lioness in japan

Although making onigiri is very common in Japanese households, it seems like one of those things that you buy from a conbini (convenient store) or a departo (department store), so to me as a foreigner, I never thought of making my own.

Being vegetarian, onigiri appears to be a natural fallback but I recently found out that onigiri sold in stores have fish dashi (stock) in them. Honestly, I cannot taste it but the knowledge of it makes me uncomfortable. I’ll probably refrain from eating them unless I am stranded and there really isn’t any other veggie food around.

Also, store-bought onigiris tend to be chock full of MSG or mayo which are not the healthiest things to eat despite the fact that it is not deep fried (which I often observe in Japanese savoury snacks).

So, I had leftover rice from a tempura party at my place recently (will blog about this soon) and my friends suggested I make it into onigiri. Light bulb moment.

I went onto Youtube and found this video: How to make onigiri (Japanese rice balls)

I mixed wakame, shredded nori, sesame seeds, and sesame oil with the rice. Then I dipped my palms in salt water and pressed the mixture into balls.

I couldn’t make my rice balls into triangular shapes. I tried really hard but they crumbled as the salt water from my hands were rubbed off on them. My conclusion is fresh sticky rice is really important to keep the grains adhered together or maybe a plastic bag is what I need. My rice was two days’ old and I had to steam it a little in the microwave. It became softer but I suppose it was not as sticky as it could have been.

I wolfed down two and wrapped the last two in saran wrap — I once saw it being done this way in a Japanese home.

I’ll probably try my next batch with brown rice. You can be very innovative with onigiri when you make them yourself. It seems that anything goes, even beef, as you can see in the video.

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