Onigiri and Bento

I have been fascinated with certain aspects of Japanese culture for many years. (It must run in the dad's family). They just make everything so cute! I saw this blog post about making a suck up bento box and I just wanted a bento lunch box so bad. Then my cousin posted this video.

The combination of the two sent me over. I spent one afternoon out looking for bento boxes on the North end of Seattle. Everything was either really expensive, or really cheap looking.

My cousin saw my struggle on Facebook and since her husband is stationed in Japan and she and their children are there, she offered to send me a bento lunch box! Shipping from the base is the same as US postage. I got a whole box of fun goodies a couple of weeks later. Two bento, fishie sauce holders, fun paper cups to put food in and onigiri molds.

Today we tried out the onigiri molds. I read a lot about it before hand,(this was the best site) which was probably overkill because this is one of the easiest Japanese foods ever to make. I wasn't sure I would like the molds, because it sounded so easy to make without them--occasionally something that seems revolutionary just adds its own problems to processes. Not here. The molds made it super easy and we didn't have to burn our hands. We wore gloves anyway and it helped keep the mess down.

These are our finished product. You can check out our set on Flickr to see all the pictures. Basically, you dip your onigiri molds (or your hands) in water, then sprinkle them with salt. Press in warm (or hot, if you are feeling masochistic) japanese style rice, filling about half way. Add your filling--we used salted salmon and pickled veggies--then add more rice over the top. Press down with your dipped and salted top mold, then press it out of the mold. You can wrap the finished onigiri it in seaweed, fukikake, sesame seeds, or whatever suits your fancy. If you are making them for later, you might want to pack that part separate, as the seaweed tends to get a strange texture after sitting. Here is The Boy enjoying one of our first onigiri: