FYI, I am not dying.. I was quite surprised that one day, we ( all Japanese )  were having dinner together and talked about last meal. 

Funny thing is that all of us except one person’s last meals are  ” onigiri” - rice ball. 

This is brown rice onigiri with sesame and shiso, the Japanese herb like Vietnamese herb. 

and wrap with nori, the seaweed

Onigiri is typical Japanese lunch. rice ball with various stuffing. 

Everybody’s favourite stuffings were different, Umeboshi ( Japanese plum pickles) , crab miso ( we call miso but actually crab’s digestive gland..I know we eat everything..), konbu no tsukudani ( kelp cooked with soy sauce, mirin and sugar ) 

For mine was ” sansyo chirimen” which is dried fish cooked with Japanese pepper. I could eat five bowl of rice with sansyo chirimen but I changed my stuffing to umeboshi the Japanese plum pickles since it is vegetarian :) 

Umeboshi, the plum pickles

This beautiful red colour come from Japanese herb, shiso that I have been talking about..

I thought umeboshi would not be poplar taste for non- Japanese people since they have very strong sourness but I found many people love umeboshi. Not only Asian but also European, Australian…

Umeboshi is super healthy food :) 

Their powerful acidity has a paradoxical alkalinizing effect on the body, neutralizing fatigue, stimulating the digestion, and promoting the elimination of toxins. This is the Far Eastern equivalent to both aspirin and apple; not only is it a potent hangover remedy for mornings after; more than that, an umeboshi a day is regarded as one of the best preventive medicines available.

To make onigiri is very easy. 

Cook Japanese rice, cool down a little otherwise you will get burned! 

Wet your hand and rub your hand with good quality salt ( important! )

Grab some rice and squeeze and shape the rice with both hands at once. triangle, round and cylinder is the common shape to make. 

You can see how you shape the onigiri in three shapes below 

make a little hole in the middle of onigiri and put your favourite stuffing.

Warp the onigiri with nori