Nori, Chocolate, and Cheese

1.  Nori

Nori, a kind of red algae that turns dark green when dried, has been eaten in Japan for more than two thousand years. For much of this time, the harvest was limited to what could be pulled from rocks at low tide. It was a highly prized, expensive food enjoyed by the Japanese nobility.

It was in the Edo-era, when what we might recognize as today's nori, was developed. The governing Tokugawa Shogunate saw the revenue potential of nori and began cultivation on nets in Tokyo Bay. Soon, dozens of times the volume of nori hitherto produced was reaching markets and nori began to make its way from the banquets of the rich into the hands, and stomachs, of the masses. It was during this time that nori began to be formed into dried sheets using methods similar to those used in Japanese paper-making.

The life cycle of nori was still, however, a mystery. The algae didn't seem to have any seeds, growers were forced to rely on luck, yields were unpredictable, and prices remained high. It wasn't until 1949 that the reproductive process of nori was discovered by a British botanist named Kathleen Drew-Baker. Her discovery made predictable and efficient cultivation of nori possible. This sowed the seeds, or spores to be exact, of a 2 billion dollar industry. A monument in honor of Drew-Baker stands on the Ariake coast in Kumamoto Prefecture overlooking Japan's top nori production area. Drew-Baker's work is also commemorated by those in the industry every year on April 14.

Nutrition Content

Nori has also been attracting attention for its nutritional properties. It is a fat-free, alkaline food, high in fibre, protein and antioxidants. As well as containing various vitamins, minerals and iron, it is a rich source of iodine, which is essential important in hormone development, and a single sheet of nor contains the same amount of calcium as 20cc of milk or one egg. As it is also virtually calorie free, it is hardly surprising that it is often touted as a "superfood".

Nori processing consists of four steps:

1.     Rinse fresh nori and put into a strainer
2.     Chop the nori with a knife into fine pieces
3.     Place chopped nori into a frame on a bamboo mat in a bucket of water to create a sheet;         remove the frame, mat and sheet of nori from the water
4.     Put the bamboo mat with sheet of nori onto a rack to dry in the sun.

2.  Chocolate

The first recorded evidence of chocolate as a food product goes back to Pre-Columbian Mexico. The Mayans and Aztecs were known to make a drink called "Xocoatll from the beans of the cocoa tree. In 1528, the conquering Spaniards returned to Spain with chocolate still consumed as a beverage. A similar chocolate drink was brought to a royal wedding in France in 1615, and England welcomed chocolate in 1662. To this point "chocolate" as we spell it today, had been spelled variously as "chocalatall, "jocolatte", "jacolatte", and "chockelet.11

        In 1847, Fry & Sons in England introduced the first "eating chocolate," but did not attract much attention due to its bitter taste. In 1874, Daniel Peter, a famed Swiss chocolateer, experimented with various mixtures in an effort to balance chocolates rough flavor, and eventually stumbled upon that abundant product -- milk. This changed everything and chocolate's acceptance after that was quick and enthusiastic.

Growing Choco Beans

    Cocoa beans are usually grown on small plantations in suitable land areas 20 degrees north or south of the Equator. One mature cocoa tree can be expected to yield about five pounds of chocolate per year. These are planted in the shade of larger trees such as bananas or mangos, about 1000 trees per hectare (2,471 acres).

        Cocoa trees take five to eight years to mature. After harvesting from the trees, the pods (which contain the cocoa beans) are split open, beans removed, and the beans are put on trays covered with burlap for about a week until they brown. Then they are sun dried until the moisture content is below 7%. This normally takes another three days.

After cleaning, the beans are weighed, selected and blended before roasting at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours. Then shells are removed leaving the "nib." Nibs are crushed to create a chocolate "mass." This is the base raw material from which all chocolate products are made. 

Chocolate  Nutrition

Chocolate contains very small amounts of copper, iron, zinc, and protein, but not enough to be considered a good source of these nutrients. The fat in chocolate is from cocoa butter, and is comprised of about 2/3 saturated fats and 1/3 monounsaturated fat.

Though some people may assume that chocolate contains a lot of caffeine, it has only trace amounts. One ounce of milk chocolate contains about 5 milligrams of caffeine, 1 ounce of semisweet chocolate usually has 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine, and a 6-ounce cup of cocoa usually has 10 milligrams. For comparison, a 6-ounce cup of coffee contains 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine.

