DID YOU KNOW that while we who live in tourism-dependent countries in the West are scratching our heads bald trying to find effective ways to rid our beaches of the ever-invading Sargassum seaweed, our counterparts in the East are virtually licking the problem?
In Barbados, for example, the majority of us are waiting on the staff of the NCC and the Defence Force and a handful of volunteers, including schoolchildren, to gather up the mountains of Sargassum on our sea shores and bury it in the sand or have it carted off to be converted for use as fertiliser.
At the same time, lots of those people on the other side of the world welcome the intrusion of the weed as an addition to their cuisine. In other words, they are eating it and, apparently, have been doing it for centuries.
But don’t rush out of the house, jump into your car or on your bicycle and speed to a beach on the north, east and south coasts, from River Bay in St Lucy to Hilton in St Michael, to collect a load of Sargassum, rush back home, drop into the pot and make a meal of it just so.
If you do and you get sick, please don’t blame Al Gilkes.
I am only informing you that the peoples of the East eat Sargassum and do so with little or no reported health threatening consequences and that we the peoples of the West might the able to get our stomachs likewise accustomed and eventually be able to gobble it up as fast as the tides bring it in.
Many Bajans already know about the benefits of consuming seaweed, the variety commonly referred to as sea moss, which is held up to contain certain nutritious properties with the miraculous and viagrous ability to raise the dead and make old men smile again.
But, fellas, don’t get your hopes up too high about Sargassum being able to satisfy your desires in similar fashion because in the Asian countries it is used more as a vegetable than an aphrodisiac.
In some countries they eat the Sargassum fresh, others cook it in coconut milk or a little vinegar or lemon juice. It is eaten by itself or added to fish and meat dishes. It is also added to salads or cooked in water like a vegetable.
If it is the kind with a strong flavour, they boil it in two changes of water with some recipes then calling for it to be mixed with brown sugar and used as a filling in steamed buns. It is also eaten as is.
Easterners also cook Sargassum by frying it quickly then simmering it in water with soy sauce and other ingredients for 30 minutes to two hours or more, depending upon the dish.
Some mix it with oil, salt and green onions and use it to fill what we know as Chinese dumplings. Others also cook if with tofu while for one Fuji dish it is cooked with fish, allowed to it cool and set, then sliced and eaten as a cold dish.
The Indonesians apparently like to drop their weed into boiling water, cook it for one minute then eat it with a sauce made with allspice. Alternatively, they eat it with sugar or make it into a relish. Another option is to cook it into a jelly.
The larger “leaves” are also added to soups and chowders or deep fried, sprinkled with salt and eaten like chips.
So what are we waiting for? We were encouraged to eat dirty African snails and some of us did. So why not fresh Sargassum seaweed and keep our beaches clean and keep the tourists coming.
Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email algilkes@gmail.com