Onigiri!

Buy/cook a food from your culture (ideally more than one), tell us what is in it, how it is made, when it is eaten, and any history you can find, and, of course, report/review your reaction (use at least 5 separate sources and hyperlink them in your blog) (you might be able to use your destination-specific handbook as one source!) The food that I chose to create was onigiri. They are rice balls, often wrapped in nori (seaweed sheets), and often times, “a small amoutn of another ingredient is placed in the center of the rice ball, msot commonly an umeboshi (pickled plum), some tsukudani (delicacies simmered in soy sauce), small pieces of salted salmon, or bonito flakes flavored with soy sauce.  I chose this food because they are so unique to Japan, much like sushi; for example, you see designs on clothing or bags with little onigiri. (You can see this bag from Amazon for example). It also has some interesting history as “in the 17th century, samurai consumed onigiri as battlefield-ready meals. 11th century Japanese writings casually mention rice ball consumption as a picnicking item”. Putting the history and uniqueness aside, I was also motivated to cook onigiri because of its great nutritional benefits (fish is so good for you!) and its portability because I do commute and have to bring my lunch. So, the recipe called for short grain Japanese rice, salt, mayonnaise, tuna, Sriracha sauce, rice vinegar, and green onions. I replaced the tuna with salmon and took out the mayonnaise all together. Also, I only happened to have Jasmine rice at home so that is what I used. I also did not want to make the onigiri balls as large as they suggested so I made them with less rice and more filling. I prepared the rice as normal and prepared the filling mixture while it cooked. The hard part ensued when having to shape the rice. The recipe I was following advised that I wet my hands with cold water and sprinkle the salt on my hands so that the rice did not stick to my hands; it also stressed that the rice should still be warm to work with. I had a bit of trouble with shaping the rice balls as the rice did stick to my hands despite the water and it was hard to trust that the rice would stay in place without packing it tightly – the recipe warned not to add too much pressure. After about a half hour of fidgeting with the rice balls, I ended up with a bit deformed – but functional – onigiri. It seemed like a great idea for lunches on the go and I was so excited to try one. I wrapped them all in the seaweed paper and gave one a try. Even with making the rice balls smaller than traditional sizes, it took a long time to eat because of the amount of rice. I look forward to cooking this meal again, and hopefully one day I can learn how to cook another one of my favorite Japanese dishes, Ramen.