onigiri

Onigiri galore, and shooting them

maki — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:01:39 +0100

In case you don’t follow Just Bento, but read Just Hungry for the Japanese stuff, be sure to check out my onigiri magnum opus. In case you are wondering, yes I made all those onigiri and shot them over the weekend. It took 8 cups of rice! Some are stored in the freezer, but regrettably, many were consumed on the spot by the photographer and me.

Shooting white rice against a white background, especially on a cloudy day, is not easy. But the other weekend project we managed to finish finally really came in handy - the shoestring ‘studio’ box.

We followed the great instructions on Strobist. We used an old monitor box, sheets of tracing paper, plain white card stock and packing tape to stick things together. Total cost: about CHF 14 (US $12), which includes extra sheets of paper in case of stainage. Total time: about an hour.

We need to beef up the lighting situation, but even with the dull available daylight and two 50 watt halogen floor lights, we did a lot better than I thought we would. The box is going to be really handy for shooting from now on, and I don’t have to clear the kitchen table all the time or scrounge around for a suitable background. I highly recommend this setup to all food bloggers!

Onigiri in the movies: Kamome Diner and Supermarket Woman

maki — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:37:22 +0100

Whenever I am feeling blue, one of the foods that I crave is onigiri. You could just chalk that up to the fact that it’s mostly rice = carbs and I’m just craving a carb fix. But it really goes beyond that. It’s tied to memories of my aunts making row upon row of perfectly shaped onigiri for a family gathering, and the salty tinge on my lips from the giant onigiri my mother made for me for a school outing.

Two of the most popular articles here on Just Hungry are the ones about onigiri. It’s great to see so many people from around the world enjoying this quintessential Japanese comfort food.

There are two very interesting Japanese movies where onigiri play a starring role, in quite different ways; Kamome Diner (Kamome Shokudoh) and Supermarket Woman (Suupaa no Onna). Although neither seems to be available on DVD in English speaking countries yet, I thought I’d talk about them a bit.

Suupaa no Onna: Anatomy of a Japanese grocery store

The first is a comedy from 1996, Suupaa no Onna (Supermarket Woman). It’s directed by Juzo Itami, better known as the director of the ‘noodle Western’ classic Tampopo, and as with most of his movies stars his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto. Miyamoto plays Hanako, a 40- or widowed woman who wanders into a run down small suupaa, a local supermarket, which happens to be run by her childhood friend Goro, a widower played by Masahiko Tsugawa. The suupaa is called Sho-jiki Ya, (“Honest Goro” in the English subtitles). Sho-jiki ya is teetering in the edge of failure because a brash competitor called Yasuuri Daimaoh (“Bargains Galore” in the subtitles). Hanako, who keeps insisting she’s “just a housewife with a housewife’s wisdom”, is a supermarket expert with a sharp eye and strong opinions about how a supermarket should be run. In short order she’s hired by Goro, first as the head cashier, then as the assistant manager of Sho-jiki Ya. Together with Goro, she must fight the corrupt figures behind Yasuuri Daimaoh to prevent Sho-jikiya from going under.

One of the store sections that Hanako attempts to improve is the osouzai deparment. Osouzai means ready-made meal items, and busy people in Japan rely on these to round out or even make up a whole meal. A popular osouzai product is of course, onigiri. Hanako discovers that the onigir sold at Shoujiki-ya are under-par, using inferior fillings, and convinces everyone involved that that is just not right. At first the onigiri supplier is reluctant to spend more to improve the onigiri, but once he sees how happy the better tasting onigiri makes the housewife-taste testers, he is overcome by the joy of making his customers happy.

