Nori (海苔) is an originally
Japanese food product made from various species of the
red alga Porphyra, including most notably
P. yezoensis and
P. tenera, by a shredding and
rack-drying[?] process that resembles
papermaking. Nori is commonly used as a wrap for
Onigiri and
Makisushi.
Nori is sometimes translated laver in English, but the term usually applies to plants of the genus Porphyra and not to the finished edible sheets of nori. The English term is in any case not well known, and in the US, the term nori is more common.
In
J.R.R. Tolkien's
fantasy world of
Middle-earth,
Nori was a
Dwarf. He was among the Dwarves who traveled with
Bilbo and
Gandalf in
The Hobbit.