Ok, so... Onigiri!

I decided to do a food post rather than an "about my city" post. I was just feeling more food-ish.

So Japanese Food, episode 1! Today's featured food is "onigiri."

Onigiri are balls of short-grain Japanese rice. They usually contain some kind of filling, and are often wrapped in seaweed. Ok, here we go, food porn time.

This is an onigiri filled with grilled seasoned beef.

This one contains salted salmon.

These are a trio with a different wrapping and filling presentation. They have various styles of fried shrimp.

This is another trio. This style has the flavoring mixed into the rice. It has bits of veggies and konnyaku.

This is what I call "uber onigiri." They call it "musubi sando" in Japanese. Musubi is an alternate name for onigiri, and "sando" is an abbreviation for "sandwich." This steroidal specimen is filled with fried chicken, mayo and a sweet sauce.

The crucial factor in onigiri is shaped, plain rice. If it is seasoned with salt, sugar, and vinegar, it stops being onigiri and becomes sushi (sushi actually refers simply to vinegar-seasoned rice, and I will make a post allll about sushi). Other common fillings for onigiri include tuna salad, konbu seaweed, umeboshi (salted cured plums), katsuo (skipjack tuna flakes), spicy cod roe or salmon roe (ikura), sweet egg omelette, sweet barbecued eel (unagi), and more.

There are onigiri versions of other rice-based dishes, like omu-raisu (omelette rice, also with a post to come!). An omu-raisu onigiri would have ketchup and chicken flavored rice wrapped in a sheet of egg, for example. 

And for the interested, the etymology of the name(s). "O" is an honorable prefix in Japanese, often added before words to make them more official-y. "Nigiri" is a noun version of the verb "nigiru," which means "to grab" or "to clutch." Similarly, "musubi" is the noun form of the verb "musubu," which means "to wrap." "Musubi" can also be prefixed with "o". So there's your Japanese lesson for the day! 

And more food pics for your viewing pleasure (^.^)