Sea cucumbers as food

Sea cucumber
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	海參
Simplified Chinese	海参
Hanyu Pinyin	hǎishēn
Jyutping	hoi2 sam1
Literal meaning	sea ginseng
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin hǎishēn Yue: Cantonese Jyutping hoi2 sam1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ hái-sam hái-sim hái-sum
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese	hải sâm
Korean name
Hangul	해삼
Hanja	海蔘
Transcriptions Revised Romanization haesam McCune–Reischauer haesam

Sea cucumbers are marine animals of the class Holothuroidea. They can be used as food, in fresh or dried form, in various cuisines. In some cultural contexts the sea cucumber is thought to have medicinal value.

The creature and the food product are commonly known as bêche-de-mer in French, from Portuguese bicho do mar (literally "sea animal"), espardenya in Catalan,^[1] trepang (or trīpang) in Indonesian, namako in Japanese, balatan in Tagalog, loli in Hawaiian, deniz patlıcanı (sea aubergine) in Turkish and "minch' i mari" in Sicilian. In Malay, it is known as the gamat.^[2]

Most cultures in East and Southeast Asia regard sea cucumbers as a delicacy. Several dishes are made with sea cucumber, and in most dishes, it has a slippery texture. Common ingredients that go with sea cucumber dishes include winter melon, conpoy, kai-lan, shiitake mushroom, and Chinese cabbage.

Many sea cucumber species are endangered and are at risk of overfishing due to their consumption.