Japan's humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world | Hacker News Reader

Japan's humble onigiri took over lunchtimes around the world

theguardian.com

126 pointsn1b0m76 comments

I know that there's been rumblings of 7/11 in the USA spinning up more food options with an eye to how things are done by its parent in Japan, but it really can't come soon enough. Get a move on! 7/11 in Japan with its onigiri is amazing and I'm desperate for these style of convenience stores with their options to make their way over here to USA and Canada.

7/11 in Australia, which is generally terrible but was acquired by the Japanese operator of 7/11 last year, recently rolled out onigiris nationwide after a successful trial in Victoria. So there's hope yet!

How are they?

I'm in California -- I love the konbinis in Japan, and while 7-Eleven's recent announcements to offer more konbini-like food and experience sounds great, I fear it's going to fall far short of the mark because I think it's a combination of ingredients, supply chain, and employee processes and practices. Like, all those things need to be on point to deliver a quality onigiri or egg salad sandwich, and I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the US-based 7-Elevens to deliver without massive changes.

(And to be clear, I don't think there has been any mention of onigiri appearing at US-based 7-Eleven, they have have announced better/different prepared sandwich offerings)

> I fear it's going to fall far short of the mark because I think it's a combination of ingredients, supply chain, and employee processes and practices

Same here as well.

Part of the charm of konbinis (and Japan to an extent) is the friendly atmosphere. Foods are fresh (delivered daily and inventory churn is consumer friendly) and people working at these places (despite being not high-paying) have higher level of care of how customers are treated. 7-11 here by comparison are... definitely not that.

Would you pay $6.99 for a onigiri?

Sure they're ~120 JPY-240JPY. But it wouldn't be the same price. Plus would they really sell them in the USA?

Same for more of the other options, I don't see it really happening. There's a reason hotdogs, nachos and whatever else they offer in USA is the norm. That's what the market takes and settles on and even then, it's over $5.

Uh, I buy Onigiri in NYC at Dainobu and I'm pretty sure it's $2.99 MAX $4.99.

I think in many metros they could have a market esp if they did some sort of anime tie in.

good god that's expensive for a ball of rice and a spoonful of protein. when i went to japan a few years ago they were like $1.50 each. I would eat like 6 a day at that price (and sometimes did when there)

Me too, thats why I'm shocked - I don't see the average american eating rice as a meal/snack and two, paying 5+ or the benefit.

But then again there are alternatives, e.g. Chipotole which I think is the only mainstream popular segment of rice in a meal to taco bell.

Honestly even at this high price point I’d still be saving money from current lunch options.

That’s how bad food inflation has been. It’s challenging at this point to get a lunch cheaper than C$15.

A typical American won’t be satisfied on the calories of one onigiri for lunch.

I hope so!

That seems way too high. I live in Manhattan and I pay $2.50-$2.75 for onigiri depending on the filling.

My wife is opening a drive-thru restaurant which serves these (among other Asian foods like musubi and lumpia and such). Pricing as of now looks like $3 a pop, which is comparable to the pricing at the local Mitsuwa. Convenience store onigiri in Japan are of course generally a lot cheaper (especially with the current exchange rate).

https://www.tsunagujapan.com/16-top-selling-items-at-lawson-...

Where at?

Bolingbrook, IL. As of now - opening date seems like late Nov., but of course we're new to the resto business and there's a learning curve on all of the non-food bits of it.

Do you think the $3 price is sustainable or optimistic? My dream would be to make enough dough to start a restaurant affordable and friendly enough to become a community hub. Best of luck on your venture!

I feel like $5 is not too expensive

The wife has crunched the numbers, and seems to think it is sustainable. There's only one way to find out for sure, of course.

Props to you both for doing this -- I wish you steady sustainable growth and long-term success!

Love these things. I still remember the first time I saw some at a stand at a festival here in Germany. Me and my friend each bought one, then bought a few more because they were so freaking good. Still have pictures of our first bite. It was shortly after that I started seeing them everywhere in supermarkets, and I've been buying them regularly ever since (despite the crazy price).

I fell in love with them when I visited Tokyo and I was pleasantly surprised to find them in a lot of grocery stores in Paris recently. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to get them in the UK at least not in the big supermarkets.

I haven't seen any in supermarkets, but bought two in a shop in central London recently and it cost £9, which is eye watering compared to Japan 7-Eleven prices.

Damn, and I thought 3€ a piece was a lot.

That was with a discount too!

I had feeling they were easier to find in London.

I happen to work near a place that does them, but I couldn't find many places that specialise in selling takeaway onigiri.

