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Plan Check Kitchen + Bar in Los Angeles finishes its Dynamite Crab Dip with shredded nori for added saltiness, texture and color. “Our first Plan Check location opened in LA’s Japantown, and that address has always inspired us to incorporate Japanese ingredients into our menu in new and unique ways,” says executive chef Sean Yontz. “It’s a perfect melding to season seafood with nori; it gives our Dynamite Crab Dip a little crunch, and you’ll see it pop up in a few of our other seafood dishes as well.”
“At Umami Burger, we use seaweed on every beef burger we serve,” says Gregg Frazer, executive chef and c.o.o. of Umami Burger. “Dried kombu is part of our Umami Dust, which we sprinkle on our beef patties as they’re being seared. If you look at our Original Burger, it’s a case study in umami. Every ingredient is layered together to create the most umami flavor possible, part of that includes using dried seaweed to amp up the umami flavor in beef. We also add kombu relish to our house spread on our Cali Burger, which amplifies the umami flavor even more.”
“Seaweed bucatini with squid and mussels is based on the traditional pairing of bottarga and breadcrumbs,” says chef Jon Nodler from High Street on Hudson in New York City. “Our version brings the salinity of the coast, with seaweed, fresh seafood and lobster bottarga, to a distinctive but familiar pasta dish, complemented by spicy pork sausage.”
“In the winter season chefs lend so much of our menus to heavier cooking methods, so I wanted to prepare something lighter, but still have layers of flavor,” says chef Josh Berry from Union Restaurant in Portland, Maine. “I poach cod in a lemongrass broth and then dip one side in togarashi, which is a combination of toasted black and white sesame seeds; Szechuan peppers; dried nori; dried tangerine peel; chili powder and toasted poppy seeds. The zing from the togarashi along with the meaty cod, crunch from the raw broccoli pods and the floral broth all kind of work together.”
"Kobujime is a traditional Japanese technique for preserving fresh fish for transport inland. The fish was salted and wrapped in kombu. We still use the technique at Ichi, but in a different style and for different reasons,” says chef Max Bauer from Ichi Sushi in San Francisco. “We create a kobujime hirame using fluke. The texture of the raw fish is gauged when it’s broken down — if the fish is soft, it’s salted to expedite the osmosis process that occurs between fillet and seaweed. If the fish is deemed firm enough, it goes straight into the kombu and spends about four hours curing. The kombu enhances the delicate flavor of the hirame with naturally occurring glutamic acid, or umami. We like to start our omakase diners with this delicate and delicious piece of nigiri dressed with Meyer lemon or yuzu salt and shiso, as its umami characteristics paired with bright citrus open the palate to the more complex notes delivered later in the meal. When eating kobujime hirame, you aren't actually eating seaweed, but you certainly experience fully the impact that seaweed can have on food."
“This dish is a direct reflection of my time spent in LA since moving here,” says executive chef Louis Tikaram of E.P. & L.P. in West Hollywood, Calif. “It was clear that Angelenos love sushi and the taste of nori, wakame and kombu. But another dish I ate a lot when I was discovering LA street food was elote [corn on the cob]. So I decided to create a dish from these two incredibly popular LA cuisines. The seaweed butter compliments the sweet corn so well, as the umami from the seaweed really brings out the flavor of corn. Together with the crunch from the tapioca crisp and the acidity and spice of the tajín, which cuts the richness of the butter, the dish is well rounded and balanced in flavor and texture. It’s one of the most popular dishes on the menu.”
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