Múrach, racálach and fuip

June 2, 2021 8:03 PM

Seaweed Grows in Ireland (in Whetstone Magazine): Seaweed was once a highly prized resource. According to medieval Irish scholars, a rock that could produce a crop of seaweed had a value equivalent to two and a half cows... however today, “for most Irish people, seaweed rarely goes past being a momentary novelty.” Still, sleabhacán, a notoriously pungent traditional Irish health food made of boiled nori, is making a comeback.
Here are some seaweed varieties foraged on the west coast of Ireland.

Bonus lecture: Seaweed and its Wars - Ireland's Contested Resource.

posted by spamandkimchi (11 comments total)

I didn't 'get' seaweed until https://www.seriouseats.com/coolest-part-about-japanese-rice-balls-onigiri-the-packaging-slideshow
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:16 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Zita Dennehy in the first video mentions that Nori is one of very few completely vegetarian sources of B12 and also has enough vitamin C to be useful against scurvy, which I hadn't heard before. I just never have thought of seaweed as a part of Irish Cuisine.
posted by jamjam at 10:42 PM on June 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

As long as no one tries to revive carrageen jelly as a thing we're fine. I had too much of that in my childhood as a solution for all ills.

(As seaweed was traditionally a diet of the very poor in Ireland, it"s been interesting to see it revived as a food source.)
posted by lesbiassparrow at 10:51 PM on June 2, 2021

Best opening line in a film: "God made the world, and seaweed made that field, boy".

Growing up we used to pick dilisk a few hundred metres from our house.
posted by kersplunk at 12:00 AM on June 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I think sleabhacán is roughly the same as Welsh laverbread (bara lafwr) which is pretty widely available (in wales) — Ive often seen it in supermarkets. “notoriously pungent traditional Irish health food” makes it sound terrible but whilst it took me a while to get over the appearance (a big blob of green slime) I’d definitely recommend giving it a go, there’s an oysterish taste to it which i guess comes down to the oysters and the seaweed growing in the same water?
posted by tomp at 12:28 AM on June 3, 2021

Carrageen jelly [eeeuw flubberdubb] is so yesterday! Marie Power is selling a lot more accessible algal products for modern foodies to try: protein bars, teas and spices.
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:30 AM on June 3, 2021

Cannot recommend Whetstone enough as piece of Food Media to pay for.
posted by JPD at 6:05 AM on June 3, 2021

Coming in to contribute a little bit of song. "Dúlamán" is an Irish folk song about seaweed farming and romance - a young lady and her mother are trying to get her married off and so they're all excited when the seaweed gatherers are coming to town. At first she's not impressed - but then she notices that hang on, these dudes are rich. And they are kinda cute, actually. By the end of the song she's sweethearts with one of the seaweed guys, who is informing her father that if he doesn't give his blessing on their marriage they'll just elope.

Link here with more info about the song, which highlights my favorite arrangement of the song, done by the band Altan (link just to the song here).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:20 AM on June 3, 2021 [8 favorites]

This gin named after that song was highly recommended at a great restaurant in Dublin. I hate gin but it was delicious.
posted by sir_patrick_o'veal at 7:39 AM on June 3, 2021

It’s a rare FPP title I see in Irish. Aidan Matthews wrote a short and brutal poem called “The Death of Irish.”

The tide gone out for good,
Thirty-one words for seaweed
Whiten on the foreshore.

posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:07 AM on June 3, 2021 [9 favorites]

A zillion years ago, someone told me that Koreans are the Irish of Asia (insert stereotypes of varying relevance plus the historical reality of having been colonized by the nearby island empire, albeit for much much shorter time period). I was excited to learn that Irish people also have a seaweed culinary tradition, but Korea's is shared with Japan (and to a lesser extent China).
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:28 AM on June 3, 2021