Everyone knows and loves onigiri, or rice balls. They’re the perfect portable snack, available in every conbini with a wide range of different fillings. But some of us have grown tired of the same old snack. Thus, the “onigirazu” was born! We’ll show you how to make it right here!

The “Onigirazu” is so-called because instead of shaping the snack with your hands (nigiru), you simply sandwich the filling between two flat pieces of seaweed-coated rice. (The -zu form of verbs indicates a negative.) We introduced the new style a while back, but the snack has become so super-popular in Japan that we decided it was time to make our own and share our secret recipe with the good readers of RocketNews24!

While onigirazu is currently going through something of a “boom” of popularity of Japan, it turns out that the snack isn’t actually new at all. It debuted in the culinary manga Cooking Papa way back in 1991! The onigirazu might be older than some of our readers! Its current popularity can be explained due to the fact that it’s really easy to make, looks super-cool, AND, unlike regular onigiri, the fillings are evenly distributed so you’re guaranteed to get a hit of both filling and rice with every bite!

Here’s what you’ll need to make it…

– Cooked white Japanese rice

– Nori seaweed sheets

– Your fillings of choice

…And that’s it! This time, we decided upon the following fillings: tuna mayo, sliced cheese, kimchi, ham and lettuce!

Here’s how you make it…

Mix a pinch of salt into the cooked white rice, then lay out some plastic wrap. Place a piece of nori seaweed on top of the plastic wrap, then cover it with a thin layer of the white rice. Top the white rice with tuna mixed with mayonnaise and soy sauce, sliced cheese, kimchi, ham and lettuce. Once that’s done, top that with another thin layer of white rice. Finally, wrap the edges of the nori seaweed sheet on top then wrap it all up using the edges of the plastic wrap. Leave for a while for the nori seaweed to soften up slightly, then cut up with a sharp knife.

Here’s the video!

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your onigirazu! Here’s another one we made with potato chips and bacon! As you can tell from our taste-tester kids at the end of the video, kids LOVE potato chips in their onigirazu!

What would you put inside your onigirazu? Let us know in the comments!

Photos and video © RocketNews24