Having been with Slashfood a few days now, it is time for me to tell you about my favorite food: The onigiri.
I shall preface this by saying I am not Japanese, nor have I been anywhere in Japan other than the Tokyo airport. I have discovered and fallen in love with the onigiri in New York City alone. Let no ocean put us asunder.
The onigiri is like a rice and fish sandwich. There's fish or fish eggs, seaweed, what-have-you in the middle, packed in compacted rice and then wrapped in a handy piece of seaweed (for holding). I recommend the onigiri from JAS Mart in New York. I tried several from Sunrise Mart on Broome Street, but I always found bones in the salmon. Um...no thanks.
They are delicious, convenient, and cheap, we're talkin' like under $2 in New York City. Onigiri are the ideal thing to pick up on-the go, like a power bar for someone who prefers actual food to a science experiment wrapped in chocolate.
Eat your heart out, Earl of Sandwich. Can't find them in your town? For a great recipe (with pictures), click here!
10-16-2008 @11:52AM kelvin said... theres also oms/b. which is on 45th and 3rd, where they serve nothing but rice balls
http://www.riceball-omsb.com/
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10-16-2008 @12:37PM JMForester said... I make onigiri several times a month and then they are lunch for the next two days. I like to fill them with all kinds of things: natto, teriyaki seafood or chicken, tsukemono, or just a bunch of furikake sprinkled or rolled on the outside, under the nori.
When I am in NY visiting I usually grab a bunch from a local Japanese market to snack on during the drive home.
-JMF-
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10-16-2008 @1:52PM lyndyn said... One of my favorite workweek lunches is leftovers onigiri. On Sunday night, I make up a small pot of sushi rice and take whatever leftovers I have - which might be stirfry, a Carribean fish dish, fajitas, or just tuna salad - and make up onigiri, often with some chutney or sliced avocado, and a dash of plum vinegar and gomasio. I make them in a plastic hamburger press, so they're a pretty substantial lunch; they freeze decently, and one or two meal-sized servings of leftovers makes a week's worth of lunches.
A $3 bag of rice and a $3 packet of nori lasts a month or two; chutney and gomasio last several months. I can't imagine they cost more than a quarter apiece, if you count the fillings as "free" because the cost was already figured into a dinner somewhere.
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10-16-2008 @6:24PM totoro said... In Tokyo you can get these anywhere-even the convenience markets like 7/11 and all the train stations, which get them delivered fresh daily...mmmmmm...
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10-21-2008 @5:18AM Gobo said... Oh man, I lived on these when I visited Tokyo. At about a dollar each, they're the cheapest food you can find. Eel onigiri... yum.
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