The Onigiri (お握り) 
is one of the most typical and famouse Japanese dishes. Easy to prepare, you have infinite possibilities and combinations, The Onigiri is present in the japanese culture, we have seen this famous dish in several anime series, manga, films and even video games. In Japan ,we can find Onigiri in every grocery store or market.
The onigiri is basically a rice ball that can be slightly salted and sometimes seasoned with furikake. The Onigiri shape can be triangular or cilindric and sometimes covered by nori seaweed. Traditionally is filled by umeboshi, katsuobushi, salted salmon or any other bitter, salty or fermented ingredient. Nowdays the Onigiry can be filled almost with any ingredient and there are available many imaginative and tasty variations. Because his size and shape is a very popular sandwich, and commonly consumed as take away meal. By the way, we would like to mention that Onigiri is not a sushi kind or variation and we should not mixed up Onigiri with nigiri.
History
The Onigiry creation or invention history is millenary. Is being documented that from 11th century , the writter and courtesan Marusaki Shikibu described on her diary how people ate rice balls, called back on time tonjiki. Other writters from the Tokugawa era documented how samurai warriors stored rice balls with bamboo leafs in order to be consumed as bite during war. Even has been found something similar that Onigiri, a carbonised rice ball from the Yayoi era (300 BC. to 300 AC.).
Nowdays, the Onigiri mass production is being widespread thank you to the machinary invented in the 80’s. The Onigiri packaging includes a plastic casing that separates the seaweed from the rice, in order to avoid the nori’s moisturazing weakeness. Whatsoever, mass production of Onigiri is far away the same flavour and texture from the original Onigiri fresh made prepared. Here in SushiTake we prepare Oniguiry daily and our recipe include mayonaise, avocado y tuna, salmon or surimi. Do not forget to try Onigiry!
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