Onigiri - Food Review

Onigiri is one food that I had never had before coming to Japan. I can't recall the first time I tried it but I'm glad as hell that I did.

Pretty much all Onigiri is is a triangle of rice with something packed inside, all wrapped inside of seaweed, or nori. There are many different kinds of fillings you can get, but my favorite by far is the tuna. Without really being able to read very much Japanese, I learned what tastes good by trial and error pretty much.

You can get Onigiri from pretty much any convenience store for about 105 yen for the tuna and up to about 130 yen for the "good stuff" that tastes horrible. It makes a great snack in between meals and an even better meal when your wandering from bar to bar. I used to get three for a meal, but have lately cut down to only one since I've been making my own recently.

To make Onigiri, do the following:

1. First clean and cook your rice. To clean the rice, add water to your rice cooker, wait a few minutes and then strain it. I was told by Japanese people to do this about five times and it seems to work. If you don't do this, your rice will be hard.
   
2. Let the rice cool down for about 10 minutes. Rice is hotter than you might think and you will burn the shit out of your hands if you don't wait. Trust me.
   
3. Add rice seasoning to it or more salt if you like.
   
4. Either buy small cut nori or tear up the larger cuts of nori.
   
5. Wet your hands and then put salt on them.
6. Make small balls of rice. If you want to add a filling, press your thumb in the ball and then put your filling in.
7. Place the ball of rice onto the nori and then fold it.
8. Bam! Just that easy.

Final Decision: 5 out of 5

I'm actually making some Onigiri as I'm making this post...and it's time to eat! Laterz.

Brad

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