Warning: Eating these mermaid salad rolls might just turn you into a mermaid.
Okay, that may be stretching the truth just a teensy bit; but, I can at least guarantee that you’ll feel like a mermaid after eating them. Who doesn’t want to feel like a beautiful mythical creature come lunchtime?
You guys, it’s already happening. People are talking about autumn. Exclaiming how it’s less than 1 month away. Counting down the days until Starbucks brings out the you know what. Yes, the pumpkin spice bomb has officially dropped. But hold up: Can we just consider for one quick second here how we still have 26 days of perfectly good summer left?
That’s why this month’s onigiri is cranking up the summertime feels to maximum output: I’m talking watermelon onigiri, here to show summer that we haven’t forgot about it just yet.
An excellent addition to any bento box, eggs are a great way to add some extra protein to your lunch and fill up empty stomachs. But, let’s be real here: plain, hard-boiled eggs aren’t all that exciting. I’m talking about whole hard-boiled eggs, which just look like awkward white masses when placed inside a bento box. One way to overcome this is by cutting the egg in halves, slices, or wedges – all perfectly feasible choices, and great for adding to more traditional bento boxes. But what if you want something a little bit cuter, a little bit fancier, for that adorable bento box you just prepared?
Let’s talk rice balls. Like, literally, rice shaped into cute little teensy balls that you can just pop into your mouth and eat in one bite. We’re going to step up our rice ball game today and multiply their cuteness times 1 million. Behold: Rilakkuma rice balls, featuring Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma, and Kiiroitori. They’re deliciously adorable, easy to eat, and a fun upgrade from a boring old white rice bento.
To kick-off our first EVER Monthly Onigiri post, we’re going to dissect, reassemble, and admire the classic, triangle-shaped onigiri. Before we dive head-first into that, however, there’s one thing we should probably clear up: what, exactly, is onigiri?
Known as “rice balls” in English (and also sometimes called musubi), onigiri are those cute triangular bundles of rice ubiquitous with the Japanese lunch scene. They come in all shapes and sizes, and can be filled or sprinkled with all sorts of mouth-watering goodies. So, why are they called rice balls if they’re actually rice triangles? Just chalk it up to a translation thing.
Have you ever grown your own plants before? I can’t say I have a lot of experience with this myself, but just this summer, I decided to give growing some of my own herbs a try. When I say give it a try, I mean “go to the grocery store and buy their pre-potted herbs” kind of try. That still counts though, right? I ended up with a parsley plant, as well as a cute little shiso and mizuna plant I found at my local Japanese store.
In the beginning, I was quite diligent with my watering duties, and even used some of the parsley in an omelette (such a proud plant-mama moment). Fast forward a few weeks, however, and my parsley and mizuna plants had, quite literally, dropped dead. Needless to say, I am now tagged in every meme about killing plants on Facebook.
