your japanese cooking for my italian

It’s 11:30 when Kazu turns up at my flat, I am so excited and I am so pleased to discover that he is such a polite and charming man.
after a rather scary inspection of my fridge, Kazu decides we are going to prepare two simple dishes that I knew but that he thinks I am not getting right. The positive side of this embarrassing intrusion in my kitchen is that K compliment me for the ingredients that I have in both cupboard and fridge but he suggested me that maybe next time he will come with me to buy some things that I haven’t got yet (the labels are in English as well, but they don’t mention things like “organic” in the translation).

So what’s on the menu Kazu?
We made basic stuff, one was miso soup, and the other onigiri.

Onigiri are for the Japanese people what sandwiches are for the Europeans, they are cheap, you can buy them almost everywhere and you can obviously make them at home.
For Onigiri you have to buy far east origin rice (I bought sushi rice from Waitrose), I would have liked to have a brown rice but I couldn’t find it, but you can buy it in the Japanese shops.
The worst part of the day was when my new frend realized that I don’t have a rice cooker. For him it must have sound as if I was right out of the stoneage and he looked amazed by my confession.
Despite this we covered the rice in water (in a normal pot!) and we let it rest for half an hour. The rice becomes flawlessly white and then it’s ready to be boiled (but the Japanese say steamed).
The ratio rice water is something like 1 to 1.2. You have to put a lid on the pot and try not touch it till the rice is cooked.
At the same time cut in half a roasted nori sheet. When the rice is cooked you just need to dip your hand in water, make a little ball of rice in your hand and you can put in the middle just any sort of filling. We made them with umeboshi, and even a less traditional version with anchovy fillets and wasabi.
After this you just need to place the ball in the middle of your nori sheet and roll the seaweed around the ball, you can make it stick with a drop of water. My first Onigiri looked nothing like the real thing, they where a bit ugly but they tasted really great!

You can add toasted sesame seeds and salt to the rice but it’s not compulsory.