Onigiri

Onigiri is a hand-pressed triangle or ball of seasoned rice wrapped in a strip of nori, built around a small savoury filling. It's Japan's everyday portable rice snack, sold in every convenience store in the country and packed into lunchboxes at home.

What it actually is

Warm, freshly cooked rice, seasoned lightly with salt, is pressed by hand around a small pocket of filling — classically salted tuna mixed with mayonnaise, though pickled plum, salmon flake or seaweed are just as common — and shaped into a triangle or a round ball. A strip of nori is wrapped around the base, both to hold it together and to give the rice something crisp and salty to contrast with.

Convenience-store onigiri are wrapped so the nori stays separate and crisp until the moment it's opened, using a folded plastic sleeve designed to be pulled apart in one motion — a small piece of packaging engineering built entirely around keeping seaweed from going soft.

How it's served

• At room temperature or slightly warm, never refrigerator-cold, since cold rice turns hard and loses its texture.
• Unwrapped just before eating, nori added or exposed at the last moment for crispness.
• In pairs or small sets, as a light meal, alongside soup or pickles.

Writing it on a menu

• Say what's inside; tuna mayo, salmon, pickled plum and seaweed are all different orders, not variations on one filling.
• Flag fish and egg if the filling is tuna mayonnaise; a plum or seaweed filling removes both.
• Mention if a vegetarian or vegan filling is available; several traditional ones already are, without any substitution needed.
• Note that it's meant to be eaten fresh; rice that's been refrigerated and not properly rewarmed reads as a noticeably worse product.