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)
soooo looks good! my son (3yo) takes onigiri for lunch, and still haven’t complained. we’ll see.
my mom used to let me bring かりんとうfor snack. and it was not the brown thin ones, but the black fatter ones made of black sugar… go figure.
Yoko,
I’m very impressed with your ability to take photos while making onigiri with TWO HANDS. super wow! I am the world’s laziest onigiri maker, but world’s best onigiri eater. One of my favorite video games when I went to my friend’s house (our house was strictly Nintendo only) to play Alex Kidd in Miracle World and at the end of each level he’d eat his onigiri.
http://www.zaponline.org/images/alex_onigiri.gif
jk – Yes, I go back and forth about how I feel about the country too. I also go back and forth about how I feel about Japan. Constructive criticism is always relevant and beneficial – but I do refrain from identifying an entire country as being bad or good.
Dear Mika – Karintou is pretty “questionable”-looking. Ha. Just like a rolled up brownie placed strategically in the corner of a public bathroom.
Chungy – Thanks for noticing my photo voodoo. I took the part about Alice Waters toting around onigiri from your real-life run-in with Alice.
Just read this (ok ok I’m a little behind on my umami fix). My mom made me smoked turkey sandwiches for my lunches and I threw those away… I think kids just throw their lunches away no matter what their moms made? We’re about to have an onigiri party to celebrate Kai’s first birthday tomorrow! (if Irwin and I recover from our respective stomach flus) for the insides, planning on spicy tuna (tuna+sriracha+mayo), curry chicken (chicken+curry+mayo), and probably an egg option (scrambled egg with soy sauce + mirin). wish you were here! xxx
Thanks for the recipe! It looks great with the detailed photo instructions! I’m excited to try this out!
Just a question though, for the canned tuna, what type/brand do you use? The ones in oil/water?