Nori - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed

Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...

species of the red alga Porphyra
Porphyra
Porphyra is a foliose red algal genus of laver, comprising approximately 70 species. It grows in the intertidal zone, typically between the upper intertidal zone and the splash zone in cold waters of temperate oceans. In East Asia, it is used to produce the sea vegetable products nori and gim ,...

including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver
Laver (seaweed)
Laver is an edible algae often considered to be a seaweed that has a high mineral salt content, particularly iodine and iron. It is used for making laverbread, a traditional Welsh dish. Laver is common around the west coast of Britain and east coast of Ireland along the Irish Sea.It is smooth and...

. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking

Papermaking

Papermaking is the process of making paper, a substance which is used universally today for writing and packaging.In papermaking a dilute suspension of fibres in water is drained through a screen, so that a mat of randomly interwoven fibres is laid down. Water is removed from this mat of fibres by...

. Japan, Korea, and China are the current major producers of nori, with total production valued at up to US$2 billion per year.

History

Originally, the term nori was more generic and referred to various kinds of seaweeds including hijiki

Hijiki

is a brown sea vegetable growing wild on rocky coastlines around Japan, Korea, and China. The written kanji forms of its two names, which are examples of ateji, literally mean deer-tail grass and sheep-nest grass, respectively.Hijiki is a traditional food and has been a part of a balanced diet in...

. One of the oldest descriptions of nori is dated back to around the 8th century. In the Taihō Code

Taiho Code

The was an administrative reorganization enacted in 701 in Japan, at the end of the Asuka period. It was historically one of the . It was compiled at the direction of Prince Osakabe, Fujiwara no Fuhito and Awata no Mahito...

enacted in 701, nori was already included in the form of taxation. There is a description "local peoples was drying nori" in Hitachi Province

Hitachi Province

was an old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Iwashiro, Iwaki, Shimousa, and Shimotsuke Provinces....

Fudoki

are ancient records of the culture and geography of provinces of Japan. They contain agricultural, geographical, historical and mythological records, as well as folklore.Compilation of Fudoki began in 713 and was completed over a 20-year period....

(721–721), and also there is a description "nori was harvested" in Izumo Province

Izumo Province

was an old province of Japan which today consists of the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province is in the Chūgoku Region.- History :It was one of the regions of ancient Japan where major political powers arose...

Fudoki

(713–733). These show nori was used as food from ancient times. In Utsubo Monogatari
Utsubo Monogatari
is a late 10th century Japanese story. It is Japan's oldest full-length narrative.-Composition:The author is unknown. Minamoto no Shitagō is cited as a likely candidate; however, it may have had multiple authors spanning a number of years. The text is referenced in number of later works such as...

, 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

Asakusa

is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan, most famous for the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals.- History :...

, Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

(contemporary Tokyo), in the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

through the method of Japanese paper-making

Washi

is a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat...

.

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

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

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...

of the seaweed, after gut microbes developed the enzyme from marine bacteria. Gut microbes from North American subjects lack these enzymes.

Production

Production and processing of nori by current methods is a highly advanced form of agriculture. The biology of Porphyra, although complicated, is well understood, and this knowledge is used to control virtually every step of 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 × and 3 gram (0.105821886315336 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".

In Japan, over 600 square kilometre of Japanese coastal waters are given to producing 350000 tonnes (344,471.2 LT) of nori, worth over a billion dollars. China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

produces about a third of this amount.

Use

Nori is commonly used as a wrap for sushi

Sushi

is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...

and onigiri

Onigiri

, also known as or rice ball, is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in nori . Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled ume , salted salmon, katsuobushi, kombu, tarako, or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative...

. It is also a common garnish or flavoring in noodle preparations and soups. Nori is most typically toasted prior to consumption ("yaki-nori" in Japanese). A very common and popular 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 .

In addition, 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
Aonori
, also known as green laver, is a type of edible green seaweed, including species from the genera Monostroma and Enteromorpha of Ulvaceae. It is commercially cultivated in some bay areas in Japan, such as Ise Bay...

