Cooking For Joy
Nori Brings an Ocean of Freedom to My Kitchen
The dried, salty snack provides at least a taste of it
When I walked through the aisles of my local grocery store in early March and saw stacks of nori, I smiled to myself. The snack made a regular appearance during some of my most memorable experiences in college, and the rollercoaster of young adulthood that followed.
I love nori because I love the ocean. Swimming in the ocean, from the Galveston Beach that was a centerpiece of my childhood summers in Houston, to the Florida beaches my parents loved, to the ocean waters I was lucky enough to experience throughout Southeast Asia as a young adult, all played a role in development as a person. My close relationship with the water is in large part due to early swimming lessons that my mother mandated. She wanted her children to be one with the water, not fear it.
This for me wasn’t an issue. To this day, my sister calls me a fish. Summer days spent at the neighborhood pool and beach visits have been a constant in my life, and even during my time in New York, where I’ve traveled to neighborhood pools and local beaches. At the same time, the food of the vast waters — crawfish, salmon, shrimp, sea salt, and of course, nori — also have.
