Perhaps one of the most surprising parts of eating sushi for the first time: a sort of green plastic sheet cut with serrated edges stands between different pieces of nigiri, sashimi or maki. What exactly is that green sushi plastic?
That green plastic is called haran. “It represents the cut leaf of the Aspidistra elatior plant,” explains Roger Ortuño, founder of the Comerjaponés.com blog and author of Oishii. Illustrated Dictionary of Japanese Gastronomy (Satori, 2019). Native to the southern islands of Japan, it is used as an ornamental plant and has a resilient character. In addition, in gastronomy, it has traditionally been used to separate the pieces of food that coexist in a bento-type box and thus prevent their aromas and flavors from mixing, since the surface of this sheet is minimally porous.
Likewise, these leaves, in their fresh version, are considered to prevent microbial development in food, something that was essential in a time when there was no refrigeration. In its plastic form, the haran is also “used in sushi trays and bento to separate some elements so they don’t get stuck together,” explains Ortuño.
“In the highest quality restaurants they put natural leaves,” says the expert. Naoyuki Haginoya, chef at the Japanese restaurant Nomo, points out that “in Japan it is often used for bento boxes, which have different ingredients, and thus prevents the flavors from mixing,” and that they are also used for decoration.
In fact, the art of sasagiri is a centuries-old technique whose object is to cut aspidistra or bamboo leaves (kumazasa) in intricate designs that represent the bamboo plant itself, a shrimp, a pine tree, butterflies or even Mount Fuji. . On the contrary, the shape that we find in the plastic haran is one of the simplest and is reminiscent of a field or a green meadow.
Depending on their application, they are classified into different types. If they have to stand upright, they are called ken dasa. Under food, for example, a piece of sashimi, they are called shiki zasa. On food, by way of ornamentation, often in the form of cranes or turtles, they are called kasho zasa. Finally, those that are not used in the kitchen but rather exhibit the refinement of the sasagiri master, larger in size to be able to represent landscapes or human or animal figures in detail, are the kazari mono.
To this day, few are the chefs who continue with the traditional art of sasagiri and the most common thing, since the global popularization of Japanese gastronomy in the 1960s, is to find these small cut-out plastic sheets.
For reasons of ecology and reducing the use of plastic, this green separator is beginning to disappear. For example, according to Haginoya, at Nomo it is not being used with the vision of reducing plastic in take-away and delivery packaging. “In general, I think it’s being used less,” she muses.
