Onigiri Bread from Japanese convenience store chain changes everything we know about rice balls

And that’s not all — there’s a curry bread rice cake coming too. 

There are a number of convenience store chains throughout Japan, and one thing you can expect to find in all of them are some top-selling everyday staples. Some of those staples include Japanese-style bread products, curry breads, and onigiri rice balls, but over at Lawson Store 100 you can find these staples mashed together in weird ways for a limited time.

▼ Lawson Store 100 is the discount offshoot of convenience store chain Lawson, and there are currently 649 branches around the country.

The chain is releasing around 11 new items this autumn, ranging from simple cakes to cinnamon scrolls and egg and ham sandwiches. However, the two items that’ve caught everyone’s attention are the Onigiri Bread and the humorously named It’s Like Curry Bread?!

▼ The Onigiri Bread (119 yen [US$0.80]) looks like onigiri but instead of containing rice, it contains soft white bread.

Like a rice ball, the Onigiri Bread contains a filling, and the filling of choice here is “Japanese-style soy sauce tuna mayo“. The tuna mayonnaise combination is said to pair well with the simple flavour of the bread, and the visuals are complete with a strip of nori (grilled seaweed) to make it really look like a rice ball. There will be two different shapes available — a triangular onigiri, which will be sold in the Kanto region in and around Tokyo, and a round version, sold in the Chubu/Kinki region (in and around Osaka and Gifu prefectures), where round rice balls actually do exist.

▼ The It’s Like Curry Bread (130 yen) is another optical illusion, as it looks like a karepan (curry bread) but in reality it isn’t.

The golden fried exterior looks identical to that of a curry bread, and at first glance the cross-section looks like the dough you’d find inside a karepan too. However, once you bite into it, you’ll find that this is no ordinary curry bread, as the dough is actually mochi (pounded rice cake) made with sweet potato for an unusual flavour accent to contrast with the curry filling.

A couple of other notable new products include the Chocolate Roll (130 yen), a soft hot dog roll containing whipped cream and coated in chocolate…

…and the Yakisoba Lunch Pack, which contains a generous amount of fried noodles and red pickled ginger for a very different type of sandwich.

The Onigiri Bread and It’s Like Curry Bread will be in stores from 4 October, with the latter only available in branches that sell hot snacks. The Chocolate Roll will be in stores from 11 October, while the Yakisoba Lunch Pack will be released on 18 October.

While Lawson 100 tends to get overlooked in favour of Japan’s more popular chains, nobody will be putting this baby in the corner once these new items are released next month. Their creative approach to everyday staples, which has been stewing since they gave us the Wiener Onigiri, makes them a chain worth visiting.

Source, images: PR Times
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