🍱 Arame maki

Mie Prefecture has many edible natural seaweeds such as sagarame (Alaume), akamoku (red seaweed), hijiki (dried seaweed), aonori (blue-green laver), maksa (Chinese bamboo grass), and wakame (seaweed). Cultivation of asakusa nori and aosa nori is also popular. Arame is a member of the kelp family and looks similar to kelp, but it is called arame because it has rougher surface wrinkles than kelp. Mie Prefecture accounts for most of the domestic production of arame, and it is harvested mainly in the hot summer months (July to September) in the Toba-Shima area (sometimes along the Kumano-nada coast). It has been presented to the Ise Shrine since ancient times, and is one of the most carefully preserved seaweeds in the region. Abalone and turban shells also feed on arame. Since arame has an astringent taste, it is soaked in seawater to remove the astringent taste, dried and aged from summer harvest until fall, and then slowly stewed or steamed to soften (it takes 4 to 5 hours to soften). The commercialized dried arame is returned to water for about 20 minutes, rolled with seasonal fish fillets, and seasoned with a sweet and spicy sauce to make "arame-maki". Recently, chopped arame has also been commercialized and used in arame gohan (rice with arame) and simmered dishes, and shipped to Kyoto to be used in Buddhist vegetarian dishes and Kyoto's obanzai.