Um, er… Konichiwa?

I had to think for a second there, even though apparently that’s the language of my ancestors.

You see, I’m one of those 2nd gen “illiterates”. It’s OK, I don’t mind, except when I’m at a Japanese restaurant and everyone expects me to eat either wasabi or sashimi. The latter, I can just barely stomach (which I suppose is good for the declining tuna populations) while the former is just north of dog poo for me (though I do like rotted slimy beans, go figure).

But still, Bryan-chan did grow up eating other typical Japanese foods for lunch and dinner. One of them is the Rice Ball, aka Omusubi, aka Onigiri. It’s basically triangular balls of rice, with or without a tiny bit of filling inside, and a seaweed wrap exterior. The reason I decided to put it here on Cheaplander is that it is a tremendously economical and delicious way to use up leftover sticky rice.

Note, I said STICKY rice. If you try to use standard white rice that’s not sticky, you will FAIL, i.e. you will not pass “GO” and collect 200 dollars. Unless you perhaps mix some Elmer’s glue into it…

The most common place that I had riceballs was on family trips and vacations. Funny, I just went fishing on my uncle’s boat yesterday, and although we didn’t bring along any musubi (we actually brought along Vietnamese sandwiches which is a post for another day), it sure reminded me of the old days when we used to have lunch on the fishing trips.

The benefits of having a lunch of riceballs on a fishing trip like this are many. Obviously, the portable aspect of the lunch is key - you can hold the riceball in one hand and your anchovy bait in the other. Hey, you might even want to mix the two - or not. The seaweed exterior also prevents the rice from sticking to your hands, although they are often also wrapped in wax paper or plastic wrap so you can hold them easily like you would a sandwich.

One of the other benefits has to do with the way they are (usually) prepared. I used to watch my mom prepare them - she’d have a bowl of cooked rice, a small bowl of water and a small bowl of table salt. She’d dip fingers in the water, then the salt before grabbing a handful of rice and forming a ball out of it. I asked what the need was for the salt - and apparently it helps to preserve the rice so you don’t have to refrigerate it overnight. Actually, you absolutely DON’T want to refrigerate your musubi - the rice will get all hard. I’m not sure exactly how long an unrefrigerated musubi will last - I think it also depends on how warm or humid the weather is.

There are a ton of goodies you can put inside. I think a typical one is a shmear of salted preserved plum (known as umeboshi). I’ve also had them with salted fish, seaweed, gingery ground beef, pickles, preserved meat or chicken on the interior. Sometimes, they substitute the outside seaweed layer with other things - my late Gram used to make a riceball with a salted salmon interior and a cooked cabbage leaf as a wrap - sort of like a Japanese version of stuffed cabbage rolls. Actually, many times there isn’t any outside wrapping at all - it’s just rice wrapped around some sort of filling.

By the way, before we go any further: sushi is NOT EQUAL to onigiri. The former uses vinegared rice. Onigiri uses plain old sticky rice, and that’s why it’s so easy to use leftover rice to make it.

At this point, I should mentione that I’m no expert on making these things. In fact, we’ve only started to use up leftover rice this way in the last 2 years or so. My mom’s always come out in as aesthetically pleasing triangular packages with the seaweed wrapped around the rice perfectly, and a correct amount of filling.

The ones I make tend to, first of all, explode. This is due to the fact that I’m way too generous with the filling. (If you’ve ever made ravioli, and you put too much filling inside them, you’ll know what I mean). Leakage in a musubi makes them quite a bit less portable and increases cross-contamination with the afore-mentioned fishbait.

Secondly, I lack the mechanical dexterity necessary to make these into nice triangular packages. Mine tend to look like blobs. Or skunks. I also haven’t quite figured out the correct way to cut the seaweed to make it cover the entire rice ball. I’ve seen some other folks just roll up the rice and filings like a tube, sort of how you would a sushi roll. That might be more convenient, but I prefer a little triangular package.

There is a popular sub-species of onigiri known as Spam Musubi, which is probably a huge post for another day. Very briefly - these are rectangular and look like a tea sandwich with rice as the bread and Spam as the filling. They are super excellent, but require a little more work to make than a typical riceball. I had these all the time on the fishing boats, probably as frequently as standard riceballs. It’s a Hawaiian thingy - one side of my family is from that rock in the middle of the Pacific, so I guess this fits too.

OK, so you probably get the idea by now. Riceballs are a great and cheap way to make use of leftover sticky rice for lunch the next day. It’s very filling and satisfying, especially if you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean. If I was better at making them, I’d make a gootube video to show you how. But you can probably find that kinda stuff already out there. I’m just letting you know about it in case you haven’t heard of it.

And for the last time: no, I don’t know karate, have a samurai sword, or wear a kimono.