Kuware Sida Salad

Fiddlehead ferns have been a popular food source for millennia around the world.  In Hawai‘i, there are several types of edible ferns called by various names.

The fiddlehead fern so often eaten in salads with tomatoes, dried ebi, and kamaboko is an introduced, invasive fern (Diplazium Esculentum) which is commonly mistaken for the native hō‘i‘o.

Locally, many Japanese refer to the ntroduced fern as warabi, but in Japan, warabi is actually the name for a type of bracken fern (Pteridium Aquilinum).  

The correct Japanese name for Diplazium Esculentum is kuware sida (also kuware shida).

Chef Brian incorporates kuware sida into a salad with pickled local cherry tomatoes, Maui onions, and dried seafood.