First Time Making Onigiri

After buying the onigiri lunch containers last week, I had an urge to make some to take to work. After searching for recipes and tips from various Youtube videos and blogs, I decided to do something that's a little simpler for my first attempt. Went out to buy some rice seasonings at the Japanese supermarket. There were so many varieties that it's hard deciding which flavors to buy. The Hello Kitty packages were variety packs and there weren't any MSG in them (many of them do have it but I guess these were made for children so it's healthier without the MSG).


For these rice balls, I used medium grain rice. The package suggested 1 1/4 cups water to 1 cup rice. So I used 2 cups of rice + 2 1/2 cups of water but my rice turned out too moist. I will cut back 1/4 cup water next time. The rice balls were so moist that the seaweed immediately turned super soggy once in contact with the rice. The ones I bought from the supermarket had just enough moisture and I was able to finish the whole onigiri before the seaweed turned soggy. Since it was my first attempt, I used a mold instead of shaping them with my hand and saved a lot of time. I'm going to do another batch w/ just rice seasonings before I move on to adding fillings. Hopefully my rice will turn out better with the new adjustment!