Dark chocolate has large quantities of flavonoids called catechins, which may benefit heart health. However, processing cocoa into candy greatly reduces the flavonoid levels unless the manufacturers take steps to preserve those phytochemicals. And, of course, chocolate bars are loaded with sugar and calories. So enjoy chocolate in small amounts as the treat it is, not as a health food.


Cheese

According to ancient records passed down through the centuries, the making of cheese dates back more than 4,000 years.

No one really knows who made the first cheese. According to an ancient legend, it was made accidentally by an Arabian merchant who put his supply of milk into a pouch made from a sheep's stomach, as he set out on a day's journey across the desert. The rennet in the lining of the pouch, combined with the heat of the sun, caused the milk to separate into curd and whey. That night he found that the whey satisfied his thirst, and the cheese (curd) had a delightful flavor which satisfied his hunger.

Travelers from Asia are believed to have brought the art of cheesemaking to Europe. In fact, cheese was made in many parts of the Roman Empire when it was at its height. The Romans, in turn, introduced cheesemaking to England. During the Middle Ages-from the decline of the Roman Empire until the discovery of America-cheese was made and improved by the monks in the monasteries of Europe. For example, Gorgonzola was made in the Po Valley in Italy in 879 A.D., and Italy became the cheesemaking center of Europe during the 10th Century. Roquefort was also mentioned in the ancient records of the monastery at Conques, France as early as 1070.

Cheesemaking continued to flourish in Europe and became an established food. In fact, the Pilgrims included cheese in the Mayflower's supplies when they made their voyage to America in 1620. The making of cheese quickly spread in the New World, but until the 19th century it remained a local farm industry. It wasn't until 1851 that the first cheese factory in the United States was built by Jesse Williams in Oneida County, New York.

As population across the United States continued to grow dramatically, the demand for cheese increased and the industry gradually moved westward, centering on the rich farm lands of Wisconsin. In 1845, a band of Swiss immigrants settled in Green County, Wisconsin and started the manufacturing of foreign cheese in America. Most Wisconsin farmers began to believe that their future survival was tied to cheese and their first factory was a Limburger plant which opened in 1868.

The wholesale cheese industry was thus born and showed phenomenal growth during the latter half of the 1800s. By 1880 there were 3,923 dairy factories nationwide which were reported to have made 216 million pounds of cheese that year valued at $17 million. This represented almost 90 percent of total cheese production that year. By the turn of the century, farm production of cheese had become insignificant. The 1904 census reported only factory output, which totaled over 317 million pounds. As cheese demand continued to grow and spread rapidly, manufactured and processed cheese production increased dramatically. Total natural cheese production grew from 418 million pounds in 1920 to 2.2 billion pounds by 1970. Rising demand for cheese throughout the 1970s and 1980s brought total natural cheese production to more than 6 billion pounds by the beginning of the 1990s. Processed cheese also experienced a surge in consumer demand with annual production exceeding 2 billion pounds a year by the beginning of the 1990s.

Currently, more than one-third of all milk produced each year in the U.S. is used to manufacture cheese. Recent increases in the overall demand for farm milk have in large part been due to the continued growth of the cheese industry. As consumer appetites for all types of cheese continue to expand, so will the industry.

Nutrition Values of Cheese

Cheddar

Calories: 114
Fat: 9 grams
Protein: 7 grams
Calcium: 204 milligrams
Sodium: 176 milligrams
 

Parmesan

Calories: 111
Fat: 7 grams
Protein: 10 grams
Calcium: 336 milligrams
Sodium: 454 milligrams
 

Blue

Calories: 100
Fat: 8 grams
Protein: 6 grams
Calcium: 150 milligrams
Sodium: 395 milligrams
 

Brie

Calories: 95
Fat: 8 grams
Protein: 6 grams
Calcium: 52 milligrams
Sodium: 178 milligrams
 

Goat (soft)

Calories: 76
Fat: 6 grams
Protein: 5 grams
Calcium: 40 milligrams
Sodium: 104 milligrams
 

Mozzarella

Calories: 85

Fat: 6 grams
Protein: 6 grams
Calcium: 143 milligrams
Sodium: 178 milligrams

Sumber referensi  :

1.  http://marutokunori.jp/en/about/index.html
2.  http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-eating/food/article/chocolate-food-gods
3.  https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/nutritional-values-cheese