The "Best" Nori

"Which one is the best?" Is a question that comes up more and more these days. With great selection comes great indecision. These thoughts occurred to me while looking at the nori shelf of N.Y. Chonghap Market, a Korean supermarket in Jackson Heights. Apparently, Koreans consume a great deal of nori and they like to have lots of different kinds. Unfortunately, to an outsider (ABC-American Born Chinese) such as myself, they all look just the same.

My solution to this particular polylemma was to buttonhole a nice young Korean lady who was trying to go about her business and ask her The Question. A look of some perplexity crossed her face. This was a matter requiring serious thought. After about 45 seconds of carefully looking over all the packages of nori spread out before us, she tentatively picked up one particular three-pack and said softly, "I think, this the best."

Is it the best? I dunno. But it IS pretty tasty indeed. Salty with a pleasant olive (!) oiliness, excellent with a bit of rice as illustrated on the package. If you are working on developing a ground-breaking Asian/Mediterranean diet plan, this would be an obvious candidate for inclusion. Here are the ingredients: Seaweed, olive oil, salt, sesame oil. The little penguin illustrates an "Antarctic sea salt" claim.