This Could Be the World's Next Fast-Food Phenom

The word "onigiri" became part of the Oxford English Dictionary this year, proof that the humble sticky-rice ball and mainstay of Japanese food has entered the global lexicon. The rice balls are stuffed with a variety of fillings and typically wrapped in seaweed. It's an everyday dish that epitomizes "washoku"—the traditional Japanese cuisine that was designated a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage a decade ago, per the AP.

• What's in it? The sticky characteristic of Japanese rice is key. What's placed inside is called "gu," or filling. A perennial favorite is "umeboshi," or salted plum. Or perhaps "mentaiko," which is hot, spicy roe. But in principle, anything can be placed inside onigiri, even sausages or cheese—then the ball is wrapped with seaweed. Even one nice big onigiri would make a meal, although many people would eat more.

• History: Onigiri in its earliest form is believed to go back at least as far as the early 11th century. It's mentioned in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. It appears in Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 film, Seven Samurai, as the ultimate gift of gratitude from the farmers.
• Background: Onigiri is "fast food, slow food, and soul food," says Yusuke Nakamura, who heads the Onigiri Society, a trade group in Tokyo. Fast because you can find it even at convenience stores. Slow because it uses ingredients from the sea and mountains, he said. And soul food because it's often made and consumed among family and friends. No tools are needed—just gently cupped hands. "It's also mobile, food on the move," he said.
• Some want classic onigiri: Yosuke Miura runs Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku, a restaurant founded in 1954 by his grandmother. It claims to be the oldest onigiri restaurant in Tokyo. Also a classical flautist, Miura sees onigiri as a score handed down from his grandmother, one that he'll reproduce faithfully. "In classical music, you play what's written on the music sheet. Onigiri is the same," he says. "You don't try to do something new."
• Some want to experiment: Miyuki Kawarada runs Taro Tokyo Onigiri, which has four outlets in Japan. She's eyeing Los Angeles, too, then Paris. Her vision: to make onigiri "the world's fast food." Kawarada's onigiri has lots of gu on top, for colorful toppings, instead of inside. And each one comes with a separately wrapped piece of nori to be placed around it right before you eat.
• Customers: Miki Yamada, a food promoter, intentionally calls onigiri "omusubi," the other common word for rice balls, as the latter more clearly refers to the idea of connections. She says her life's mission is to bring people together, especially since the triple earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters hit her family's rice farm in Fukushima, in northeastern Japan, in 2011. "It energizes you. It's that ultimate comfort food," she says.

(More Japanese food stories.)