Aonori

Aonori

What it is

It is a green laver of brackish water, and the most sought-after grows where the Shimanto river meets the sea in Kochi — the meeting of fresh and salt is what makes the smell. That smell is largely dimethyl sulphide, the same compound behind the scent of a shoreline, and it is volatile enough that the powder has to go on off the heat.

In the kitchen

Sprinkle it at the last second over something hot enough to lift it — okonomiyaki, yakisoba, a bowl of rice. Cooked into a dish it becomes dull green dust with no flavour at all, and an opened tin fades within a few weeks unless kept closed and cold.

Goes with

Rice Egg Cabbage Potato Butter Squid Sesame Shrimp

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