mekabu

Noun

mekabu (uncountable)

1. Undaria pinnatifida, a sea plant native to Japan and Korea and invasive elsewhere; wakame; Asian kelp.
   • We previously reported that water extract of Mekabu, a kind of seaweed, induced apoptosis in a human breast cancer cell line.2005, Sekiya M, Funahashi H, Tsukamura K, Imai T, Hayakawa A, Kiuchi T, Nakao A, “Intracellular signaling in the induction of apoptosis in a human breast cancer cell line by water extract of Mekabu”...
2. Stems or thick leaves from near the stem of the plant, eaten as a vegetable.
   • Mekabu is the flowering sprout of wakame. It has a strong, sweet, and creamy taste and is traditionally brewed into a tea or cooked in small amounts with other foods.1985, Michio and Aveline Kushi, Macrobiotic Diet, page 157
   • Forget crispy fried nori or pliant hijiki: mekabu comes in a coating of—there's no other word for it—goo. As one chews, it starts to expand, until suffocation starts to seem like a real possibility.2006, Leo Carey, “Yakitori Totto; Tables for two”, in The New Yorker, page 14