( Steph Lloyd )

Eating it… emmmm. Smelling it… emmm. Sometimes I imagine myself swimming through a seaweed forest with my best friend, who is a seahorse. Hehe. Okay, I’m kidding about that one. I do love seaweed though… it’s definitely in my top five foods.

Growing up, we had several aquariums. I loved them. I found the underwater world to be so peaceful. The fish seemed to be a bit weird to me, but they were also cute too. We had so many different kinds but my favorites were the Kissing Gouramis. They weren’t real tough but they just swam around, stopping for an occasional smooch. I also loved staring at the gentle sway of the seaweed. I know it wasn’t the kind of seaweed we eat, but it was some kind of slimy underwater plant. Seaweed.

One of my roommates in college, Joy, used to make rice in our room, sprinkle seaweed flakes on it and eat. Oh man! I thought it smelled sooooo bad. It would literally make me gag sometimes because it reminded me of a dirty fish aquarium. Ew! BUT she was an awesome roommate and I loved her. I only wish I would have known how good her snack was, I could have joined in!

I’ll admit, I didn’t eat seaweed right off in Korea either. I still thought it stunk. It is incorporated into lots of dishes though, so I ended up slowing acquiring a taste for it. Before long, I was eating sheets of it all by itself. It’s like eating chips, I tell you, only better! My only tip is to check your teeth afterward!

These days, I don’t eat seaweed as often. I’ve found that when I buy it at the Korean market, I eat it all right away. I then go without for a month or two, start craving it like some crazy pregnant woman, and end up devouring the whole darn package. It’s a vicious cycle.

A couple of months ago I bought some bladderwrack essential oil. Bladderwrack is a type of seaweed. It smells pretty good, not the typical scent you’d think, but still seaweed-ey. I bought some kelp flakes and some kelp powder from Whole Foods tonight and made a batch of soap. Crazy? I’m not sure. We’ll see how it turns out. I know that tonight I was foaming at the mouth while I made it. Don’t eat the soap, Steph! Haha. It was a really nice shade of green when I poured it in the mold. Tomorrow I’ll find out what it’ll look like… I’m hoping it stayed green and didn’t turn to a sludgy blackish-brown. Bladderwrack is also known as Sea Oak, so that’s what I’m calling my soap. So, please, join me in willingly making yourself smell like an aquarium!