Omusubee was founded by a group of Japanese girls who grew up eating this delicious fast food. What they have done with this treat is make a fusion between the traditional Japanese ingredients and the broad array of ingredients available in the United States as well as adapting flavors to the pallets of the many ethnic groups that populate this beautiful country. We use such traditional ingredients such as Ume (pickled Plum), pork, chicken, tofu, and Miso, as well as fusion ingredients like caviar, foie gras, warm hickory smoked salmon, garlic, and many many more.

History of Omusubee
One of the best snack you can get in Japan is Omusubee (onigiri) (rice ball). There are Omusubee every corner and you an pick one or two from a hundred (it´s really a lot! ) of choice of stuffing. Good thing about this snack is it is much healthier than other things such as potato chips, french fries, doughnuts, chocolate bars or a slice of pizza.
For Japanese people, Omusubee (onigiri) is like hotdogs for New Yorkers or sandwiches for English people. The function is exactly the same, and you can munch it without interrupting what you are doing.
Omusubee (onigiri) are made for many occasions. School excursion, sports day, picnic, hanami (picnic under the cherry blossoms), at the beach or a hiking. It´s easy to carry since the rice and the side dish are all in one. Also it gives you enough energy to carry on the rest of the day. Whoever invented this, he or she was genius.
 
Omusubee (onigiri) became Omusubee (onigiri) as we eat now during Heian period (794-1185/1192) and it was called tonjiki. It´s possible that the English translation, rice ball comes from this tonjiki because it had a round egg shape.
Tonjiki was served to shimozukae (laborers) who worked at the court to do small jobs.
In the middle of Edo period, to be more exact, during Genroku period, 1688-1704), processed seaweed as we know now became accessible to common people and people began to wrap the rice ball with nori (seaweed). It was the time when the cling wrap wasn´t invented at all, so wrapping Omusubee (onigiri) with a sheet of seaweed must´ve been a revolution. Thanks to nori, we can eat Omusubee (onigiri) without having the sticky hands.
 
 In Edo era, Omusubee (onigiri) was considered as an “on the go” food. If you look at Hiroshige Ando´s wood block print, the famous "Tokaido Gojusan tsugi (53 Stations of Tokaido)", you can see the travellers eating Omusubee (onigiri) happily.
By the way, Omusubee (onigiri) is also called omusubi or nigirimeshi depending on the regions. Different way of calling it can be a dialect. In fact, Omusubee (onigiri) is the most common name for rice balls in Japan but around Kanto-Tokaido area, omusubee is more common, although in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture, people sa onigiri. However, the different names also come from the shape.
 Omusubee is squeezed in a mountain shape (triangle) as a symbol of the God in order to receive the power of the God. In this theory, only the one in the triangle shape is omusubee. However, the word Omusubee (onigiri) comes from nigirimeshi. Nigiru means squeeze. This means Omusubee (onigiri) can be in any shape as long as the rice is squeezed in a shape.
Omusubee (onigiri) has been and is a Japanese soul food and recently it´s becoming more common in many Western countries. If not, ask your Japanese neighbours or classmates. I´m sure they will be happy to tell you all about it. Not only that but that will be a good excuse to make more Japanese friends. Enjoy your Omusubee (onigiri)!