Japan: Onigiri
Part 4 of a series
For me, Japanese food is just about perfect; low fat, with plenty of vegetables and fish, it feels very healthy and there are all kinds of interesting new flavours to enjoy. With the exception of the traditional sweets, which have the consistency of taste of congealed and sugared wallpaper paste, I could quite happily live on Japanese food indefinitely.
I did, however, become particularly besotted with one Japanese snack: the onigiri1. This is a mass of sticky rice, often formed into a fat disc or—-more commonly—-a triangle. In the centre of the rice, there’s some fish like salmon or tuna, or salmon roe, or perhaps a pickled plum. The whole thing is wrapped in dried seaweed (nori), which makes onigiri perfect for eating on the move.
Almost every snack kiosk and convenience store sells a good variety, which are freshly made. They come wrapped in a really complicated plastic wrapping; so complicated that it comes with illustrated instructions. To prevent the rice making the nori soggy there’s a layer of plastic wrapping between the seaweed and the rice, as well as the outer wrapping.
In the picture above, you can probably see that the corners of the parcel are numbered. Being the obedient geek that I am, I made sure that I RTFM2 before I attempted the procedure. First, you pull the tab at corner 1 which splits the outer wrapping in two. Next, you very carefully pull away the plastic at corner 2, which pulls out the inner layer of plastic on one side of the onigiri. Finally, you gently pull off corner 3, and with it the last piece of the inner wrapping. I have to say that when I first tried this on the train, I fully expected to end up with a lap full of rice, and was astounded and quite ecstatic when I found myself holding an intact onigiri. When you pull it off successfully, it’s like accomplishing that trick where you pull a tablecloth from under the glasses and crockery without disturbing them.
So, onigiri is a healthy, delicious snack that you can eat on the run without getting sticky fingers, and unwrapping it provides literally minutes of entertainment. What more can you ask for? If you’d like to have a go at making your own, there’s a good recipe here, but you won’t have the fun of unwrapping it.
1 I’m certain that onigiri can’t be both singular and plural, so if you know what the correct forms are, please tell me.
2 Read The F***ing Manual
1
Japanese doesn't have a clear distinction between singular and plural at the morphological level, so onigiri is actually both singular and plural... the distnction is usally unnecessary since it can be inferred from the context. And when you really need it (eg. for pronouns) you can have it: watashi => I, watashi-tachi => We
by dakkar @ 03/06/2005 10:06 pm • Permalink •
2
I eat the same thing in Korea almost every day. Here it's called samkakkimbap ì¼ê°ê¹ë°¥ or triangle Kimbap.
I found your site via your comment on TEFL Smiler, have added you to my RSS reader.
by EFL Geek @ 04/06/2005 12:07 am • Permalink •
3
Are there any books on the Japanese art of folding food?
by Jonathan Briggs @ 04/06/2005 6:07 pm • Permalink •
4
I had something very similar to this, homemade in college, with the center being made of something akin to a salt lick. The only reason I remember this is that the person I was with said that the nori tasted like green duct tape.
by The Plaid Cow @ 05/06/2005 3:06 am • Permalink •
5
dakkar: Really? Japanese is a really interesting language. I'd like to have a go at learning it one day.
EFL Geek: I wish we could get them in the UK -- I'd probably eat them every day too.
Jonathan Briggs: I don't know of any, but there should be. I could also have really done with an instruction manual that taught you how to pick up small, round lumps of food with chopsticks without pinging the food across the room
The Plaid Cow: Hehe. The are a bit salty, but I didn't find them unpleasantly so. And I love nori. Is your friend in the habit of eating green duct tape?
by bsag @ 05/06/2005 3:06 pm • Permalink •
6
Yum, yum.
I just recently came across Wasabi, not the horseradishey green paste, but what looks like a new chain of Japanese quick eateries.
The one I came across is on Piccadilly and they have, probably not quite as delicious as the one you have on display there, but it's cheap and cheerful. And so I enjoy strolling around the place with a few maki in me pocket. Well worth checking out when in London.
by tom @ 07/06/2005 8:07 pm • Permalink •
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