My mom used to pack rice balls for me as an elementary school kid for lunch way before the sushi craze swept the nation and way before there were sightings of Alice Waters toting around onigiri. Having these balls of rice wrapped in "black stuff" was actually a source of shame and anxiety for me everyday in elementary school. When the 12 o'clock bell rang for lunch, most were ecstatic about busting into their PB&J sandwiches and partaking in Fruit-by-the-Foot trading sessions. I would dread the fact that when I unzipped my cloth lunch bag, I would get a waft of salt, rice and sea. Because I was already painfully shy to begin with, my lunch consisting of black balls and dried fish pushed me further into being a recluse.
"Ew! Why are you eating black stuff!" my classmates would shout. Confession: I threw away my onigiri sometimes just to avoid the humiliation. I am very sorry Mom.
Years following my elementary school experience, I didn't have a pleasant impression of onigiri - I had reached my quota early on.
It wasn't until I was in college when I visited Japan and its ubiquitous comibini, that I experienced a wonderful reunion with onigiri. Packaged to perfection, and prices at around ¥120, they were efficient and affordable.
Fast forward to the present.
Fall semester started yesterday for my husband, who is currently taking ESL classes. To save money I suggested I would pack a lunch for him. This was a bit monumental for me. I have never packed a lunch for someone other than myself and today I broke that barrier.
I decided to proudly make onigiri.
Ingredients (for about 8 onigiri)
2 cups fresh steamed rice
1 can tuna
3 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
salt
Seaweed
1.
Make rice
2. Make filling. My filling was canned tuna and kewpie mayonnaise. For one can of tuna, I add about 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
3. Prepare a little bowl full of water and sprinkle in about a teaspoon of salt into it. This bowl of water will be used to wet your hands so rice doesn't stick all over them.
4. Once the rice is done steaming, stir it around so that it cools down so that you can handle it without burning the palms of your hands.
5. Rub plenty of salt on your hands. Grab a handful of rice.
6. Mold into a ball.
7. Press into the middle so that you create a little space that will allow you to insert the filling.
8. Put the filling into the hole.
9. Close up the hole the best you can. You might need to pile a little bit of extra rice over the hole to cover it completely.
10. Onigiri are usually molded into a triangle shape. Mold the onigiri into a triangle shape by place the ball in the palm of one hand, while using the other hand forming a "V" with your thumb and other fingers in an L shape.
11. Wrap the onigiri in saran wrap.
12. When eating, wrap the onigiri in some seaweed. You can wrap it up entirely or do what's shown in the picture at the bottom of the page.
My mom used to pack rice balls for me as an elementary school kid for lunch way before the sushi craze swept the nation and way before there were sightings of Alice Waters toting around onigiri. Having these balls of rice wrapped in "black stuff" was actually a source of shame and anxiety for me everyday in elementary school. When the 12 o'clock bell rang for lunch, most were ecstatic about busting into their PB&J sandwiches and partaking in Fruit-by-the-Foot trading sessions. I would dread the fact that when I unzipped my cloth lunch bag, I would get a waft of salt, rice and sea. Because I was already painfully shy to begin with, my lunch consisting of black balls and dried fish pushed me further into being a recluse.
"Ew! Why are you eating black stuff!" my classmates would shout. Confession: I threw away my onigiri sometimes just to avoid the humiliation. I am very sorry Mom.
Years following my elementary school experience, I didn't have a pleasant impression of onigiri - I had reached my quota early on.
It wasn't until I was in college when I visited Japan and its ubiquitous comibini, that I experienced a wonderful reunion with onigiri. Packaged to perfection, and prices at around ¥120, they were efficient and affordable.
Fast forward to the present.
Fall semester started yesterday for my husband, who is currently taking ESL classes. To save money I suggested I would pack a lunch for him. This was a bit monumental for me. I have never packed a lunch for someone other than myself and today I broke that barrier.
I decided to proudly make onigiri.
Ingredients (for about 8 onigiri)
2 cups fresh steamed rice
1 can tuna
3 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
salt
Seaweed
1. Make rice
2. Make filling. My filling was canned tuna and kewpie mayonnaise. For one can of tuna, I add about 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
3. Prepare a little bowl full of water and sprinkle in about a teaspoon of salt into it. This bowl of water will be used to wet your hands so rice doesn't stick all over them.
4. Once the rice is done steaming, stir it around so that it cools down so that you can handle it without burning the palms of your hands.
5. Rub plenty of salt on your hands. Grab a handful of rice.
6. Mold into a ball.
7. Press into the middle so that you create a little space that will allow you to insert the filling.
8. Put the filling into the hole.
9. Close up the hole the best you can. You might need to pile a little bit of extra rice over the hole to cover it completely.
10. Onigiri are usually molded into a triangle shape. Mold the onigiri into a triangle shape by place the ball in the palm of one hand, while using the other hand forming a "V" with your thumb and other fingers in an L shape.
11. Wrap the onigiri in saran wrap.
12. When eating, wrap the onigiri in some seaweed. You can wrap it up entirely or do what's shown in the picture at the bottom of the page.
Comments (35)
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Uhm. Flashback to Shin-Okubo school breaks and konbini outings.
Except… aren’t you afraid history’s gonna repeat itself and Washi’s gonna be bullied in school for his black lunchbox eatings? ;-)
So Kamome Diner style.
I used to throw them away too, as a child.
Sorry, Hideko. Such are the traumas of the immigration generation.
But now, I crave onigiri made by mama-san. Rice balls just taste better when other people make them for you.
Love.
Anders:
“Except… aren’t you afraid history’s gonna repeat itself and Washi’s gonna be bullied in school for his black lunchbox eatings?”
Yes, I thought about that. But I think over 20 years after I shamefully hid my onigiri, people have become way more understanding – especially about seaweed. Times have changed tremendously.
Kayoko – You threw them away too?! Somehow, I don’t feel as bad anymore.
this post brought tears to my eyes. i’d kill for a yokonigri right now.
Did your mama keep the seaweed separately? I like the ones with pre-wrapped and seaweed is almost melted kind too. That’s more like my memory from young days.
YES! She totally prewrapped it with seaweed – so there was definitely no crunch. It was like all soft and stuck onto the rice. I think the kombini ones blew me away because they were all packaged so fancy. To me, the kombini onigiri was a different animal from my mom’s onigiri.
I threw them away toooooo! Looking back it’s gutting to think such goodness was tossed into a garbage can because of my schoolgirl insecurities. I remember begging my mom to have pb&j’s and cinnamon sugar toast (can you say UNhealthy?). This post has inspired me to call my mom after work and thank her for making me onigiri and all types of lunches! Oh and good luck with school Washi!
Yoko, is your seaweed yaki-nori, or aji-tsuke-nori? In Kanto, it’s mainly yaki-nori, but in Kansai, we always used aji-tsuke-nori.
The konbini onigiri, with the fluorescent pink tarako is nasty goodness. I never can unwrap it without making it a total mess.
Sunrise Mart in NYC has awesome onigiri, packaged mama-san style in little plastic baggies. The shirasu-katsuo one is the best and cheapest snackies in the neighborhood, at $1 each. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one right as they come out— the rice still toasty and warm!