Neat to eat seaweed treats.

Call me a dirty, surfin' hippy, but I really dig this post over at Fitness Spotlight about edible "sea vegetables" -- or seaweed, as some of us call it.

It runs down what they are, what's good about them, how to prepare them and what's bad about them. Here's what a quick trip to Whole Foods uncovered for the writer:

• Alaria - A black or dark green seaweed
• Agar-agar - Seaweed-derived gelatin
• Arame - Dark black and mild in flavor
• Dulse - A cold-water red algae common in Iceland
• Kelp - Large brown seaweeds
• Kombu - A specific class of edible kelp
• Nori - Dried sheets of red algae
• Sea Lettuce - Leafy and dark green
• Wakame - A bit stronger flavor and tougher texture than most

I'm rather ocean-minded, so I may be bias, but it's always cool to learn about a bunch of new foods to try, especially ones from the sea. That said, I still plan to avoid eating shark because, to paraphrase legendary waterman Duke Kahanamoku, as long as I don't eat them, I figure they won't eat me.