A FISHY SNACK, or KELP YOURSELF

Smoked Salmon with Shichimi Togarashi.

Sometimes when I’m in the mood for a quick snack, I will warm up a slice of whole-grain pumpernickel bread - not the Jewish deli stuff, but the German version that comes in thin slices with the density of white dwarf star matter.  What She Who Must Be Obeyed calls “nastybread.”

Then I’ll decorate it with a few carefully positioned slices of smoked salmon.

Next step is to use a honking big chef’s knife to hack up the resulting open-face sandwich into sixteen equal-sized morsels and to place said morsels on my plate.

The finishing touch?  Any number of Japanese condiments.  Today I settled upon a liberal sprinkling of shichimi togarashi, a delectable combination of red chili pepper, orange peel, sesame seeds, Japanese pepper, ginger, and kelp.  Yes, kelp.

Weird?  Maybe.  Yummy?  Absolutely.