About ONIGIRI... and O CHA TSUKE
How to prepare them
Well, the easy way is to get them at your closest and favorite combine store. But, you can prepare them yourself. All you need is:
- rice
- a sheet of dried alga or if you do not like it, some sesame
- salt
- something to put inside: basically, anything you like. Purist will use the salty and acid umeboshi, or salmon, but, you can try with a piece of saucisse and some mayonnaise if you prefer.
The idea is that a onigiri should hold in your hand, and should be a mobile devise so that you can enjoy it anywhere, anytime.
So you need to get the right amount of rice that fits in you hand, put your filling inside and wrap it with the rice. Now, you have a rice ball. Put some salt, and a sheet of alga, or sesame, or both but too much is never good, isn't it.
You have your onigiri. You wrap it and here you go, with your mobile rice-app.
If you use hot rice, you need to use a plastic film to do your onigiri, otherwise you will get burnt.
In winter, I like to eat my onigiri in ocha tsuke: you dump your onigiri in a cup of tea, add the magic power called chatsuke (better but you may live without it). Add a umeboshi, or some sashimi on top of it, and then eat-drink. It is delicious! This keeps you warm, and it makes you feel healthy and fit!
I eat ochatsuke with onigiri at the office and it make everyone laughs because Japanese people would never eat ochatsuke at the office. They eat it at the end of izakaya time, before taking the train to go home...
Claire
Belgium