Kombu (Japanese: 昆布) is edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae widely eaten in East Asia [1]. It may also be referred to as konbu (Japanese), dashima (Korean: 다시마 dasima) or haidai (simplified Chinese: 海带; traditional Chinese: 海帶; pinyin: Hǎidài).
Kombu is used extensively in Japanese cuisines as one of the three main ingredients needed to make dashi, a soup stock.
Kombu is a good source of glutamic acid, an amino acid responsible for umami, the Japanese word used for one of the five basic tastes in addition to salty, sweet, sour, and bitter, identified in 1908.
Most kombu is from the species Saccharina japonica (Laminaria japonica),[1] extensively cultivated on ropes in the seas of Japan and Korea.[2]
Over 90% of Japanese kombu is cultivated, mostly in Hokkaidō, but also as far south as the Seto Inland Sea.
The earliest written record of kombu appeared in Shoku Nihongi in 797 as a gift and tax from the Tōhoku region. Its use is believed to have begun much earlier, probably dating back to the Jōmon period, but because it easily decomposes, no archaeological evidence can be found.
Traditional Okinawan cuisine relies heavily on kombu as a part of the diet; this practice began in the Edo period. Okinawa uses more kombu per household than any other prefecture.
In 1867, the word "kombu" first appeared in an English-language publication—A Japanese and English Dictionary by James Curtis Hepburn.
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