Ajinori, a Japanese ingredient that is consumed daily. Test it, you will not be able to do without it! Presentation:
- Ajinori, an essential part of a Japanese meal
- The difference with yaki nori
- How to eat ajinori?
- Use of ajinori in Japanese cuisine
Aji nori, an essential in a Japanese meal
Aji nori 味のり is a very thin sheet of seaweed nori fried and seasoned. It usually comes in a package, its size is quite small and rectangular most of the time. Ajinori is eaten with Japanese rice simply! It can be sold as a large sheet (whole shape, about 21 cm × 19 cm) or as a small piece cut into 8 pieces (5 cm × 10 cm) or 12 pieces (3.5 cm × 10 cm). You can usually find packages containing about 5 to 10 sheets in the shops. We advise you to eat them quickly once opened, as they will be less crispy.
The most popular are the leaves seasoned with sesame oil, they are really delicious. You can also find them seasoned with green tea, olive oil, kimchi, wasabi…
The difference with yaki nori
The nori leaves used for the sushi like the maki are thicker and simply grilled. Here the ajinori is fried and seasoned, it is much thinner, crumbly and fatty. We find it really tasty.
How to eat ajinori?
With your Japanese chopsticks, grab an ajinori leaf and roll it up with Japanese rice. In one bite, eat it all! It’s delicious! It could be compared with furikake a Japanese seasoning. Ajinori can also be used in your dishes, for example in a sandwich, on sautéed vegetables, on noodles, in a tamagoyaki… You will see that it brings a crispness and a very pleasant flavor of seaweed and sesame.