Talk:Kombu

Health Section

Health section needs citations badly, especially with konbu's popularity in recent health crazes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.52.97.2 (talk) 23:26, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Are there any references available to health risks of eating sea based plant products that concentrate iodine, in particular radioactive iodine released into the sea? Dps098 (talk) 16:14, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Spelling of konbu

It might be a bit nitpicky, but I do have one problem with this article:

The correct romaji translation for this word is "konbu" (according to all systems except for traditional Hepburn, which is rarely used anymore). "Kombu" technically is not a valid Japanese word. I assume that the common use of "kombu" is due to a phonetic approximation of the softened Japanese "n" sound in this context (or due to old transliterations from the original Hepburn system, which ultimately amounts to the same thing), but as this spelling actually does not even precisely match the actual pronounciation, its usage is dubious even for that purpose.

In most places this wouldn't be a really big deal, but I think that the fact that "konbu" redirects to "kombu" in Wikipedia and not vice-versa, as well as the predominant use of the latter in the article, suggests to the reader an authoritative spelling, which is ultimately not correct, and in an encyclopedic context I do think it is important to use the more correct spelling in an article (perhaps with some explanation of the variant spelling and where it came from).

-- Foogod 20:25, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Actually, the ん in こんぶ is pronounced /m/. (See N (kana) and Japanese_phonology#Moraic_nasal) Not only is this spelling closer to the actual pronunciation, but spellings like this are often used in Japan, for example "Namba". Spacecat2 05:52, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the above person is completely wrong. The "m" sound that we here Japanese people say is a slurring of the "n" mori (the Japanese equivalent of a syllable). There is no "m" by itself in Japanese, only "ma, me, mi, mo, mu." There is an "n," which makes this food "konbu," and not "kombu." This ignorance of Japanese language is the reason why "Namba" has become accepted in Western culture as the name of this area, despite that not being the name. The name is Nanba.

Also, this is not a matter of opinion. Japanese is rigid in regards to these things. Japanese vowel sounds are 100% rigid (ah, eh, ee, oh, oo), and /n/ is the actual pronunciation of ん. ん is NEVER considered to be "m" in Japanese. As said before, any time you hear it said (as senpai, konbu, and Nanba are sometimes said as sempai, kombu, and Namba), when you hear an "m" sound, this is the same as slurring in western languages. When we read "I don't know," we can say "I dunno," but "dunno" is not the actual proper spelling, it's "don't know." This is even more rigid in Japanese, because you will never see "konbu" written as "kombu" simply because there is no way to write that, because there is no "m" katakana/hiragana, only "n," which is ん.

Again - ん is ONLY representative of /n/. It is sometimes slurred into an "m" sound, but no one in Japan would ever consider it an "m" because they don't have an "m" in their language, only ま (ma), め (me), み (mi), も (mo), and む (mu). You can verify this with a simple katakana/hiragana chart. I used hiragana here, katakana is a one-to-one substitution. Hiragana is used in native Japanese words, katakana is mostly used for outside "loanwords," but is also used for some native words, for cultural reasons and in many forms of advertising (and special effects onomatopoeia in comics).

Further proof is listed in the person from 2007's own listing. The kana is shown here in editing as "N (kana)." ん is /n/, plain and simple, and the title of the listing should be "Konbu," not "Kombu." If we're trying to understand other cultures, which includes their languages, we need to respect their words instead of bastardizing them. (That last part is opinion, but the rest of what I've shown is demonstrable fact. More than three years of university-level Japanese language instruction hammered these things into me. The word, simply, is "konbu." SalvadorZombie (talk) 17:08, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

Kombu Properties: Digestibility

The article mentions that Kombu may increase the digestibility of beans. I have also seen the same fact mentioned in Cooking the Whole Foods Way by Christina Pirello. However, there is no real discussion of how this is accomplished. My question is, does it alter or destroy the fiber content of the bean? --208.58.32.144 06:02, 13 December 2006 (UTC)Joe Klinkhoff

Edible kelp or kombu

I've never seen such this word, kimbu used in any grocery store in US and England except Japanese markets. Why is this article titled 'Kombu' instead of "edible kelp"? Western people don't know about how to call it. They just call it 'seaweed' like gim (nori). Chinese and Koreans also eat this ingredient a lot. It's not fair for Asian eating the food ingredient to see this article named the Japanese name. I think this article should be moved to "edible kelp". --Appletrees 03:16, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Kelp is well/best known in English speaking regions under the name "kombu." This is part of the macrobiotic/health food phenomenon and also explains why the terms "tofu," "umeboshi," "nori," "tamari," etc. are similarly well known. That's just the way these food names entered our language. Badagnani 04:06, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

well, as I previously said above, I've never seen the word used also in "England" which is surely not "New England" in US. And I wonder English and Australians and other English native speakers could agree with your assertion? Don't you think you're referring to "English speaking world' as only US. I also read 'ume' talk page and found out the same problem as does this page have. It is interesting to know that the co-founder of Eden among your references seems a Japanese or at least has a Japanese name. The other examples are just sushi restaurants. Of course, in Japanese restaurants, the plum is called as "ume". Kombu might be entering to US in progress, but not to every English-speaking world. Until the word is settled with kombu and ume in every Anglo world, the encyclopedia must keep balance. You're example does not look plausible to me.--Appletrees 05:31, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

good poiint, Appletress. however this sea kelp is not traditionally eaten in China as they don't grow there, it's only grown in cold waters such as around Korean peninsula, northern Japan and Sakhalin Island. I do agree that this article is only written with no reflection of other Asian cultures in mind, what so ever. The earliest written record of the sea kelp was found in a Korean document, it is referred to as Konpo (곤포;昆布). I'm assuming this Chinese character is pronounced as Kombu in Japanese. Now commonly called dashima in Korea, they are very widely used in Korean cooking as a ingridient for stock, salad and various other banchan Luckyj (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:59, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

