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Japan's humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world
- Sakos 2y agoLove these things. I still remember the first time I saw some at a stand at a festival here in Germany. Me and my friend each bought one, then bought a few more because they were so freaking good. Still have pictures of our first bite. It was shortly after that I started seeing them everywhere in supermarkets, and I've been buying them regularly ever since (despite the crazy price).
- n1b0m 2y agoI fell in love with them when I visited Tokyo and I was pleasantly surprised to find them in a lot of grocery stores in Paris recently. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to get them in the UK at least not in the big supermarkets.
- cedws 2y agoI haven't seen any in supermarkets, but bought two in a shop in central London recently and it cost £9, which is eye watering compared to Japan 7-Eleven prices.
- kaycebasques 2y agoFond memories of grabbing a few of these in the little shop within Shimokitazawa station, people watching with my wife as we wolfed them down, then heading off to the train with satisfied stomaches to explore Tokyo. Are they hard to make at home? I haven't found great/reliable spots to get these in SF. (Where are the great SF spots for these??)
- darknavi 2y agoIf you have an H Mart near by the sell them in the hot food area.
- fotta 2y agoThere’s an Onigilly in FiDi but my favorite is the Japanese market in Nob Hill on Polk.
- tralarpa 2y ago> Are they hard to make at home? Not at all. You need the right type of rice (and a rice cooker helps). There are many options for the filling, some of which don't even require a trip to the Asian grocery store.
- supportengineer 2y agoA rice cooker is one of those inexpensive but life-changing items.
- Larrikin 2y agoThey are basically sandwich equivalents. You need the correct rice but they are easy to make. Parents make them daily for their kid's lunches because they are so easy to make. But also like sandwiches an excellent one is difficult to make.
- et-al 2y ago> Are they hard to make at home? I haven't found great/reliable spots to get these in SF. (Where are the great SF spots for these??) A number of Japanese students I knew just used leftover rice to make onigiri for lunch the next day. In SF, Super Mira on Sutter & Buchanan has an assortment. And of course Nijiya. I don't think Onigilly is anything special.
- 4hg4ufxhy 2y agoFor me an onigiri with soggy and chewy seaweed is disgusting, but one of those where the seaweed stays dry and crispy until unwrapping is really tasty. My favourite is wasabi tuna in a tube shape.
- fotta 2y agoThe wrappers where the seaweed is kept separate from the rice until you unwrap it are such a good innovation.
- ahartmetz 2y agoI almost forgot about these! The common triangular shape didn't make it easy to make it work, but they managed anyway. Pretty cool. I know onigiri from a Japan trip but usually don't buy them in Germany because they are expensive here. Supermarket sushi (sounds strange, but there is actually good supermarket sushi made in a little store-in-store) doesn't cost much more.
- dotdi 2y agoI love onigiri, but over here in Europe they are still pretty niche, and by niche I mean expensive. It's basically a sandwhich, right? Only that it costs 5-10x more.
- layer8 2y agoThey cost 1.99–2.69 € where I live (depending on the supermarket chain). A pair of soggy toast sandwiches is about the same price. It’s not the cheapest snack in terms of calories per Euro (they are around 130 kcal), but still reasonable.
- presentation 2y agoJust steam some sushi rice, choose a filling, maybe salt the rice a bit if you want and form it into the shape with your hands. If you want wrap it with some nori, salt or put furikake on it. No need to pay the foreign Japanese food tax! It’s dead simple to make, and whoever is selling that ripoff onigiri to you is probably not even Japanese anyway. (Admittedly the rice here does taste better in my opinion, but so it goes…)
- bambax 2y agoIn France you can find them in supermarkets for EUR 3.50 apiece. They're also super easy to make yourself, just some rice, any kind of filling, and half a sheet of nori to wrap it.
- RajT88 2y agoMy wife is opening a drive-thru restaurant which serves these (among other Asian foods like musubi and lumpia and such). Pricing as of now looks like $3 a pop, which is comparable to the pricing at the local Mitsuwa. Convenience store onigiri in Japan are of course generally a lot cheaper (especially with the current exchange rate). https://www.tsunagujapan.com/16-top-selling-items-at-lawson-in-japan/#hlKARK0PHUXBJ83 https://www.tsunagujapan.com/16-top-selling-items-at-lawson-...
- electriclove 2y agoWhere at?
- RajT88 2y agoBolingbrook, IL. As of now - opening date seems like late Nov., but of course we're new to the resto business and there's a learning curve on all of the non-food bits of it.
- tmpz22 2y agoDo you think the $3 price is sustainable or optimistic? My dream would be to make enough dough to start a restaurant affordable and friendly enough to become a community hub. Best of luck on your venture!
- disqard 2y agoProps to you both for doing this -- I wish you steady sustainable growth and long-term success!
- m3kw9 2y agohad the best home made onigari in japan ever. they don't mess around over there
- Tiktaalik 2y agoI know that there's been rumblings of 7/11 in the USA spinning up more food options with an eye to how things are done by its parent in Japan, but it really can't come soon enough. Get a move on! 7/11 in Japan with its onigiri is amazing and I'm desperate for these style of convenience stores with their options to make their way over here to USA and Canada.
- teractiveodular 2y ago7/11 in Australia, which is generally terrible but was acquired by the Japanese operator of 7/11 last year, recently rolled out onigiris nationwide after a successful trial in Victoria. So there's hope yet!
