"nori" news and stories

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento, from Los Dragónnes' photostream, features five handmade Miffy the bunny rolls of pink rice, plum, furikake and nori, interspersed with tiny chili sardine rolls. One the side are tofu and lamb balls and a slice of fish pie. The bunnies, as one of Los Dragónnes' readers points out, look slightly frightened of being eaten.

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Sushi has become so popular in the U.S. in the last few years that most people have at least some idea what nori seaweed is. It's that lovely green wrapper encasing your favorite maki rolls. For most Americans, this is the only place to use the delicate seaweed sheets. However, a group of chefs are creating a movement to use nori in a variety of new and different ways.

According to an article in this week's Dining Out section of the New York Times, a substantial number of chefs are thinking way outside the box when it comes to using nori. From an accent ingredient (nori stirred into black truffle risotto) to the main flavor (nori ice cream "sushi"), the seaweed sheets are appearing in more and more menus. Though low grade nori is generally used for sushi, high grade sheets are available and are generally preferred for these high end uses.

I must admit, I was a bit taken aback when I first read the article. But the more I thought about it the more intrigued I became. I always like to try new things and there are some pretty interesting things happening with nori seaweed out there today. So in the words of Chef Yasuda of Sushi Yasuda, "Please, eat".

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I've gotta warn everyone, this edition of Midnight Snack is a tad odd. I raided the fridge and my junk food cupboard. The base for this nosh is Tao Kae Noi, strips of crispy nori seaweed with a light chili pepper flavor. Just to calm your fears, rest assured that the pink stuff is not strawberry mousse, and the red stuff is not bits of cherry.

The pink rosettes are smoked salmon pate. I guess the seaweed just wasn't fishy enough for me. I tried a few pieces with just the pate at first. The smokiness and creaminess provided a pleasing counterpoint to the crisp fried seaweed. After eating a few pieces, I felt it needed something more and not just visually. After wracking my brain, I hit upon it a dollop of Sriracha sauce.

Aha, I exclaimed to myself as I bit into one I had created the perfect snack food. For you see, after all my fussing around I concocted something that tasted like an extra-spicy barbecue potato chip.

I saw this on Popgadget and was instantly transfixed. Forget rolling maki in a bamboo mat, now all you need to do is put the filling in the roller, feed in a nori sheet, turn the handle and presto, rolled sushi. I'm a little skeptical since I once had one of these for rolling cigarettes and it didn't work that well but for 39 euros it might be a fun gadget to own if you make a lot of rolled sushi.

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