I would also like to add, as a person who grew up and lived in Australia and New Zealand, I have never seen or heard the word Kombu being used.. it's just called seaweed or sea kelp. Luckyj (talk) 00:04, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

It matters little whether your neighbors use it or not. See Google result.

"edible kelp" : About 9,220 results

"Kombu" : About 1,520,000 results

Kombu is also listed in some notable dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster, Collins etc. Additionally edible kelp is not limited to what we called Kombu. (e.g. Macrocystis pyrifera) Therefore Kombu is sufficiently proper. --Froggieboy (talk) 13:57, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Great fried

Cooking: Dry kombu fried in vegetable oil tastes great. Mention it. Jidanni (talk) 04:39, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you say about the food name or what country cuisine is, that would be much great, or you can edit the page by yourself. I only know a Korean dish made by frying dried kombu coated with either starch or glutinous rice flour in oil and then seasoned with little bit of salt or sugar is called "dasima bugak" (다시마부각) or "dasima twigak" (다시마튀각).photo1photo2 --Caspian blue (talk) 04:53, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

I have no cooking authority for proper references. All I know is I bought a pack of 昆布 and thought let's give a fry a try... and voila, mmmm. Jidanni (talk) 02:40, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Rope Farming

It'd be great to insert a photo showing kombu cultivation on ropes. I looked in Commons, but couldn't locate one. NinetyNineFennelSeeds (talk) 17:42, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Iodine

The article correctly mentions the nutritional imprtance of iodine. But a packet of "Clearspring" brand konbu I bought today warns against eating more than 1g of (dried) konbu per week, because of the danger of excessive iodine consumption. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of this could comment? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.96.79.118 (talk) 14:39, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I found the following information in the German WP on Kombu: "Due to the very high iodine levels in Kombu it can be very dangerous food in areas of the world, where people are used to much lower iodine levels. Just about 150g of Kombu contain an amount of iodine which comprises the recommended consumption of an entire year." I think this recommendation is for Germany, it quotes a paper from a German ministry, but I guess, levels would be comparable to the US and UK. We don't eat Kombu every day either, and if I get the passage right, it's not dangerous for everyone but for everyone that did not grow up with high iodine food. 77.12.0.93 (talk) 11:14, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

potassium / nutrition information was nonsense

reliable source needed (this one from an amazon.com nutrition info) ... kombu is quite expensive, I can't imagine eating 6000mg of potassium worth -- would be cost prohibitive to say the least. (yeah uhm... deleted "nutrition" section entirely from article) --Kuzetsa (talk) 21:35, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The food and VB12....

• http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=Saccharina%20japonica%20B12&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=ws

--222.64.215.115 (talk) 04:09, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

• http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=Saccharina+japonica+Cobalamin&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.64.215.115 (talk) 04:13, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

• http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=Saccharina+Cobalamin&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

--222.64.215.115 (talk) 04:21, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

folk linguistics

Kombucha 昆布茶 "seaweed tea" is a beverage brewed from dried and powdered kombu. This is sometimes confused with the unrelated English word kombucha If the word kombucha for yeast tea is unrelated to 昆布茶, where does it come from? Kombucha#Etymology contradicts this, but also makes a strange assertion: The wrongly transliterated English kombucha fermented tea is pronounced similarly, and is confused with the Japanese kombucha seaweed tea. "Wrongly transliterated"? Could it be that the reason for this confusion is a misunderstanding of what "unrelated word" and "transliterated" mean?--88.73.18.192 (talk) 15:32, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

No kidding. A lot of value judgments here about the etymology and the confusion with the fermented tea. I removed "incorrect" and "unrelated", because a common word cannot be incorrect by definition, and the word does seem to be related (albeit through confusion of two unrelated but perhaps superficially similar things). Josiah Stevenson (talk) 04:02, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Rename the Kombu page to disambiguation

The name kombu is misleading as there is a Python software by the same name, used for Messaging middleware. Rename the Kombu page to disambiguation page pointing to the Python Messaging framework page: http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Kombu_Messaging_Framework. Currently a search on WP for "kombu directly leads to the japanesse page and it is misleading. 1o8o1 —Preceding undated comment added 05:08, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

I have added an 'about' box to this article and created Kombu (disambiguation). jmcw (talk) 08:24, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

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wiki table ?

for Prominent species ? T3g5JZ50GLq (talk) 01:14, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

rausu

This page is missing information on the rausu variety (such as which species, culinary uses, etc.). – ishwar  (speak) 01:06, 2 January 2024 (UTC)