Eden Kombu, Wild Japanese Hand Harvested Sea Vegetable, Hokkaido, Dashi, Seaweed, Kelp, 2.1 Oz

I have to admit I'm a bit of a seaweed snob. I grew up eating seaweed so I'm not a stranger to it. I've been on a health food kick lately and started to cook a lot of miso soups, legumes, etc. Kombu is the quintessential ingredient for majority of the dishes I cook. It lends that famous savoriness (umami) that only comes w/ Excellent quality harvested seaweed from Japan (see, I told you...snob) ;-p.When I first started back to cooking macrobiotic and raw food meals I purchased Kombu and Wakame from a lot of different vendors (coops, organic markets, asian groceries, online vendors, etc). As I started cooking with all the different brands of seaweeds, I noticed there's a distinct difference in taste between the brands. I have to say - Eden has one of the BEST seaweeds out there (texture, taste, no additives, clean).Everything I cook has that hearty savoriness with the Eden brand. With other brands - the seaweed texture, color, and/or taste is subpar compared to Eden. I don't know what it is but when I cook w/ the other seaweeds - seriously - it just tastes as if something is "missing".Since noticing the taste difference I wanted to know why Eden had one of the Best seaweeds... I went to Eden's website and read all the stories and research that go behind their products. I'm very impressed by their dedication in bringing Quality, Healthy, and Clean food to us! I'm now a Huge fan of Eden!Since I grew up eating a lot of seaweeds - I know what good quality tasting seaweed is... and I have to say - Eden has one of the best out there! You have to try it!

It's the only Kombu I have ever bought but as far as I can tell, it is good quality. I made my first Dashi the other day and again, as it's my only experience with Kombu I can't really give an expert analysis. All I can say is it produced an inexplicable ocean flavor that I was both confused and delighted by. I ended up using some of the leftover dashi as rice liquid and that too was incredible.

I bought this mostly to add to broths when I cook beans. My understanding is that it may help to reduce some of the gas producing sugars in the beans. I can't swear to this one way or another, but using the Kombu does add a bit of nice flavor. The sticks themselves are in good shape.

This is a very nice quality of Kombu, the pieces are long and evenly sized. I hold them under cold water to unroll each piece to its full size, about 1.5" X 6" per piece. I use this while making rice for sushi, add a few pieces of chopped Kombu and a few tablespoons of Sake to your rice and water (Make sure to use less water to make-up for the addition of the Sake.), then proceed to cook the rice as you normally would. The Kombu and Sake give the rice a very nice taste. When the rice is cooked, I add a mixture of pure rice wine vinegar, salt, and a bit of sugar and toss lightly. This is ideal for Sushi, or just generally a great tasting rice. I use brown Japanese short grain rice, this is a delicious, as well as healthy recipe for rice.***I was concerned about possible radiation issues with any product coming from Japanese waters. I called the Eden company and spoke with Customer Service. They informed me that they do extensive radiation testing while the product is still in Japan, refusing anything testing positive for radiation. The representative further informed me that they have a Geiger counter at their American facility, which they use on Japanese products, and that they additionally send samples to outside labs. for testing. The company informed me that anything with traces of radiation would be refused and returned to Japan. This company has a very good history of selling high-quality ingredients, and I feel confident using Eden Kombu.

Quality Kombu

Anticarcinogen

If Kombu is new to you, reading about it is recommended. I use it in long cooking foods, beans, soups, as a kidney tonic tea, in the winter I have deep fried the dried in 1.5 inch square pieces, and eaten them as chips.

This is the real deal from the Hokkaido area of Japan. Fed by the nutrient-rich Waters of the North Pacific it has exceptional depth of flavor, wonderful aroma that is so reminiscent of great cooking you might have enjoyed in a Japanese restaurant. You only need to use 2 or 3 inches to add a significant flavor to a dish.