1365 Osage Street
Denver, Colorado 80204
303-595-3666
info@domorestaurant.com
It is rare for a dish to be made of only one ingredient. In fact, part of the excitement and challenge for any chef is to combine just the right ingredients to create the perfect taste. Some foods seem to naturally accompany others. Roast beef and horseradish, turkey and cranberries, apples and cinnamon, for example, all go together well. What then would be the perfect companion to the popular short grain seaweed called hijiki?
Hijiki has a mild taste so it needs flavorful supporting ingredients to show its true potential. Domo chefs combine hijiki seaweed with carrots, green beans and soybeans to create HIJIKI NI, another popular side dish at Domo. Meat and rice can also be cooked with hijiki to make a hearty and healthy main course.
One unique quality of human beings is the ability to imagine places they have never been and to vividly remember past events reminded only by a scent or a taste. One day at Domo, owner/chef Gaku Homma opened a package shipped from his hometown in Japan that was filled with dried seaweeds. When the box was opened, the smell of the salt and the sea filled the room. He was instantly transported back to his childhood. For the native Japanese on staff at Domo, the boxes of seaweeds evoked a sense of nostalgia and longing for our childhood homes so far away from the landlocked mountains of Colorado.
hijiki seaweed; dried and cooked
The Japanese have been eating seaweeds since prehistoric times and currently use 21 different varieties of seaweeds on a daily basis. It has been reported that seaweeds make up 10% of the total food intake of the average Japanese person, which makes Japan the world’s largest producer and consumer of seaweeds. Although the use of seaweeds in Western cultures has been on the rise in the last 20 years, seaweed consumption in the West is miniscule compared to the Japanese, who eat roughly 8 pounds of dried seaweed per household per year.
Although the most valued seaweeds in Japan are nori, kombu and wakame seaweeds, hikiji should
not be overlooked. Hijiki is believed
to have many of the same health benefits as kombu and
is known to be effective in dispersing accumulated phlegm, delivering water
and softening hardness in the liver, stomach and kidneys. Hijiki is
also high in fiber, vitamin A, calcium and potassium and is an excellent
source of iron, which helps prevent anemia. Hijiki is
also high in iodine. Iodine is found in the hormone thyroxin, which regulates
the body’s metabolism. In areas where iodine-rich foods are scare,
iodized salt can be used to prevent diseases such as goiter and cretinism.
One serving of HIJIKI NI provides
approximately:
60 calories (3%), 10 grams carbohydrates (3%) , 5 grams dietary
fiber (20%) , 1.6 grams protein, 1.3 grams fat (2%), 0 % cholesterol, 34%
Vitamin A, 3% vitamin C, 33% iron, 25% potassium, 11 % sodium and 15% calcium.
Supplier: Imported
directly from Japan
Product origin: Japan