- scelerat 2y agoHow are they? I'm in California -- I love the konbinis in Japan, and while 7-Eleven's recent announcements to offer more konbini-like food and experience sounds great, I fear it's going to fall far short of the mark because I think it's a combination of ingredients, supply chain, and employee processes and practices. Like, all those things need to be on point to deliver a quality onigiri or egg salad sandwich, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the US-based 7-Elevens to deliver without massive changes. (And to be clear, I don't think there has been any mention of onigiri appearing at US-based 7-Eleven, they have have announced better/different prepared sandwich offerings)
- pknomad 2y ago> I fear it's going to fall far short of the mark because I think it's a combination of ingredients, supply chain, and employee processes and practices Same here as well. Part of the charm of konbinis (and Japan to an extent) is the friendly atmosphere. Foods are fresh (delivered daily and inventory churn is consumer friendly) and people working at these places (despite being not high-paying) have higher level of care of how customers are treated. 7-11 here by comparison are... definitely not that.
- rootsudo 2y ago
- thenewwazoo 2y agoHaving never had one, are onigiri filled with anything? I think of eating something that's basically entirely rice and wonder where's the protein? It seems to just be all simple carbs, which feels like a setup for an insulin spike and sugar crash.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dagmx 2y agoYes they’re usually filled with some kind of filling. Often a fish or meat filling. They’re essentially like a dumpling.
- thenewwazoo 2y agoOh so more than just what’s on top? Neato.
- HideousKojima 2y agoWhen I make them at home I usually stuff them with teriyaki chicken
- 93po 2y agoeven just the seaweed wrapper adds a lot of flavor, but for sure the filling is the best part. it's really tastey rice too, not like the rice you'd get dumping any old white rice into a rice cooker then trying to eat it
- scelerat 2y agotuna plus mayo and umeboshi (tart, pickled plum) are my two favorite onigiri stuffings
- Jcampuzano2 2y agoWhen I was in Japan for a while you could get them filled with all sorts of things. The most common I recall were tuna and mayo or chicken with teriyaki sauce or soy sauce and they're delicious. I'd have one or two a day.
- supportengineer 2y agoOur family loves onigiri. It's one of those foods you can customize to whatever you feel like that day. We love this Nori Komi furikake, you can put it on anything, including buttery popcorn! https://www.amazon.com/Jfc-International-Seasoning-Furikake-1-7/dp/B0006G5KEY https://www.amazon.com/Jfc-International-Seasoning-Furikake-...
- flakiness 2y agoOnce we made these onigiris for a potluck my kid's school hosted and they went away very quickly. So we have stopped exploring other menus and just have kept making them every potluck since. And it goes away quickly every time. One thing I noticed since is that it can be a great vegan option: You can make one from rice salt and dried kelp/seaweed plus some pickles (umeboshi etc.)
- onemoresoop 2y agoDo you recommend making these over buying them?
- 123pie123 2y agoI really prefer making them, the rice will be more moist - the rice seems dry when i've bought them I use a 1/2 seaweed sheet per ball - again better - crispier if stored well our favourite fillings is either curry paste (that very concentrated stuff) or the purple flakes (i think they're called shiso) these are one of our families favourite - they go quickly no matter how much we make
- legalamb 2y agoYes, very inexpensive to make, but outside of Japan they can be priced fairly high as specialty items.
- squeaky-clean 2y agoThey're definitely better freshly made, either at home or a nicer restaurant that makes them to-order. Make sure you buy the correct kind of rice or they won't shape properly. But the premade ones are a very easy grab-n-go food. It's like how a homemade burger will always beat a McDonald's burger. But there's times and places where you want a burger but aren't able to stop and cook one up yourself.
- daotoad 2y agoVery easy to make. You can make them with pretty much anything if you aren't a stickler for authenticity. One of the best flavors I have made was what I called "Spaghetti Onigiri". For that I took a basic American style spaghetti sauce (tomato sauce + ground beef) and simmered it down until it was very concentrated and almost dry. I used that for the filling. Then I took the filled rice ball and rolled it in a mix of grated parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and "Italian seasoning" blend. Another version I didn't invent is ketchup onigiri. This is made by mixing dried chopped onion and ketchup into cooked rice with small cubes of cheddar cheese. Form it into smallish onigiri and toast in a medium to medium low pan, brushing the outside with soy sauce. I don't remember where I learned it other than some random little Japanese cookbook I picked up Kinokuniya in the late 90s. A popular standard in my home is to make them with tuna salad. It's probably the most common way we eat them. Just mix your tuna salad to be a bit dryer than usual. I replied to another thread here with some links to more traditional recipes.
- reiichiroh 2y agoThe Canadian 7-11s have a larger mostly rice one available now for $5 CAD each.
- maupin 2y agoThese are what I miss most about my years living in Japan. I made them for my kids a few weeks ago and they adored them. You can buy plastic-lined seaweed sheets to fold the rice into, so opening them is almost the same experience as onigiri from a Japanese conbini. For a filling, I just mixed together some tuna, salt, and mayo.
- dopylitty 2y agoI've never understood why these things don't cause food poisoning due to bacillus cereus. There are all sorts of theories about vinegar being used in cooking or whatnot but I've never seen any rigorous study of the microbiome of an onigiri.
- Ferret7446 2y agoBy keeping them refrigerated and not stored for a long time? It's not rocket science. I think the issue is when people (usually Westerners unaccustomed to rice) try to treat cooked rice like bread rather than like cooked pasta.