Japanese Rice Balls

choi

Ligaya Mishan, A Convenient Snack, Elevated; At Hanamizuki, humble rice balls are the stars. New York Times, Dec 10, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/dinin ... uki-in-chelsea.html

Note:
(a) "They [rice balls] wait on the shelves of Japan’s convenience stores, like meat pies in Australia and jars of pickled eggs down South"

pickled egg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_egg

(b) "At Hanamizuki, which opened on the northeastern edge of Chelsea in May, the rice balls (onigiri or omusubi in Japanese) are still humble, but slightly offbeat * * * A version called the Italian looks and tastes wholly Japanese, with stray ticks of salt and vinegar, but it’s been infiltrated with salami, olives and capers."
(i)
(A) Hanamizuki
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanamizuki
(a 2010 Japanese film [Japanese title: ハナミズキ (katakana for the pronunciation)]; released in Taiwan and Hong Kong under "花水木")
(B) The cafe's website:
www.hanamizukiny.com/
(ii)
(A) hanamizuki ハナミズキ 《花水木》 【はなみずき】 (n): "flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)"
(B) Cornus florida
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_florida
(native to eastern North America)
(iii)
(iv) tick (n): "(business) the smallest increment of a price fluctuation in a commodity exchange. Tick size is usually 0.01% of the nominal value of the trading unit"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tick

(c) Japanese English dictioary
* hana 花 【はな】 (n): "flower"
* mizu 水 【みず】 (n): "water"
* ki 木(P); 樹 【き】 (n): "tree"
* onigiri おにぎり 《お握り(P); 御握り》 (n): "rice ball (often triangular, sometimes with a filling and wrapped in nori)" (握, because it i made with clenching of one hand, with rice in the palm, to make a ball)
* omusubi お結び; 御結び 【おむすび】 (n): "rice ball" (The "o" in front" is an honorific--to show respect for the word immediately after. The same for "go in "gohan" (two words down).  Why will one show respect to a rice ball? Who knows? That is he way Japanese says things.)
  (musubu 結ぶ 【むすぶ】 (v)L "to tie; to bind; to link")
* kakurega 隠れ家 【かくれが】 (n): "hiding place; refuge" <その洞窟が私たちの隠れ家になった。 The cave did for our hiding place>"
* gohan ご飯; 御飯 【ごはん】 (n): "cooked rice"
* okaka おかか (n): "finely chopped katsuobushi [鰹節], sometimes with soy sauce"  (Go to images.google.com, and you will see おかか is a DRY heap of shreds")
* unagi うなぎ《鰻》 (n): "eel"
* a-o-ume 青梅 【あおうめ】 (n): "unripe plum"

(d) "For the recipes, Jumi FJIWARA, the owner and a native of Osaka, consulted with Kiyotaka SHINOKI 篠木 清高, the chef of Bohemian, a kakurega (speakeasy) restaurant

Japanese surnames: Fujiwara  藤原
(e) "Most of the omusubi at Hanamizuki are prepared maze-gohan style, with ingredients minced and mixed throughout the rice. The best comes with okaka, bonito flakes boosted with soy sauce, seaweed and shiitake mushrooms"

"3 Hungry Tummies" (name of the blogger), "Maze Gohan  混ぜご飯  Mixed Rice." Blogspot, Aug 3, 2012.
3hungrytummies.blogspot.com/2012/08/maze-gohan-mixed-rice.html
(photos)

(f) "nubs of gari, Japanese ginger, accentuate the sweetness. Wakame seaweed is cut with hot pink eggplant pickled in purple shiso. Two kinds of plum, unripened aoume and koume (smaller, more sour and crunchy), are pickled until almost unbearably, wonderfully tart.
(i)
(A) Japanese English dictionary
gari がり; ガリ (n): "sliced ginger prepared in vinegar (served with sushi); pickled ginger"
(B) gari  ガリ
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ガリ
(photo)
(ii) wakame
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakame
( is most often served in soups and salads)
(iii) 高梅 (kō-ume, where "ō" signals a long vowel) is a kind of plum 梅 discovered by TAKATA Sadagusu 高田 貞楠 (明治時代に和歌山県で)

(g) "Among the miso soups, the BLT [bacon, lettuce and tomato] is an unexpected success, with its kisses of salt and sugar."
(h) "These [decorations] are the work of Satoshi KAWAMOTO 川本 諭"