Onigiri (お握り) is a Japanese rice ball snack most commonly formed into triangle or oval shapes and wrapped in seaweed (nori). Traditionally, the onigiri is filled with umeboshi, shake (salted salmon), katsuobushi or any other salty or sour ingredient. If a person pours vinegar on the onigiri, it transforms into sushi, and a different kind of food. In practice, however, either is used for preservation of rice.

History

Writings dating back as far as the 1600s tell us that many samurai stored rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves as a quick lunchtime meal at war, but the origins of onigiri are much earlier. Before the use of chopsticks became widespread in the Nara period, rice was often rolled into a small ball so that it could be easily picked up. In the Heian period, rice was also made into small rectangular shapes so that they could be piled onto a plate and easily eaten.

From the Kamakura period to the early Edo period, onigiri was used as a quick meal. This made sense as cooks simply had to think about making enough onigiri and did not have to concern themselves with serving. These onigiri were simply a ball of rice flavored with salt. Nori did not became widely available until the Meiji period when farming of nori and making them into a sheet became widespread.

Starting in the 1960s, the popularity of onigiri decreased as hamburgers and sandwiches became more popular.

It was believed that onigiri could not be produced with a machine as the rolling technique was too difficult for a machine to replicate. In the 1980s, a machine that made triangular onigiri was built. This was initially met with skepticism because rather than having the filling properly rolled inside, the filling was simply put into a hole in onigiri and this shortcut was hidden by the nori. Also, the onigiri made by this machine came with nori already wrapped, and over a period of time the nori became unpleasantly moist and sticky, clinging to the rice. A wrapping innovation allowed nori to be wrapped separately from the rice. At the time of consumption, the diner could open the packet of nori and wrap the onigiri. The limitation that an ingredient is filled instead of rolled actually made new flavors of onigiri easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient.

Availability

In Japan most convenience stores stock onigiri in many popular flavors. Specialized shops, called Onigiri-ya, offer handmade rice balls for take out.

Toppings

• Fish
  • Salmon
  • Eel
  • Shirako
  • Tuna
• Furikake
• Pickles
  • Korean Kimchi
  • Nozawana
  • Seaweed
  • Tsukudani
  • Umeboshi
• Seafood
  • Kani miso
  • Mentaiko
  • Uni