These are what I miss most about my years living in Japan. I made them for my kids a few weeks ago and they adored them. You can buy plastic-lined seaweed sheets to fold the rice into, so opening them is almost the same experience as onigiri from a Japanese conbini. For a filling, I just mixed together some tuna, salt, and mayo.

I love onigiri, but over here in Europe they are still pretty niche, and by niche I mean expensive.

It's basically a sandwhich, right? Only that it costs 5-10x more.

They cost 1.99–2.69 € where I live (depending on the supermarket chain). A pair of soggy toast sandwiches is about the same price.

It’s not the cheapest snack in terms of calories per Euro (they are around 130 kcal), but still reasonable.

Just steam some sushi rice, choose a filling, maybe salt the rice a bit if you want and form it into the shape with your hands. If you want wrap it with some nori, salt or put furikake on it. No need to pay the foreign Japanese food tax! It’s dead simple to make, and whoever is selling that ripoff onigiri to you is probably not even Japanese anyway.

(Admittedly the rice here does taste better in my opinion, but so it goes…)

In France you can find them in supermarkets for EUR 3.50 apiece.

They're also super easy to make yourself, just some rice, any kind of filling, and half a sheet of nori to wrap it.

Once we made these onigiris for a potluck my kid's school hosted and they went away very quickly. So we have stopped exploring other menus and just have kept making them every potluck since. And it goes away quickly every time.

One thing I noticed since is that it can be a great vegan option: You can make one from rice salt and dried kelp/seaweed plus some pickles (umeboshi etc.)

Do you recommend making these over buying them?

I really prefer making them, the rice will be more moist - the rice seems dry when i've bought them

I use a 1/2 seaweed sheet per ball - again better - crispier if stored well

our favourite fillings is either curry paste (that very concentrated stuff) or the purple flakes (i think they're called shiso)

these are one of our families favourite - they go quickly no matter how much we make

Yes, very inexpensive to make, but outside of Japan they can be priced fairly high as specialty items.

They're definitely better freshly made, either at home or a nicer restaurant that makes them to-order. Make sure you buy the correct kind of rice or they won't shape properly.

But the premade ones are a very easy grab-n-go food. It's like how a homemade burger will always beat a McDonald's burger. But there's times and places where you want a burger but aren't able to stop and cook one up yourself.

Very easy to make. You can make them with pretty much anything if you aren't a stickler for authenticity.

One of the best flavors I have made was what I called "Spaghetti Onigiri". For that I took a basic American style spaghetti sauce (tomato sauce + ground beef) and simmered it down until it was very concentrated and almost dry. I used that for the filling. Then I took the filled rice ball and rolled it in a mix of grated parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and "Italian seasoning" blend.

Another version I didn't invent is ketchup onigiri. This is made by mixing dried chopped onion and ketchup into cooked rice with small cubes of cheddar cheese. Form it into smallish onigiri and toast in a medium to medium low pan, brushing the outside with soy sauce. I don't remember where I learned it other than some random little Japanese cookbook I picked up Kinokuniya in the late 90s.

A popular standard in my home is to make them with tuna salad. It's probably the most common way we eat them. Just mix your tuna salad to be a bit dryer than usual.

I replied to another thread here with some links to more traditional recipes.

Having never had one, are onigiri filled with anything? I think of eating something that's basically entirely rice and wonder where's the protein? It seems to just be all simple carbs, which feels like a setup for an insulin spike and sugar crash.

Yes they’re usually filled with some kind of filling. Often a fish or meat filling.

They’re essentially like a dumpling.

Oh so more than just what’s on top? Neato.

When I make them at home I usually stuff them with teriyaki chicken

even just the seaweed wrapper adds a lot of flavor, but for sure the filling is the best part. it's really tastey rice too, not like the rice you'd get dumping any old white rice into a rice cooker then trying to eat it

tuna plus mayo and umeboshi (tart, pickled plum) are my two favorite onigiri stuffings

When I was in Japan for a while you could get them filled with all sorts of things. The most common I recall were tuna and mayo or chicken with teriyaki sauce or soy sauce and they're delicious. I'd have one or two a day.

It’s most like carb. Most Japanese diet is much more carb heavy than a typical Californian diet.

The pickled plum ones I had in Tokyo were delicious

https://www.justonecookbook.com/onigiri-rice-balls/

You can make them all sorts of ways. Plain rice around a filling or with rice with stuff mixed in shaped into a ball.

You can also make a more sandwich like variant called onigirazu. This link is for one made with chicken katsu, but you can use any kind of sandwich filling--strongly flavored, savory things like ham work best.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/chicken-katsu-onigirazu/

They're usually filled with something with a lower glycemic index than the surrounding rice. You can also mitigate some of the glycemic response effect of the onigiri by cooking the rice with vinegar and chilling the cooked rice (or packaged onigiri) overnight to increase the starch's resistance.

