Onigiri

, also known as , is a snack of Japanese rice formed into triangle or oval shapes and often wrapped in ''nori'' . Traditionally, the onigiri is filled with pickled ume fruit , salted salmon, katsuobushi, or any other salty or sour ingredient. In practice, pickled filling is used for preservation of the rice. Since the onigiri is one of the most famed and popular snacks in Japan, most convenience stores in Japan stock onigiri in many popular fillings and tastes. There are even specialized shops offering only handmade rice balls for take out.

History

The ''Murasaki Shikibu Nikki'', the diary of the Lady Murasaki, writes of people eating rice balls during her time, the eleventh century. The rice ball was called ''tojiki'' and often consumed as an outdoor picnic lunch. Other writings dating back as far as the seventeenth century state 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 called , 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 become widely available until the during the mid-Edo period, when the farming of nori and fashioning it into sheets became widespread.

It was believed that onigiri could not be produced with a machine as the hand rolling technique was considered too difficult to replicate. In the 1980s, a machine that made onigiri was built. This was initially met with skepticism because rather than having the filling traditionally rolled inside, the flavoring was simply put into a hole in onigiri and this shortcut was hidden by the nori. Since the onigiri made by this machine came with nori already applied to the rice ball, over time the nori became unpleasantly moist and sticky, clinging to the rice. A packaging improvement allowed the nori to be stored separately from the rice. Before eating, the diner could open the packet of nori and wrap the onigiri. The machines' limitation that an ingredient was filled into a hole instead of rolled together with the rice actually made new flavors of onigiri easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient.

Overview

Onigiri is not a form of sushi, despite common misconception. While onigiri is made with plain rice , sushi is made of rice with vinegar added. Onigiri is merely a method of making rice portable and easy to eat, while sushi originated as a way of preserving freshwater fish.

Onigiri are also found in many convenience stores in Taiwan and South Korea. In the latter, it is called ''samgak gimbap'' because of its triangular shape.

Fillings

*Fish
**Katsuobushi
**Chum salmon
**Tuna
*Seafood
**Mentaiko
**Ikura
**Seaweed
*
**Umeboshi
**Tsukudani
**Nozawana
**Kimchi
*Seasoning
**Furikake
**Miso
*Sugar
**Sugar cubes
**Brown sugar
**Splenda

is used in Hawaii, where this dish is known as Spam musubi.

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