nori

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Nori

Nori (海苔^?) is the Japanese name for edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, called gim) in Korea and Porphyra laver in Wales and other English speaking countries.^[1] Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking.

History

Originally, the term nori was generic and referred to seaweeds including hijiki.^[2] One of the oldest descriptions of nori is dated back to around the 8th century. In the Taihō Code enacted in 701, nori was already included in the form of taxation.^[3][4] There is a description "local peoples was drying nori" in Hitachi Province Fudoki (721–721), and also there is a description "nori was harvested" in Izumo Province Fudoki (713–733). These show nori was used as food from ancient times.^[5] In Utsubo Monogatari, written around 987, nori was recognized as a common food. The original nori was formed as a paste, and the nori sheet was invented in Asakusa, Edo (contemporary Tokyo), in the Edo period through the method of Japanese paper-making.^[6]

In 1867 the word "nori" first appeared in an English-language publication — "A Japanese and English Dictionary," by James C. Hepburn.^[7]

The word nori started to be used widely in the United States, and the product (imported in dry form from Japan) became widely available at natural food stores and Asian-American grocery stores starting in the 1960s, due to the influence of the macrobiotic movement, and in the 1970s with the growing number of sushi bars and Japanese restaurants.

It has been shown that people of Japanese descent can digest the polysaccharide of the seaweed, after gut microbes developed the enzyme from marine bacteria. Gut microbes from North American subjects lack these enzymes.^[8]

Production

Production and processing of nori is an advanced form of agriculture. The biology of Porphyra, although complicated, is well understood, and this knowledge is used to control the production process. Farming takes place in the sea where the Porphyra plants grow attached to nets suspended at the sea surface and where the farmers operate from boats. The plants grow rapidly, requiring about 45 days from "seeding" until the first harvest. Multiple harvests can be taken from a single seeding, typically at about ten-day intervals. Harvesting is accomplished using mechanical harvesters of a variety of configurations. Processing of raw product is mostly accomplished by highly automated machines that accurately duplicate traditional manual processing steps, but with much improved efficiency and consistency. The final product is a paper-thin, black, dried sheet of approximately 18 × 20 cm (7 × 8 in) and 3 grams (0.11 oz) in weight.

There are several grades of nori available in the United States. The most common, and least expensive, grades are imported from China, costing about six cents per sheet. At the high end, ranging up to ninety cents per sheet, are "delicate shin-nori (nori from the first of the year's several harvests) cultivated in Ariake Bay, off the island of Kyushu in Japan".^[9]

In Japan, over 600 square kilometres (230 sq mi) of Japanese coastal waters are given to producing 350,000 tonnes (340,000 long tons) of nori, worth over a billion dollars. China produces about a third of this amount.^[10]

Use

Negitoro gunkanmaki (葱トロ軍艦巻き)

Nori is commonly used as a wrap for sushi and onigiri. It is also a garnish or flavoring in noodle preparations and soups. Nori is most typically toasted prior to consumption ("yaki-nori" in Japanese). A common secondary product is toasted and flavored nori ("ajitsuke-nori" in Japanese), in which a flavoring mixture (variable, but typically soy sauce, spices, and sugar in the Japanese style or sesame oil and salt in the Korean style) is applied in combination with the toasting process. Nori is also eaten by making it into a soy sauce flavored paste noritsukudani (海苔佃煮).

Nori is sometimes used as a form of food decoration.

A related product, prepared from the unrelated green algae Monostroma and Enteromorpha, is called aonori (青海苔 literally blue/green nori) and is used like herbs on everyday meals like okonomiyaki and yakisoba.

Since nori sheets easily absorb water from the air and degrade, desiccant is indispensable when stored.

Nutrition

Nori is about a third protein and a third dietary fiber. It contains high proportions of iodine, carotene, vitamins A, B and C, as well as significant amounts of calcium and iron. While the nutritional value varies, one example of 100 g of dry yaki-nori contains 41.4 g of protein, 3.7 g of fat, 36.0 g of dietary fiber, 280 mg of calcium, 300 mg of magnesium, 2.4 mg of potassium, 6 mg of iodine, 3.6 mg of zinc and 11.4 mg of iron. That same 100 g of dry yaki-nori also contains 25 mg of vitamin A (β-carotene), 4.6 mg of vitamin E, 390 μg of vitamin K, 690 μg of vitamin B1, 2.33 mg of vitamin B2, 11.7 mg of niacin, 590 μg of vitamin B6, 57.6 μg of vitamin B12, 1.90 μg of folic acid, 1.18 mg of pantothenic acid and 210 mg of vitamin C.^[11]

According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand one sushi roll contains 92 micrograms of iodine and the recommended daily intake of iodine for adults is 150 micrograms.^[12]

See also

• Gim (food)
• Laver (seaweed)
• Mamenori
• Mekong weed - river algae often eaten in sheets in Laos
• Spam musubi

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nori (food)

• Suria Link Seaplants Handbook
• Nori 海苔 :: Sushi Ingredients
• Description and images of cultivation and harvesting
• Amount of different nutrients in yaki-nori(german)original english research from database of Japan Science and Technology Corporation (March 2003
• Which nutrients and how much of them is in one typical nori sheet(2.1g), used for rolling sushi
• Nori Dishes(w/video)
• About Nori::What's Nori,Nutritional Content,History