You’re right, they are just 90% white rice with some flavouring. No more “healthy” than a white bread sandwich.

If you’re looking for a healthier lunch option, try a 7 ingredient chopped salad including almonds and cashews and feta, topped with a simple vinaigrette. These take less than 10 minutes to make the night before, and will fill you up all afternoon.

Fond memories of grabbing a few of these in the little shop within Shimokitazawa station, people watching with my wife as we wolfed them down, then heading off to the train with satisfied stomaches to explore Tokyo.

Are they hard to make at home? I haven't found great/reliable spots to get these in SF. (Where are the great SF spots for these??)

If you have an H Mart near by the sell them in the hot food area.

There’s an Onigilly in FiDi but my favorite is the Japanese market in Nob Hill on Polk.

> Are they hard to make at home?

Not at all. You need the right type of rice (and a rice cooker helps). There are many options for the filling, some of which don't even require a trip to the Asian grocery store.

A rice cooker is one of those inexpensive but life-changing items.

They are basically sandwich equivalents. You need the correct rice but they are easy to make. Parents make them daily for their kid's lunches because they are so easy to make.

But also like sandwiches an excellent one is difficult to make.

> Are they hard to make at home? I haven't found great/reliable spots to get these in SF. (Where are the great SF spots for these??)

A number of Japanese students I knew just used leftover rice to make onigiri for lunch the next day.

In SF, Super Mira on Sutter & Buchanan has an assortment. And of course Nijiya. I don't think Onigilly is anything special.

I think they are super easy to make.

My tip is to go to a japanese grocery store and buy an onigiri mold for $3. All you do is stuff the rice (and fillings) into the mold and press. Keep the mold in a bowl of water between making balls (like they keep ice cream scoops in water)

You can also buy specific Japanese rice varieties that are better textured when cold. You can also figure out how to store them without the nori touching the rice

There are some good spots in Japantown I like Kissako tea in the japan town mall...

> Are they hard to make at home?

A bit. I've tried it but didn't have a ton of success. Main thing I found is use plastic wrap when trying to shape the rice, or else it tends to stick to your hands more than it sticks to itself.

Did you use a bowl of lightly salted water to wet your hands while handling the rice balls? It's a trick that works for dough and masa too without the salt, but the added salt helps season the onigiri while you handle it.

You have to keep your hands at least moist to keep the rice from sticking. I make a small bowl of warm salty water handy when making onigiri to season while I shape.

Another option that I find works well when I'm preparing a large batch is to use nylon gloves. They don't adhere to rice nearly as much as latex gloves.

I was running into the same issue. I recently bought some cheap molds off of amazon and it makes shaping them a breeze.

Fill bottom half with rice > Add Filling > Top off with rice > Press and done!

Try the Japanese markets first. Nijiya, Mitsuwa, Marukai

Pro tip:

Get a real rice cooker (Panasonic) and real rice (Nishiki) and use the right rice-water ratio of 1:1.25

Be sure to rinse the rice to wash off any arsenic dust. (Same is true for other rices and grains)

i used to never wash my rice bc i was like, i dont see the point. it makes it significantly less mushy, will never not wash again

Wash also favor with seaweed during cooking

It’s 1:1 +20g or whatever for typical evaporation in your cooker. If you make more rice you shouldn’t scale the 20g portion.

I've never understood why these things don't cause food poisoning due to bacillus cereus. There are all sorts of theories about vinegar being used in cooking or whatnot but I've never seen any rigorous study of the microbiome of an onigiri.

By keeping them refrigerated and not stored for a long time? It's not rocket science.

I think the issue is when people (usually Westerners unaccustomed to rice) try to treat cooked rice like bread rather than like cooked pasta.

had the best home made onigari in japan ever. they don't mess around over there

The Canadian 7-11s have a larger mostly rice one available now for $5 CAD each.

Our family loves onigiri. It's one of those foods you can customize to whatever you feel like that day.

We love this Nori Komi furikake, you can put it on anything, including buttery popcorn!

https://www.amazon.com/Jfc-International-Seasoning-Furikake-...

For me an onigiri with soggy and chewy seaweed is disgusting, but one of those where the seaweed stays dry and crispy until unwrapping is really tasty.

My favourite is wasabi tuna in a tube shape.

The wrappers where the seaweed is kept separate from the rice until you unwrap it are such a good innovation.

I almost forgot about these! The common triangular shape didn't make it easy to make it work, but they managed anyway. Pretty cool.

I know onigiri from a Japan trip but usually don't buy them in Germany because they are expensive here. Supermarket sushi (sounds strange, but there is actually good supermarket sushi made in a little store-in-store) doesn't cost much more.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com