These are the onigiri (rice balls) I made for my husband today. They are very easy to carry and are perfect for road trips. My husband had to travel to another city today to make some deliveries with his job and he requested onigiri instead of his regular bento, as he needed to eat in the truck. Onigiri is a shaped ball of rice with some sort of filling inside. Typical fillings include but are not limited to salted salmon, roe mixed with mayonnaise, ume boshi, tuna with mayonnaise, mentaiko, dried bonito flakes and pickled seaweed. You can get creative with this and try things like sausage and other types of pickles. Even canned chicken or ham would work. The point is to use something salted as it needs to last in your lunch. Onigiri is sort of like the Japanese answer to sandwiches. We use items like ham and pickles in our sandwiches because they don't go bad as quickly. It is a similar story in Japan--things like salted salmon and ume boshi work just like deli meat here. I shaped the rice with a small piece of salmon inside it. I then wrapped a piece of nori seaweed around it. Once the rice ball was cool, I packaged it up in tin foil and presto! A very portable lunch! Onigiri makes a satisfying lunch or snack anytime and it is quite healthy for you as well. Onigiri works best with Japanese koshihikari short grain rice (sometimes called sushi rice in the supermarket).
Supper tonight was another donburi. This is a pork cutlet on rice with egg and onion. Onions and garlic are simmered in sake, soy sauce, dashi and sugar. Then a sliced cooked pork cutlet is layered on top. Beaten egg is drizzled on top and simmered until cooked. This is placed on top of steamed white rice. Pickled ginger goes well with this dish. It is satisfying at the end of a long day of physical work (my poor man!).
Tomorrow is Friday and I am thinking spaghetti!
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