Bizarre or brilliant? Takoyaki and okonomiyaki rice balls available in convenience stores now

New Japanese snacks lets you enjoy the spiritual food of Osaka with onigiri.

Tasty salmon is by far the most popular stuffing for onigiri (Japanese rice balls). Seasoned cod roe and tuna remain crowd favorites, but the beauty of this wonderful snack is that as long as it tastes good, it deserves to be buried in rice.

Figuring that Japanese people have a soft spot for takoyaki (balls of batter filled with diced octopus) and okonomiyaki (savory pancake), convenience store chain Lawson has combined them with the nation’s beloved rice ball snack.

▼ We made a trip to a store and spotted our prey nestled
among bizarre fried oyster onigiri and braised egg onigiri.

▼ And here’s our loot for the day:
okonomiyaki (left) and takoyaki (right) rice balls.

For a paltry 100 yen each (US$0.94) these two felt like they could fill our stomachs easily. Unwrapping the takoyaki one first, we were startled to find a whole ball of batter encased by an outer shell of rice.

▼ We had no idea they would literally bury an entire octopus ball in there.

Biting into it brought forth a burst of savory takoyaki flavors accompanied by mayonnaise and bits of seaweed. It was a great concept marred by the fact that the combination didn’t really mesh well together, feeling more like eating octopus balls with rice rather than a homogeneous blend of exciting tastes.

▼ Nevertheless, we couldn’t deny its visual impact.

Next up was the okonomiyaki rice ball, and judging by what we got from the previous morsel, we had a hunch it would be a tasty pancake slapped onto a ball of rice.

▼ And we were right.

▼ It’s certainly not the most visually appealing of foods,
but how else would you make an okonomiyaki onigiri?

After sampling the two snacks available only in Lawson stores, we believed it was only a matter of time before they start cramming entire salmon sushi into tiny rice balls. Which might not be such a bad idea considering one brave establishment actually made onigiri with fish butts sticking out of them.

Source: Lawson Store 100
Images: ©SoraNews24

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