Suupaa no Onna is part of the “Fighting Women” series of movies that Juzo Itami made in the ’80s and ’90s, such as Marusa no Onna (A Taxing Woman) and Minbo no Onna (known among other titles as The Anti-Extortion Woman). Like those movies, the general theme is that of the fiesty, honest heroine who has the courage to stand up against a corrupt establishment. While the other titles in the series have been released on DVD in the U.S. and elsewhere, Suupaa no… never really made it outside of Japan. It’s a shame, since it’s a lot of fun even if it didn’t feature food as a main character. For food lovers, it’s a fascinating if broad (and now somewhat outdated) view of Japanese grocery shopping, from the store’s point of view and the buyer’s point of view - the buyers in this case being the all-mighty, no-nonsense Japanese housewife. It may not be as profound as Tampopo or have as much universal appeal, but for anyone interested in Japanese culture or food or even supermarkets, I highly recommend it. (See notes at the end for some more.)

Kamome Shokudoh: Japanese soul food in Helsinki

Made 10 years after Suupaa no Onna in 2006, Kamome Shokudo (Kamome Diner) a very different movie. It’s the story of a woman called Sachie, played by Hairi Katagiri, who opens a small Japanese restaurant/cafe in Helsinki, Finland. At first people just look curiously in the windows, but don’t go in. Then one day a young Japan otaku teenager wanders in…

For Sachie, onigiri are “Japanese soul food”. She is convinced that she can make Finnish people love her Japanese soul food, because she reasons that “a country with such a sense of humor and a relaxed view of life must appreciate good food”. At one point, worried about the lack of customers, she and another Japanese woman who somehow wanders into the restaurant and ends up staying on as a waitress test out some alternative fillings that they think may appeal more to Finnish people, like reindeer meat, crayfish and pickled herring. The taste tests fail though, and Sachie reaffirms her conviction that the “traditional fillings” of ume, shake, okaka (umeboshi, salted salmon, bonito flakes moistened with soy sauce), are the best. While the subject of alternative fillings for onigiri does crop up from time to time, I have to say I tend to agree with Sachie here! Sachie’s goal is to for her Finnish customers to appreciate real Japanese soul food.

Kamome Shokudoh is a gentle, rather fairytale-like movie, with touches of magical realism. Nothing much really happens, but the main characters still go through some profound changes. I don’t want to give away too many plot details since there are so few really. A lot of people won’t enjoy it for that reason. I loved it however. It’s not as obvious a look at Japanese culture as Suupaa no Onna is, but it does show a certain very Japanese view of life. It also has lots of great shots of typical Japanese homestyle dishes, and the Scandinavian interiors are gorgeous.

Notes about Suupaa no Onna

Goro and Hanako are used as generic names for girls and boys, sort of like Jack and Jill or Dick and Jane in English.
Tampopo fans may remember Masahiko Tsugawa, who plays Goro, as the convenience store manager who has a frantic cat-and-mouse chase around his store with the old lady who likes to squeeze the produce.)
The direct translation of Sho-jiki Ya is Honest Store. Yasuuri Daimaoh is Bargain Devil (a Daimaoh is a sort of spirit, that can be but isn’t always evil).
As far as I know Suupaa no Onna is only available as a Japanese release. It does have pretty good English subtitles. Amazon Japan link.

Notes about Kamome Shokudoh

Why does Sachie, not to mention the other Japanese women in the movie, end up in Finland? Why does the story even take place in Finland? The answer in a nutshell is Moomin. Moomin is tremendously popular in Japan; Moomin books are perpetual bestsellers, and many a young girl daydreams about ‘going to Moomin land’. By extension, Finland, the land of Moomin, is seen in quite a romantic light. Now since I haven’t read Moomin since…ah, I’m actually not sure if I ever read Moomin…I can’t say I understand the appeal but there it is. (Moomin fandom in Japan is oddly similar to Anne of Green Gables fandom.)
This movie was released in Finland under the title Ruokala Lokki. (It could be available in Finland on DVD, but since I don’t read any Finnish I can’t find out.)
This one is also only available as a Japanese release. It does have English subs. (I’ve seen cheap versions on eBay but I’m skeptical about the legality of those.) Amazon Japan link.

