![Yaki Onigiri or roasted rice ball and Takuan 2019-11-5 Tottori City](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Yaki_Onigiri_or_roasted_rice_ball_and_Takuan_2019-11-5_Tottori_City.jpg)
, also known as , , or rice ball, is a
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
food made from
white rice
White rice is milled rice that has had its husk, bran, and germ removed. This alters the flavor, texture and appearance of the rice and helps prevent spoilage, extend its storage life, and makes it easier to digest. After milling (hulling), the ...
formed into triangular or cylindrical shapes and often wrapped in ''
nori
Nori is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from species of the red algae genus ''Pyropia'', including ''P. yezonesis'' and '' P. tenera''. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi or '' ...
''. Traditionally, an onigiri is filled with pickled
ume
''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...
(''
umeboshi
Umeboshi (Japanese: 梅干し, pronounced , literally 'dried ume') are pickled ( brined) ''ume'' fruits common in Japan. The word ''umeboshi'' is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums'. ...
''), salted
salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
,
katsuobushi
is simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna (''Katsuwonus pelamis'', sometimes referred to as bonito). It is also known as bonito flakes. ''Katsuobushi'' or similarly prepared fish is also known as .
Shaved ''katsuobushi'' and dried ke ...
,
kombu
''Konbu'' (from ja, 昆布, konbu or kombu) is edible kelp mostly from the family Laminariaceae and is widely eaten in East Asia. It may also be referred to as ''dasima'' ( ko, 다시마) or ''haidai'' ().
Kelp features in the diets of many c ...
,
tarako
, known under the professional name , is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer.Doi, Hitoshi.Tarako. ''Seiyuu Database''. July 5, 2010. Her debut role was as a preschooler on ''Urusei Yatsura''. She is currently employed by the talent mana ...
,
mentaiko
Pollock roe, also pollack roe (also known as ''myeongnan'' and ''tarako'') is the roe of Alaska pollock (''Gadus chalcogrammus'') which, despite its name, is a species of cod. Salted pollock roe is a popular culinary ingredient in Korean, Japanese ...
,
takanazuke (pickled ''takana'', Japanese giant red mustard greens) or any other salty or sour ingredient as a natural
preservative
A preservative is a substance or a chemical that is added to products such as food products, beverages, pharmaceutical drugs, paints, biological samples, cosmetics, wood, and many other products to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by ...
. Most Japanese
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s stock their onigiri with various fillings and flavors. There are even specialized shops which only sell onigiri to
take out
A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...
. Due to the popularity of this trend in Japan, onigiri has become a popular staple in Japanese restaurants worldwide.
Despite common misconceptions, onigiri is not a form of
sushi
is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...
and should not be confused with the type of sushi called ''
nigirizushi
is a Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is "sushi rice," als ...
'' or simply ''nigiri''. Onigiri is made with plain rice (sometimes lightly salted), while sushi is made of rice with
vinegar
Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to et ...
, 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
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
.
History
![Onigiri at an onigiri restaurant by zezebono in Tokyo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Onigiri_at_an_onigiri_restaurant_by_zezebono_in_Tokyo.jpg)
Before the use of
chopsticks
Chopsticks ( or ; Pinyin: ''kuaizi'' or ''zhu'') are shaped pairs of equal-length sticks of China, Chinese origin that have been used as Kitchen utensil, kitchen and List of eating utensils, eating utensils in most of East Asia, East and Southe ...
became widespread, in the
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the cap ...
, rice was often rolled into a small ball so that it could be easily picked up. In the
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...
, rice was made into small rectangular shapes known as ''
tonjiki'' so that they could be piled onto a plate and easily eaten. At that time, onigiri were called ''tonjiki'' and often consumed at outdoor picnic lunches. In
Murasaki Shikibu
was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She is best known as the author of '' The Tale of Genji,'' widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between abou ...
's 11th-century diary ''
Murasaki Shikibu Nikki
is the title given to a collection of diary fragments written by the 11th-century Japanese Heian era lady-in-waiting and writer Murasaki Shikibu. It is written in kana, then a newly-developed writing system for vernacular Japanese, more common a ...
'', she writes of people eating ''tonjiki'' rice balls. Other writings, dating back as far as the seventeenth century, state that many
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
stored
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
balls wrapped in
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...
sheath as a quick lunchtime meal during war.
From the
Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...
to the early
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...
, 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 balls of rice flavored with
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
.
Nori
Nori is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from species of the red algae genus ''Pyropia'', including ''P. yezonesis'' and '' P. tenera''. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi or '' ...
did not become widely available until the
Genroku era
was a after Jōkyō and before Hōei. The Genroku period spanned the years from the ninth month of 1688 to the third month of 1704. The reigning emperor was .Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon'', p. 415.
