Onigiri

Do you ever imagine why does onigiri must be wrapped with nori? What's the real purpose? Find out the answer here in thisisculinary.blogspot.com!

Onigiri is the rice that is wrapped by nori. Why they use nori? To make a beautiful onigiri, you'll need a sticky rice such as Japanese rice. And so people wrap it with Nori so it won't be sticky in their hands when they eat onigiri. That is the real purpose they wrapped Onigiri with nori.

This food is came from Japan. There are 5 types of Onigiri, but unfortunately i miss 1 name. There are O-musubi, Rice ball, Nasi kapal Rijstbal and the last is the one i forgot. Onigiri can stand only for a night in the chiller and maximum 2 days in the freezer. But back in time, the soldiers usually bring Onigiri as their food during war. In that time Onigiri are filled with Ume (plum), so Onigiri can stand little bit longer.

History of Onigiri is believed came from the diary of Lady Murasaki. She is an important woman in Japan and wrote about a handful rice. The diary is found before people know about chopsticks, so it means the diary found very very long time ago. The origin name is Tanjiki, but as the time goes by it transforms to Onigiri.

There are 4 common shapes of Onigiri, Triangle, Tawara, Round and ball.
But today people people make many shapes of onigiri.

source: http://www.hawaiikawaii.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2011_02_11panda_3782.jpg

source: http://urbanenglishschool.blog53.fc2.com/?no=1108 

But not just the shape, today people made onigiri with variant of ingredients.  

Some people make onigiri from red rice and they named it Black Onigiri.

source:http://duniafitnes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Black-Onigiri.jpg

And some people are make grilled Onigiri.

source:http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/assets_c/2011/06/20110630-158892-yaki-onigiri-thumb-518xauto-170100.jpg

The common filling of Onigiri are Okaka (tuna), Tuna Mayonnaise, Grilled Salmon, Umebosi, Konbu (seaweed) and Mentako.
There are 5 basic steps to make Onigiri:
1. Give your hand a pinch of salt then wet your hands.
2. Place some rice on your hand.
3. Fill with any filling you like.
4. Form it into a ball.
5. Wrap  it with nori.

Here's the detail methods below 

And so the Onigiri become the famous food in Japan, many buyers ask for Onigiri so they invented an Onigiri Machine. It can make 1 onigiri in 3 seconds only!

source: http://acravan.blogspot.com/2011/04/nothing-to-fear-onigiri.html

Well, i think that's all i can share to you about onigiri. I hope it will be usefull for you guys. See you and thanks for reading!