What's Onigiri? The Riceball

In Japan eating white rice as a staple food, and also it has been eaten as a portable food since old times. It is the food which started from the preservation food by grasping the leftover rice, but it is a popular food which can be bought at any convenience stores in Japan now. We call it "Onigiri" in Japanese. And, Some people cook rice and make it to Onigiri for lunch. We introduce Onigiri which we Japanese love, and the differences in sushi and the onigiri.

The rice ball is sushi? What is the difference between a rice ball and a sushi?

Both rice balls and sushi are made by hand. These two might look like the same food for foreigners. In old times, Sushi was originally fermented with fish, rice was just used as a material for making it. Basically, at that time, rice was not used for eating. Very strange, isn't it? In the Edo era when vinegar was widely used, it changed into a style to top sashimi on top of rounded vinegared rice, so that it became to a luxury food for the people. In order to preserve the leftover rice, the rice ball was rounded and held to make it harder to bruise in the old days. The leftover rice was not delicious, so they put the some fillings inside the rice and made it and delicious with salt.

A popular ingredient is this!

The fillings of rice balls are favored to serve both antiseptic and seasoned flavors. One of the typical fillings is pickled plum, "umeboshi". Umeboshi prevents rice from rotting, and the compatibility with rice is excellent. Other popular fillings are salmon, tuna, spicy cod roe"mentaiko", normal cod roe, and flavored kelp etc... Bale-shaped onigiri with spam, fried rice onigiri and so on are also popular among young people.

The rice ball can be made even if parting from the Japan.

Even if you are overseas, you can make rice balls with ingredients from Japanese supermarkets. The filling, tuna and mayo, is also popular among Japanese people. You cut meat in pieces and stir fried and seasoned is also delicious as a filling. Seaweed wrap is not always required. -Onigiri Recipe- 1.Cook the sticky Japanese rice. 2.Prepare fillings as you like. (umeboshi, salted salmon, cod roe or anything you like…) 3.Wash your hand well and wet with water and add some salts on your both palm. 4.Place rice in one hand, press and form gently into a shape. Triangle, Bale-shaped, literally ball-shape etc... 5.Make a dent in the middle of the onigiri, and put in your choice of fillings into it. 6.Close the dent. Reshape and wrap with seaweed if you like. Please be careful of burns when you grab rice.