The period was ...
of the mid-Edo period, when the farming of nori and fashioning it into sheets became widespread.
Mass manufacturing
In the 1980s, a machine to make triangular onigiri was invented. Rather than rolling the filling inside, the flavoring was 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 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 use of a hole for filling the onigiri made new flavors of onigiri easier to produce as this cooking process did not require changes from ingredient to ingredient. Modern mechanically wrapped onigiri are specially folded so that the plastic wrapping is between the nori and rice to act as a moisture barrier. When the packaging is pulled open at both ends, the nori and rice come into contact and are eaten together. This packaging is commonly found for both triangular onigiri and rolls (細巻き).
Rice
Usually, onigiri is made with
boiled white rice
Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding atmosphere. Ther ...
, though it is sometimes made with different varieties of cooked rice, such as:
*
O-kowa or kowa-meshi (sekihan): glutinous rice cooked or steamed with vegetables (red beans)
* Maze-gohan (lit. "mixed rice"): cooked rice mixed with preferred ingredients
*
Fried rice
Fried rice is a dish of cooked rice that has been stir-fried in a wok or a frying pan and is usually mixed with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, seafood, or meat. It is often eaten by itself or as an accompaniment to another dish. Fr ...
Fillings
Umeboshi
Umeboshi (Japanese: 梅干し, pronounced , literally 'dried ume') are pickled ( brined) ''ume'' fruits common in Japan. The word ''umeboshi'' is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums'. ...
,
okaka, or
tsukudani
is small seafood, meat or seaweed that has been simmered in soy sauce and mirin. As a flavorful accompaniment to plain rice, tsukudani is made salty enough to not go bad, allowing high osmotic pressure to preserve the ingredients from microbial ...
have long been frequently used as fillings for onigiri. Generally, onigiri made with pre-seasoned rice is not filled with ingredients. Plain (salt only) onigiri is called ''shio-musubi''.
Typical fillings are listed below:
* Dressed dishes: tuna with mayonnaise(シーチキン), shrimp with mayonnaise,
negitoro
''Negitoro'' () is a Japanese cuisine of minced raw tuna scrape, the fatty parts of the fish that cannot be made into other meals, commonly served together with green onion. In addition to being an ingredient to sushi of various types, they are a ...
(ネギトロ), etc.
* Dried fish: roasted and crumbled
mackerel
Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment.
...
(鯖),
Japanese horse mackerel
The Japanese jack mackerel (''Trachurus japonicus''), also known as the Japanese horse mackerel or Japanese scad, is a species named after its resemblance to mackerel but which is in the family Carangidae, the jacks, pompanos, trevallies and scad ...
(鰺), etc.
*
Kakuni
is a Japanese braised pork dish which literally means "square simmered".
Kakuni is a popular regional cuisine (meibutsu) of Kyushu, particularly Nagasaki. This particular dish is most likely originated from the famous Chinese dish Dongpo Po ...
:
dongpo pork
Dongpo pork (), also known as Dongpo meat, is a Hangzhou dish which is made by pan-frying and then red cooking pork belly. The pork is cut thick, about square, and should consist equally of fat and lean meat. The skin is left on. The mouthfeel is ...
*
Dried food
Food drying is a method of food preservation in which food is dried (dehydrated or desiccated). Drying inhibits the growth of bacteria, yeasts, and mold through the removal of water. Dehydration has been used widely for this purpose since a ...
:
okaka, etc.
* Processed
roe
Roe ( ) or hard roe is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooking, coo ...
:
mentaiko
Pollock roe, also pollack roe (also known as ''myeongnan'' and ''tarako'') is the roe of Alaska pollock (''Gadus chalcogrammus'') which, despite its name, is a species of cod. Salted pollock roe is a popular culinary ingredient in Korean, Japanese ...
(明太子),
tarako
, known under the professional name , is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer.Doi, Hitoshi.Tarako. ''Seiyuu Database''. July 5, 2010. Her debut role was as a preschooler on ''Urusei Yatsura''. She is currently employed by the talent mana ...
(たらこ),
tobiko
is flying fish roe in Japanese cuisine, known for its use in ''sushi''.
The eggs are small, ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 mm. For comparison, ''tobiko'' is larger than ''masago'' (capelin roe), but smaller than '' ikura'' (salmon roe). Natural ...
(とびこ), etc.
*
Shiokara
, is a food in Japanese cuisine made from various marine animals that consists of small pieces of meat in a brown viscous paste of the animal's heavily salted, fermented viscera.
