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What are the transparent, irregularly winding strands at the bottom of the following picture? They can obviously be had cold together with salad. They are very crispy.

They are much firmer and crisper than any "pudding jelly" I have met. They do not seem to be made in a mould but have a more "natural" shape.

Photo of Salad

I had this in Thailand and when I ask what it is, people have told me wun (jelly) and buk (which I don't know what it is). I am not sure this is correct. (The staff preparing the salad buffet called it "buk", like English "book".)

What is it and how is it made?

In China I had somewhat similar food but warm and not completely transparent. I was told that was jellyfish. The only transparent things I come to think of are jellyfish (cut in strips) and konnyaku. Could this maybe be jellyfish?

Two more pictures: https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320xq90/r/908/B0O23n.jpg https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320xq90/r/537/3Sc643.jpg

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    Low odds, but another "clear" food product from the region? I have recently been playing with "rice paper" (which really seems to be mostly tapioca) wrappers. Those arrive as a translucent firm sheet, which becomes almost completely clear (and quite flexible) after a short dip in warm water - but I doubt strips of it would be "crispy".
    – Ecnerwal
    Jul 27, 2016 at 23:40
  • I have had edible rice paper. The Vietnamese call it banh trang. They wrap f.ex. summer rolls (goi cun) in it. I like that very much, summer rolls are filled with salad, shrimps etc, less fat and not deep fried like spring rolls.
    – cvr
    Jul 27, 2016 at 23:56

2 Answers 2

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I think what you are looking for is kelp noodles. They are considered a type of glass noodle. They can be eaten raw or cooked in other dishes. In their raw state they are crunchy. Please see this link for a picture and some info.

Hope this helps! :)

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  • I think you are right. The description fits.
    – cvr
    Nov 13, 2014 at 22:28
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From the picture, it looks like some variation on Yum Woon Sen (sometimes Yam Wun Sen Kung) - a salad that features clear noodles that are known by a variety of names in English: glass noodles, cellophane noodles, mung bean noodles, etc. They would be firm, like you would expect a noodle to be, but possibly less limp - but I don't think of them as "crispy."

I don't speak Thai, so I can't weigh-in on "buk" but the name of the salad definitely refers to the "wun" you mentioned in your question above.

On sight, though, they look like cellophane noodles.

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  • Thank you. It is a very good comment. But I have had glass noodles long ago and they were more "noodle like". The current product is resilient and crispy, watery almost like bean sprouts. If glass noodles can be made like this I don't know. Glass noodles seem to be "wun sen" in Thai. Let's see if I can ask. // No real conclusions can be drawn from the composition of the salad that I made myself at random in a supermarket buffet. // Two more pictures added.
    – cvr
    Nov 13, 2014 at 13:10

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