What’s The Difference: Japanese Nori Vs. Korean Nori

The baked sushi craze in 2020 when the pandemic started was not a flash in the pan! This food trend is one that is likely to stay, not because it’s sushi or easy to make at home. It’s all this but it’s also because it really is delicious. 

One of the important parts of baked sushi is not just the baked sushi itself. It’s the nori sheets that you should be serving with it is also just as important as the baked sushi. It’s this that makes it not just delicious but also fun to eat! 

The nori sheets you might find in the supermarkets are your ordinary nori sheets. While you can use the traditional nori sheets used for sushi, many turned to another kind of nori sheet that many of us love to eat as a snack: the roasted and seasoned nori sheets that come in individual packages. This was the preferred nori sheets to serve with baked sushi because it eliminated the need to cut the nori into serving pieces. Plus, since it was commonly roasted and seasoned already, these were a delicious compliment to the baked sushi itself. 

However, did you know that there’s a difference between the Japanese version of the nori sheet and the Korean kind?  

Two characteristics make the Japanese nori different from the Korean nori: 

1 Japanese nori sheets are thinner than Korean nori sheets. 

If you make sushi at home, you probably have the full nori sheet. These are typically square in size, about 8 inches all around. Take a sheet and you’ll notice that the nori sheet is pretty thick. It’s thick enough that it won’t tear when it becomes slightly damp when you roll it with the sushi rice and the raw seafood fillings. 

However, if you take a look at nori sheets that Koreans normally use for their version of sushi, called the gimbap or kimbap, these are usually thicker than the ones used for Japanese sushi. This is because kimbap commonly has more fillings than your typical sushi. 

These Korean roasted seaweed sheets are pre-seasoned. It’s a delicious snack!

Photo by Walmart

2 Korean nori sheets are commonly roasted and seasoned. 

If you love Korean snacks, you know that many of the nori snacks are usually roasted. This is the same for the kimbap. You won’t normally see this as an instruction when making a sushi recipe but the nori sheets of Korea are commonly lightly roasted before being used for the kimbap roll. 

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