It's an animal, not a vegetable.
In Chinese it’s 海参 — hǎI shēn. In Korean it’s haesam. Both mean the same thing, sea ginseng, arrived at independently. What each culture does with it after that could not be more different.
One of the “Four Sea Delicacies” 鲍参翅肚
Known as 海参 in Chinese cuisine, one of the Four Sea Delicacies alongside abalone, shark fin and fish maw. Traditionally braised whole and served at banquets, prized for texture rather than flavour — it is meant to carry the sauce, not compete with it.
Dried into konoko
The gonad specifically, dried into thin amber strips called konoko or kuchiko. One of Japan’s three great delicacies alongside karasumi and sea urchin, eaten in small amounts, often with sake.
Eaten raw, not cooked at all
Haesam — literally sea ginseng, the same meaning independently arrived at in Chinese. Served completely differently here: sliced fresh and raw, dipped in vinegared chilli paste. Prized for a specific snap — Koreans call it ododok — that only very fresh sea cucumber has.
Simmered into soups
Known as gamat in Malay. Used dried, then rehydrated and simmered into soups and slow-cooked stews, where it thickens the broth and takes on whatever it is cooked with.
Convenience Driven
Where every tradition above centers on preparation — hours of soaking, raw slicing, careful drying — modern Western consumption strips that away: capsules and powder, ready in seconds. Ours specifically is Cucumaria frondosa, a cold-water North Atlantic species with no place in any tradition above. Not a continuation of four centuries of history. A new adaptation of an old ingredient.
An animal that turns itself inside out and grows back.
The biology, the four-hundred-year trade, and the word "roe" — all of it true regardless of who's selling it.
Brains. It has a ring of nerves around the mouth instead, and manages perfectly well without one.
Thirty animals go into every hundred grams of powder
Not a fish. Its nearest relatives are starfish and sea urchins, and like them it moves on hundreds of tiny water-powered feet.
To regrow its internal organs. Threatened, some species eject them entirely to escape, then rebuild.
Known species, from shallow coastal water to the deep ocean. Ours is one cold-water animal among them.
The size of a full-grown Cucumaria frondosa. Short, barrel-shaped, dark, with five rows of orange-tipped tube feet.
The papers behind the facts.
For anyone who wants the primary sources rather than our summary of them.
These are general references about the species and its biology \u2014 not studies of this product, and not evidence of any effect from consuming it. We link only to papers about composition, biology and traditional use, never about treating a condition.
The structural chemistry paper establishing that Cucumaria frondosa carries a fucosylated chondroitin sulfate distinct from cartilage-derived chondroitin.
Documents lipid and fatty acid accumulation in the gonad and other tissues of this species.
Compares gonad, body wall, muscle and stomach tissue directly \u2014 higher lipid and astaxanthin in the gonad, different profiles elsewhere.
The primary taxonomic database. Roughly 1,800 described species of sea cucumber, the source for the number on our animal page.
Links open external, independent sources. We do not control their content and are not responsible for how it changes over time.
Blog posts
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