We’ve all heard the possibly-apocryphal stories about Japanese pizza, right? Covered in toppings bizarre to the western palate, like corn and mayonnaise, which are effectively the salt and pepper of Japanese pop cuisine. 

https://www.dominos.jp/en/menu

Local pizza joint, Wheat House, has recently started providing Japanese classics and I thought I would give it a try:

https://wheathousepizza.amebaownd.com/pages/2696295/menu

Where did at least one of its parts come from originally and why does this matter?

The ingredient that spoke to me in this pizza-I ordered the teriyaki chicken pizza- was nori, or, roasted seaweed. Its slightly nutty, slightly fishy flavour is lost to the other components of sushi rolls, but shines as a topping of fusion food- like Vancouver classic Japadog.

Comprising of seaweeds of the Porphyra genus, nori has been farmed in Japan since the 17th century. 

Nori- known as laver, or sloke, in Britain, is a well-recognized staple in Japanese cuisine, and had some history in Welsh cuisine as well. Seaweed’s role in Welsh cuisine is largely antiquated, stretching back to medieval times, aside from the lasting staple of “laver bread, boiled, pureed seaweed on toast. Additionally, dulse, a red variety of edible seaweed, has been gaining popularity in contemporary Nordic cuisine.

Seaweed is a thriving part of Japanese cuisine, seen most commonly in sushi rolls, but it is also a main component of dashi, the stock that defines the bulk of Japanese cuisine. In learning Japanese cooking, it quickly becomes evident that most Japanese dishes are some manner of a balance of dashi, soy sauce, and mirin, a sweet cooking rice wine. Dashi is the most common source of the nebulous, uniquely Japanese savory fifth taste umami. While umami is a taste prevalent in ingredients common in the west, like tomatoes, and anchovies, it is the defining flavour of one of the defining ingredients of Japanese cuisine. In this way, seaweed and Japanese culinary identity are deeply interconnected.

Davidson, Alan, Tom Jaine, and Soun Vannithone. The Oxford Companion to Food. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014. Mouritsen, Ole G, Lars Williams, Rasmus Bjerregaard, and Lars Duelund. “Seaweeds for Umami Flavour in the New Nordic Cuisine.” Flavour 1, no. 1 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/2044-7248-1-4. “The 15 Most British Foods Ever.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, April 29, 2016. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/only-in-britain/the-15-most-british-foods-ever/laverbread/.