Japanese Food 101 - Onigiri

Japanese Food 101

Onigiri - Japanese Rice Ball

Convenient, portable, versatile, suit for any gathering occasions from sports day, outings to festival events. Any kind of food could be added according to your preference, for me, I love to put salmon flakes with a squeeze of mayonnaise and a sprinkle of sesame seeds in the onigiri for my kids' lunch. Onigiri with other fillings like tuna + mayo, shrimp + mayo, chicken, pork, beef, kombu...even shio - just rice with salt could be readily purchased in konbini. Furikake is also a good option as it is the easiest and tasty condiment to use in case you want to make your own but you are running out of time.

It might sound a bit difficult to hold the rice ball in shape. It happens to my kids when they unwrap the rice ball and rice just falls apart, what a mess! There are molds in triangular shape that are readily available in hyakuen shop or suupaa, and they work really well if you press the rice together hard enough, but my skillful Japanese mamatomo prefer to put on gloves and shape them by hands.

Because they are meant to be eaten on the go, they are usually eaten at room temperature instead of warm or hot. However, you can serve them warm by making yaki onigiri (grilled rice ball) so the surface is crispy and if you prefer to have something hot, you can make yaki onigiri chazuke (grilled rice ball soup). Itadakimasu!