TRY SOME SEAWEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 43, 21 February 1927, Page 6

TRY SOME SEAWEED.

I The "Toa Takitini," a Maori monthlv edited by the Rev. F. Bennett and published in Hawkc s ' Bay, has an article by Mr. R. T. Kohere. of the East Cape, on the use of a certain kind >.f seaweed as an article of diet. Sir Maui Pom are recently called attention to the fact that this seaweed, called '* karengo" by the natives, is an excellent item of food from a medical stand- i point, and probably useful as a preventive of j goitre or a cure for that complaint. Mr. Kohere relates traditions of his tribe, the Xgnti-Porou, of the East Coast district, which go to show that | the karengo was a favourite food of the long ago. It was called also " "in that part of the country. This sea vegetable is identical ' with the dulse of the Scottish and Irish coasts, j Chinamen are fond of bird"s nests for soups, says the Maori writer; this taste he at first thoup'ht ! extraordinary, because weeds, rags of clothing and twigs of trees usually composed birds' ncst« But ho learned later that the birds' nests favoured by the Chinese were composed of a certain kind j of seaweed, and this was a quite satisfartorv explanation; they were prohablv made 6i karengo. The edible seaweeds of the East Coast are numerous; the best kinds are called " tupata" and "makawe." The sweetest of them all, the most agreeable to the .Maori palate, is the makawe. A celebrated place for it is a flat rock at the East Cape called Matnikaro. It is near the village Kawakawa. and a chief of that pLic» in former days, Hohtia Tawhnki, particularlv prized this best kind of dulse: it was regarded as a special food for rhiefs and honoured Jiic-t, It is more plentiful further south, on the Hawked Bay coast. To this account it may be added that that karengo was also a favourite " kinaki " or re!N), of the tribes inhabiting the East Coast of the South Island, and that it is still eaten there in some parts. It was <lrie<l and sent as present with other food gathered for feasts on special occasions. The seaweed contains iodine, and this fact explains its value in medical eyes for the treatment of goitre. —XL i