Fat Choy - Black Moss


Small bunch of Fat Choy [Hair Moss, Sea Moss; (Fat Choy = "Hair Vegetable"); Tóc tien tóc thieng (lit "Angel Hair"); Nostoc flagelliforme]

Not actually a moss, this land dwelling cyanobacteria forms long strands that look like hair. It is harvested in the Gobi Desert and the Qinghai Plateau, but harvesting has been restricted due to resulting erosion.

Due to increasing cost, sellers have responded in the time honored Chinese way - by adulterating the product. Real Fat Choy is has a slight greenish cast, while the adulterant strands, made from starch, are usually pure black. Real Fat Choy can stand over 30 minutes of simmering, but adulterant strands will have disintegrated.

More on Algae and Cyanobacteria.


Fat Choy appears mostly in Buddhist and Cantonese cuisines. Why Cantonese, which is in the south, while this stuff comes from the north? Because the Cantonese are reputed to eat anything and everything that won't kill them, and a fine selection of things that will. Due to an accidental pronunciation similarity, Fat Choy has become associated with gaining a fortune and is served during Chinese New Year and other celebrations.

Fat Choy has only a vague grassy taste of its own, but is supposed to absorb flavors from the broth it is cooked in, as bean thread noodles do. I recommend sticking with bean threads and not eating this stuff due to desertification resulting from its harvest, possible risks to health (see below) and lack of redeeming culinary value.

Buying & Storing:

  I have not found this product in the large Vietnamese / Chinese markets in the San Gabriel Valley, but it is available ordered on-line. The photo specimen is from a package shipped from Hong Kong, purchased for 2019 US $23 for 100 grams ($105 per pound).

Cooking:

  Fat Choy is soaked before cooking, and then used similarly to bean thread noodles. It is reasonably soft with a 20 minute soak. With 15 minutes of simmering it was soft enough to eat. At 40 minutes it still retained its hair-like texture, but was easy to break up. I suggest simmering 20 to 30 minutes. It does not expand much with soaking and cooking.

Health & Nutrition:

  A modest amount of research has been done on this item. In China it is popularly thought quite nutritious, but laboratory analysis at the Chinese University of Hong Kong found it to be entirely indigestible and of no nutritional value. Beyond that, it has been found to contain toxic amino acids that could negatively impact normal nerve cell function, possibly leading to degenerative brain diseases and dementia. It is, however, generally used in very small quantity, so you probably won't get Alzheimers or Parkinsons from an occasional New Years treat. A study using rats found no difference between those fed fat choy and the controls.

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