( literally blue/green

Distinguishing blue from green in language

The English language makes a distinction between blue and green, but some languages do not. Of these, quite a number, mostly in Africa, do not distinguish blue from black either, while there are a handful of languages that do not distinguish blue from black but have a separate term for green...

nori) and is used like herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

s on everyday meals like okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki

is a Japanese dish containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked" . Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is widely available throughout the...

and yakisoba

Yakisoba

', literally "fried noodles", is a dish often sold at festivals in Japan, but originates in China. The dish was derived by the Chinese from the traditional chow mein, but has been more heavily integrated into Japanese cuisine like ramen...

.

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

Nutrition

Nori is about protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

and dietary fiber

Dietary fiber

Dietary fiber, dietary fibre, or sometimes roughage is the indigestible portion of plant foods having two main components:* soluble fiber that is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts, and* insoluble fiber that is metabolically inert, absorbing water as it...

. It contains high proportions of iodine

Iodine

Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....

, carotene

Carotene

The term carotene is used for several related unsaturated hydrocarbon substances having the formula C40Hx, which are synthesized by plants but cannot be made by animals. Carotene is an orange photosynthetic pigment important for photosynthesis. Carotenes are all coloured to the human eye...

, vitamins A

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is a vitamin that is needed by the retina of the eye in the form of a specific metabolite, the light-absorbing molecule retinal, that is necessary for both low-light and color vision...

, B and C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

, 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

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is a vitamin that is needed by the retina of the eye in the form of a specific metabolite, the light-absorbing molecule retinal, that is necessary for both low-light and color vision...

(β-carotene), 4.6 mg of vitamin E

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is used to refer to a group of fat-soluble compounds that include both tocopherols and tocotrienols. There are many different forms of vitamin E, of which γ-tocopherol is the most common in the North American diet. γ-Tocopherol can be found in corn oil, soybean oil, margarine and dressings...

, 390 μg of vitamin K

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is a group of structurally similar, fat soluble vitamins that are needed for the posttranslational modification of certain proteins required for blood coagulation and in metabolic pathways in bone and other tissue. They are 2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives...

, 690 μg of vitamin B1, 2.33 mg of vitamin B2, 11.7 mg of niacin

Niacin

"Niacin" redirects here. For the neo-fusion band, see Niacin .Niacin is an organic compound with the formula and, depending on the definition used, one of the forty to eighty essential human nutrients.Niacin is one of five vitamins associated with a pandemic deficiency disease: niacin deficiency...

, 590 μg of vitamin B6

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin and is part of the vitamin B complex group. Several forms of the vitamin are known, but pyridoxal phosphate is the active form and is a cofactor in many reactions of amino acid metabolism, including transamination, deamination, and decarboxylation...

, 57.6 μg of vitamin B12

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12, vitamin B12 or vitamin B-12, also called cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin with a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is one of the eight B vitamins...

, 1.90 μg of folic acid

Folic acid

Folic acid and folate , as well as pteroyl-L-glutamic acid, pteroyl-L-glutamate, and pteroylmonoglutamic acid are forms of the water-soluble vitamin B9...

, 1.18 mg of pantothenic acid

Pantothenic acid

Pantothenic acid, also called pantothenate or vitamin B5 , is a water-soluble vitamin. For many animals, pantothenic acid is an essential nutrient. Animals require pantothenic acid to synthesize coenzyme-A , as well as to synthesize and metabolize proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.Pantothenic acid...

and 210 mg of vitamin C

Vitamin C

.

According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand

Food Standards Australia New Zealand

Food Standards Australia New Zealand is the governmental body responsible for developing food standards for Australia and New Zealand .FSANZ develops food standards after consulting with other government agencies and stakeholders...

one sushi roll contains 92 micrograms of iodine and the recommended daily intake of iodine for adults is 150 micrograms.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Production

Use

Nutrition

See also

External links