Looks like someone rediscovered red algae and wants to put it on the US health food map. Red algae is a known superfood due to its high nutritional density, but isn’t very well known in the western world.
I recall this stuff boiled together with white algae, sugar and dried lotus fruit in an Asian dessert – one that I find very tasty, actually – but have never thought of frying it. This sounds like a lot of new potential recipes bound to crop up in the next few years, and a potential new ingredient that will find its way into standard vegan ‘meat replacement’ products.
More information:
Now it will get a fancy brand name and be sold at top prices. 😉
+Gerhard Torges Not to worry – the no-name brand will still be available at your local Russian or Chinese grocery store for reasonably low prices.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I find that a lot of 'expensive' foods are available for rather cheap prices in import shops specializing in a particular nationality where those foods comprise common traditional dishes. For example, herbs are also packed with a high nutritional density, and are sold at your local Persian grocery store in packets the size of bags of flour for quite a discount in comparison to the prices at your average discounter. Or picking up 500 g bags of tumeric at an Egyptian or Indian store instead of the tiny bags that discounters or health stores carry.
I bet someone will try, though. 😉
I think you're right – that Oregon algae-growing lab is gearing up their production and marketing plans as we speak. 😉
Just keep GMO researchers away from those
This "How to create a super food" article seems to be relevant here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/skye-swaney/how-to-create-a-superfood/
Seems like this trend will continue for a while, until someone comes up with a new name…