What is ONIGIRI?
おにぎり(ONIGIRI) is a Japanese food made from white rice formed into triangular or oval shapes and often wrapped in のり/海苔(NORI).
Onigiri is not a form of sushi, despite a common misconception.
Traditionally, an ONIGIRI is filled with pickled 梅干し(UMEBOSHO), salted salmon, かつおぶし/かつお節/鰹節(KATSUO-BUSHI), こんぶ/昆布(KONBU), たらこ(TARAKO), or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural preservative.
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| Katsuobushi [鰹節] | Konbu [昆布] | Tarako [たらこ] |
In Japan, KATSUO-BUSHI because of the filling to ONIGIRI is called "おかか(OKAKA)".
Because of the popularity of ONIGIRI in Japan, most convenience stores there stock ONIGIRI with various fillings and flavors.
Onigiri is made with plain rice (perhaps lightly salted), while sushi is rice with vinegar, sugar and salt.
Onigiri makes rice portable and easy to eat as well as preserving it, while sushi originated as a way of preserving fish.
Moreover, Onigiri is put in Bento.
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't have to concern themselves with serving.
These ONIGIRI were simply balls of rice flavored with salt.
のり/海苔(NORI) didn't become widely available until the Genroku era in the mid-Edo period, when the farming of NORI and fashioning it into sheets became widespread.
It was believed that ONIGIRI could not be mass produced as the hand-rolling technique was considered too difficult for a machine to replicate.
In the 1980s, however, a machine that made triangular ONIGIRI was devised.
This was initially met with skepticism because, rather than having the filling traditionally rolled inside, the flavoring was simply put into a hole in the ONIGIRI, and the hole was hidden by 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 dinner could open the packet of NORI and wrap the onigiri.
The limitation of the machines that required using a hole for filling the ONIGIRI instead of rolling the filling with the rice actually made new flavors of ONIGIRI easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient.
This is a video of "Onigiri manufacturing factory".
Japanese food is almost always eaten with chopsticks, and it is considers poor manners to eat with one's hands.
But, ONIGIRI is exceptional in that it is okay to eat it with your hands.
Another example of handmade Japanese food is SUSHI.
ONIGIRI's ingredients
The ingredients to ONIGIRI is called GU[具] in Japan.
Or, there is ONIGIRI not stuffed with anything either.
It is called "塩むすび(SHIO-MUSUBI)" etc.
SHIO-MUSUBI is seasoned only with the salt.
Or, there is SHIO-MUSUBI that the black sesame is sprinkled to the surface, too.
ONIGIRI's ingredients of various Japan
Various ingredients is used for Japanese Onigiri.
They are the tuna mayonnaises, lobster's tempuras, Tonkatsu, and are the seasoned cod roes, the chicken minced meats, the salmons, Konbu, Umeboshi, Tsukemono, the spring onion misoes, and are natto, and roast meats, etc.
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| The salmons Onigiri | Tuna and mayonnaise Onigiri |
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| Lobster's tempura Onigiri | Okaka Onigiri |
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| Tarako Onigiri | Tonkatsu Onigiri |
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| Takana(TSUKEMONO) Onigiri | Natto Onigiri |
Moreover, SHIOKARA is used for ONIGIRI.
The Onigiri recipe is next time.
Hararie
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