Sea Cucumber

Sea cucumber, as a food ingredient, is the dried or fresh body of various sea cucumber species, marine echinoderms harvested mainly from coastal waters of East and Southeast Asia. It is a prized delicacy in Chinese cuisine, where the dried form, known as trepang or beche-de-mer, is rehydrated and slow braised in soups and banquet dishes, valued for its distinctive gelatinous texture rather than for strong flavor. Sea cucumber harvesting has raised conservation concerns in some regions because of overfishing driven by high commercial demand.