The raw viscera are mixed with about 10% salt, 30% malted rice, ...
:
squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
,
shuto Shuto or variants may refer to:
*A knifehand strike, known in Japanese as ''shutō-uchi''
*Shutō (seafood), Japanese tuna liver seafood pickle
*Shuto Expressway (首都高速道路, Shuto Kōsoku-dōro) network of toll expressways
*Šuto Orizari M ...
, etc.
*
Tsukudani
is small seafood, meat or seaweed that has been simmered in soy sauce and mirin. As a flavorful accompaniment to plain rice, tsukudani is made salty enough to not go bad, allowing high osmotic pressure to preserve the ingredients from microbial ...
:
nori
Nori is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from species of the red algae genus ''Pyropia'', including ''P. yezonesis'' and '' P. tenera''. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi or '' ...
,
Hypoptychus dybowskii (小女子),
Venerupis philippinarum
''Lajonkairia lajonkairii'' is an edible species of saltwater clam in the family Veneridae, the Venus clams. MolluscaBase eds. (2022). MolluscaBase. Lajonkairia lajonkairii (Payraudeau, 1826). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at ...
(浅蜊), etc.
*
Pickled
Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the shelf life of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar. The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture and flavor. The resulting food is called ...
fruit and vegetables:
umeboshi
Umeboshi (Japanese: 梅干し, pronounced , literally 'dried ume') are pickled ( brined) ''ume'' fruits common in Japan. The word ''umeboshi'' is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'Japanese plums' or 'preserved plums'. ...
,
takana,
nozawana
Nozawana (野沢菜, ''Brassica rapa'' L. var. ''hakabura'') is a Japanese leaf vegetable, often pickled. It is of the same species as the common turnip and one of a Japanese variety of mustard leaf. Its leaves are approximately 60–90 cm ...
, etc.
Local variants
* Miso-onigiri (): mainly in eastern Japan.
Miso
is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and ''kōji'' (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae'') and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spread ...
as fillings sometimes mixed with
green onion
Scallions (also known as spring onions or green onions) are vegetables derived from various species in the genus ''Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions and their close relatives include garlic, shallot, leek, chi ...
, or spread over and roasted as a variant of Yaki-onigiri.
*
Tenmusu
Tenmusu, also spelled as ten-musu, is a dish in Japanese cuisine that consists of a rice ball wrapped with nori that is filled with deep-fried tempura shrimp. Tenmusu is sometimes included as a food in bento boxes.
History
Tenmusu originated in ...
(): originally in
Tsu, Mie
is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 274,879 in 127,273 households and a population density of 390 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Although the second largest city in the p ...
. became famous as
Nagoya cuisine
is a Japanese regional cuisine of the city of Nagoya and surrounding region in central Japan. Due to differences in culture, historical contact between other regions, climate, vegetables and other ingredients, Nagoya cuisine has unique features. ...
.
* Pork-tamago-onigiri (): in
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
.
Lunch meat
Lunch meats—also known as cold cuts, luncheon meats, cooked meats, sliced meats, cold meats, sandwich meats, and deli meats—are precooked or cured meats that are sliced and served cold or hot. They are typically served in sandwiches or on ...
and fried egg as fillings.
See also
*
Arancini
Arancini (, , , ) are Italian rice balls that are stuffed, coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried, and are a staple of Sicilian cuisine. The most common arancini fillings are: ''al ragù'' or ''al sugo'', filled with ragù (meat or mince, slow-c ...
, an Italian dish of fried, breadcrumb-coated rice balls, with various fillings
*
Cifantuan
Cífàntuán () or simply, fantuan is a glutinous rice dish in Chinese cuisine originating in the Jiangnan area of eastern China which encompasses Shanghai and surrounding regions. It is made by tightly wrapping a piece of ''youtiao'' (fried dou ...
, Shanghainese rice balls, commonly eaten for breakfast
*
Jumeokbap
''Jumeok-bap'' (), sometimes jumeokbap, is a Korean rice dish made from a lump of cooked rice made into a round loaf the shape of a fist. Rice balls are a common item in ''dosirak'' (a packed meal) and often eaten as a light meal, between-meal ...
, a Korean dish of Japanese onigiri-styled rice balls, with various fillings
*
Zongzi
''Zongzi'' (; ), ''rouzong'' () or simply ''zong'' (Cantonese Jyutping: ''zung2'') is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves (generally of the species ''Indocalamus t ...
, a Chinese glutinous rice dish served with various fillings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Rice dishes
Glutinous rice dishes
Japanese rice dishes