Hello, I am Yoshi Tanaka of NILS Japanese language school. Today, we would like to tell you about Japanese food, onigiri おにぎり/omusubi おむすび or rice balls.
Rice balls are a convenient take-out food, like sandwiches. Althought they’re translated as “rice balls” in English, their shapes are varied. The most common shapes are round, oval and triangular. To make a rice ball, you squeeze lightly salted steamed rice into the desired shapes with your hands. Also, it is popular to put something in the middle of a rice ball. The fillings that everyone likes are pickled plums, chunks of salted salmon, shaved dried bonito seasoned with soy sause or some other salty and spicy ingredients. The contrast with the fillings really brings out the taste of the rice. Rice balls are often wrapped in dried laver seaweed so as to make handling them less sticky.

April 13th News, from NILS Japanease language school.