More about onigiri: keeping them fresh and more

maki — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 06:06:25 +0100

In a comment to my Onigiri Revisited post, Jennifer said:

I’ve made fresh onigiri a number of times and would love to be able to make it the night before and take into work with me the next day. How do I do that? (or am I out of luck?) The rice gets all hard and I’ve tried sprinkling water on it in the microwave, but then it falls apart. Suggestions? Do I need a special type of rice? How do I store it after it is made?

Onigiri really are better if made the morning of the day you’re going to eat them. I remember my mom waking up very early in the morning to make onigiri when we had a school outing (which usually meant an obento lunch with onigiri).

That being said, you can make them the night before, but you need to take some measures. There are a few things you can do to have moist (but not wet) rice balls.

Tips for making moist-until-you-eat-them onigiri

Use Japanese medium-grain rice (uruchi-mai, or sushi rice) - other types of rice don’t really stay moist enough. (Short grain mochi rice is a possibility, but they make for very glutinous and gooey rice balls.) See the Looking at rice post if you’re not sure what rice is what.
Make sure you are making them with freshly cooked rice, that’s still hot, not cooled. Don’t make onigiri with room-temperature rice..it will not stick together well and will dry out fast. The cooked rice should be nicely moist and plump to start with.
Wrap them completely in plastic wrap before storing in the refrigerator. This keeps the moisture in and prevents the surface from drying out. (Wrapping them in nori would have a similar effect, but then the nori will turn out rather soggy. I prefer to wrap in plastic and bring the crispy nori along separately.) A typical refrigerator is as dry as a desert inside, so you have to protect the rice from that dry air.

Keeping onigiri fresh

Onigiri were developed as a portable meal. Salting the surface is not only done for flavor; the salt helps to preserve the freshness of the rice. So be sure not to skip the salt if you plan to eat the onigiri some time after you make them.

Traditional onigiri fillings tended to be salty had long keeping qualities. Umeboshi (pickled plum) in particular is purported to have antibacterial qualities, so were an ideal filling for rice balls that were to be carried for a long time by hot, sweaty travelers.

If it’s only going to be a few hours until you eat the onigiri, AND you can keep them reasonably cool (in a dark place out of direct sunlight), AND you use enough salt on the surface, they can be kept at room temperature. If you think you’ll be carrying them around for a very long time though, it’s probably best to use umeboshi or another long keeping, salty filling, rather than something like tuna-mayo or Spam.

Nuke them

If you are bringing them somewhere where you have access to a microwave, you can also freeze them. Defrosting time depends on how many onigiri you have, how big they are, how powerful the microwave is, etc. but once you get the timing right you can get hot onigiri that taste like they were just made. Be sure to wrap them in microwave-ready plastic wrap in that case! I often make extra onigiri and tuck a few in the freezer as treats.

What to do with dried out onigiri?

If the surface has dried out a bit but the insides are still moist, you can turn them into yaki onigiri. But if they are further gone than that, you can turn them into ochazuke, rice with tea. Just heat up the onigiri in the microwave, or even better grill them a bit a la yaki onigiri to make them crispy, then proceed as described in the ochazuke recipe by pouring on hot tea with toppings. Delicious!

Onigiri (rice balls)

maki — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 08:31:00 +0100

[Update:] Be sure to check out my easier, neater way to make onigiri!

[Another update:] See all kinds of onigiri on my new bento-only site, Just Bento.

[Yet another update:] Before asking a general question about onigiri, please check out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there!

Onigiri are rice balls, usually with a tasty filling. They are very portable, and therefore are very popular for carry-along lunches. Part of their appeal lies in the fact that if you're Japanese, you just love the taste of rice. It's genetic. [Edit: another word for onigiri is omusubi. I guess it just depends on what word you grew up with. In our house it was always onigiri.]

