Seaweed and Cucumber Salad

This briny seaweed salad, dressed with a simple sweet-and-sour vinaigrette, makes a great starter or palate cleanser. The seaweed used is called ito wakame, a Japanese term that means “seaweed strands,” and is most widely known by that name, even on some Korean packaging. You can purchase it in small packages with the seaweed already cut into short pieces (wakame) or in long packages and break up the dried strands yourself. When reconstituted in water the seaweed expands into little