Plum Rice Balls 3 Ways

    Everyone knows that Japan loves cherry blossoms. As a national symbol, the bright pink blooms mark the beginning of spring and many people across the country and even in other parts of the world enjoy their hanami or cherry blossom viewing as a picnic-style lunch under the blooming cherry trees in their area. The keen observer might also note the small white look-alike blossoms that pop up in similar areas just a little earlier. In Miyagi in mid to late March, the occasional little white blossoming tree can be spotted easily. These, I came to realize after several years in Japan, are plum blossoms.

    In the spirit of coming spring and with an eye toward the lovely blossoming trees, I've decided to try plum blossom rice balls in the three ways. In the same aisle of my grocery store where one can find pre-packaged microwavable rice, there is also a wide variety of things to put on or with the rice, either as a topping like furikake (dried rice topping) or mixed in as one might when making onigiri

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    I picked the best floral-looking varieties that I could find. One I didn't think to read and assumed was flower petals based on the pink hue of the contents turned out to be chunks of pickled plum. A few years ago, near a 1000-year-old cherry blossom tree in Fukushima, I found preserved cherry blossoms for sale. They were meant to be eaten on rice and I bought a few packets as souvenirs but didn't save any for myself. Of course, my grocery store did not have anything like that in stock, so I settled for the umeboshi pickled plum chunks, black sesame seeds with tiny plum sliver flowers, and a wakame seaweed blend with plum bits.

    Onigiri is super easy to make even for the easily intimidated like me. I used to put the toppings on the plastic wrap first, then add rice, then add more toppings, pull the wrapping over it and squeeze it together. Mixing the toppings with the rice first provided better results. 

    After warming up a 180 gram microwavable rice packet, I separated the contents into thirds and rendered three adorable little spring-inspired rice balls. The first one I tried was sesame and plum in which the bits of plum are found in the tiny flowers and tiny petals-like chunks, complemented by black sesame seeds and salt. I love the way this one looks and have been looking forward to using it for sometime. At the end of the day, it was highly enjoyable, but not my favorite.

    As it turns out, umeboshi at the center of the rice ball or spread throughout in chunks is still umeboshi and tastes about the same. It's not the worst flavor but doesn't harken spring the way it might with the right additional flavors. Still, if you like pickled plum and want an easy way to add more to your diet, these dried chunks work wonders.    

    My favorite from this group by surprise was the wakame seaweed blend. The combinations of salty and savory were more present here than in the sesame and the coloration was perfect to represent the coming flowers and leaves of the approaching season.


My favorites, from left to right: Wakame blend, Sesame blend, umeboshi chunks.

    If you're looking for a small snack or fast meal to harken the coming spring, plum rice balls of some variety might be the right idea.