste, typically rehydrated and used in miso soup or salads. 'Nori' (海苔) is dried in thin, crisp sheets and is the seaweed wrapped around sushi rolls or crumbled as a topping. 'Kombu' (昆布) is a thick, dark kelp used primarily to make dashi (Japanese soup stock) and is not eaten as a tender ingredient like wakame. 'Dulse' is a red seaweed popular in Northern Europe and North America, with a chewy texture and salty taste, but is rarely used in East Asian cooking. 'Seaweed' is the broadest term covering all of these and many more varieties. In a Japanese restaurant, if you order a 'wakame salad' you will get a soft, dressed seaweed salad, whereas 'nori' appears as the dark wrapper around your sushi roll.

Common collocations

Etymology

Wakame comes directly from Japanese ワカメ (wakame), which refers to the same seaweed species (Undaria pinnatifida). The Japanese word itself is thought to derive from 'waka' (young) and 'me' (seaweed sprouts), reflecting the practice of harvesting the tender young fronds. The word entered English in the late 19th to early 20th century through Western contact with Japanese cuisine, but only became widely known in English-speaking countries from the 1970s onward with the growing popularity of Japanese food.