Onigiri can stand on their own, or be part of a bento or boxed lunch. (For some reason it's never just called "nigiri", though bento is also called obento, which is the honorific term.) Onigiri are also a great make-ahead snack for a crowd, since with the appropriate fillings they keep rather well. I remember my aunt making 12-cups of rice worth of onigiri at a time for the large family gatherings at New Year's or Obon (August festival to pay respect to our ancestors). Her hands would be bright red from the heat of the rice. She favored salted salmon (shio zake) as the filling usually - very salty salmon in fact.

Onigiri is also one of my top comfort foods. It reminds me of the ones my mother used to make for me for school outings (ensoku) as well as countless school lunches. When we stayed at my grandmother's and my cousines and I would take trips to the Chichibu mountain area, my aunt would make huge rice balls to assuage our appetites. There's a comforting feeling of continuity with history too, because Japanese travelers have sustained themselves on those salty rice balls for hundreds of years.

Like obento boxed lunches, onigiri can be elaborate creations, but the simple versions the are best in my opinion. We often bring some onigiri with us on long train trips: it's a lot better than buying the overpriced sandwich buns from the vending carts. Yes, sometimes people look at us curiously as we bite into those soccer-ball colored balls. We don't care one bit.

While I was working on writing up this entry, I came across this post by Mimi Ito . Japanese people have a lot of emotional attachment to obento, and to onigiri too.

Classic Onigiri

For 4 fair sized rice balls, you need:

4 cups of freshly cooked Japanese-style rice (sorry, I wrongly stated 2 cups of rice here before. Each onigiri requires about a cup of cooked rice.)
2 sheets of nori seaweed, cut into 3cm/2 inch wide strips
Salt
Fillings. Some classic fillings are pickled plum (umeboshi), bonito flakes just moistened with soy sauce (okaka), bonito flakes mixed with pickled plum (umekaka), flaked cooked salted salmon (shake or shiozake), cooked salty cod roe (tarako), chopped up pickles (tsukemono), and tsukudani, various tidbits - bonito cubes, tiny clams, etc. - cooked and preserved in a strong soy-sugar-sauce. Some non-traditional fillings that work well are described below.

The key to making good onigiri is to have freshly cooked, hot rice. You can't make good onigiri with cold rice.

Wet your impeccably clean hands with cold water, and sprinkle them with salt. Take 1/4th of the rice and place on one hand. Make a dent in the middle of the rice with your other hand. Put in about 1 tsp or so worth of filling in the dent.

Working rapidly, wrap the rice around the filling, and form into a ball. To make the traditional triangular shape, cup your hand sharply to form each corner, and keep turning it until you are happy with the shape. Practive makes perfect.

Wrap the rice ball with 1-2 strips of nori seaweed.

Repeat for the rest of the rice.

To bring along on picnic, wrap in plastic film or in a bamboo leaf (which is traditional). Some people prefer to carry the nori strips separately, and to wrap them around the onigiri when eating, to preserve the crisp texture of the seaweed.

If it's hard to get a hold of the traditional fillings, here are some non-traditional ones that I have tried that work well. However, unlike the more traditional fillings (especially umeboshi) these fillings are quite perishable, so be careful in hot weather if you are taking them for a picnic. Any rather strongly flavored, salty filling should work.

Ground meat (pork or beef or a mixture), cooked with grated or chopped ginger, then flavored with soy sauce, some red pepper flakes, sake or mirin, and sugar. It should be quite dry. Curry flavored ground meat mixture works surprisingly well too.
Canned tuna, well drained and flaked, flavored with a bit of soy sauce and/or salt to taste.
Flaked corned beef
Chopped up western style pickles (as long as they don't have too much garlic in the brine), well squeezed to get rid of excessive moisture

For a fairly well-rounded picnic lunch that can all be eaten without utensils, add hard-boiled eggs (with a twist of salt) or cold barbeque chicken or skewered chicken (yakitori), an apple or orange, and vegetable sticks (carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber sticks).

Before asking a general question about onigiri, please check out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there!