Shohei Ohtani. The man, the myth, the legend. For those of you not in the know, Shohei Ohtani is a Japan-born baseball player who’s currently with the Dodgers. For the baseball loving Japanese, he’s at an almost deific level of fame.
(above picture linked from Shohei Ohtani’s Encylocpedia Brittanica article)
Heck, the man’s even in Fortnite now!
So what do you do when you achieve starring-as-yourself-in-a-game status? Clearly, you also get your hands into one of the most ubiquitous everyday foods in Japan: the humble conbini onigiri. This past month and still ongoing, Shohei Ohtani is the spokesperson for Family Mart’s newest limited edition collaboration onigiri, produced cooperatively with the legendary onigiri maker Bongo in Otsuka, Tokyo.
(Onigiri Bongo, linked from Yelp JP)
Onigiri, aka rice balls to those new to the know, are one of the most popular convenience store snacks in all of Japan. Rice, seaweed, and an absolutely myriad variety of fillings are the vehicle through which innumerable people living in Japan have snacks, quick breakfasts, and travel fare alike.
Through this Family Mart/Bongo tie-in, Ohtani-san is promoting two flavors: Niku-Soboro (ground meat with egg yolk, left) and Takana-Mentaiko (pickled mustard greens and mentaiko, aka spicy cod roe, right).
Being the hopeless glutton that I am, I decided to tuck into them both the moment I saw them for the first time.
First up was the Niku-Soboro. While I’m accustomed to eating raw egg in Asia, I don’t think I’ve ever tried it via a convenience store onigiri before, let alone not freshly cracked out of a shell. All food safety reservations aside, I was pleasantly surprised at how much umami burst into my mouth from the first mouthful of rice and filling, despite how light the overall flavor was.
One, two, three more bites and poof went the onigiri into my stomach. How’s that for an early morning magic trick? While it was quite tasty, it didn’t have as much of a lasting impact as I would’ve expected for a Bongo-FamilyMart collab rice ball.
Next up was the Takana-Mentaiko. This also happened to be my very first time trying takana, pickled mustard greens. While I’m leagues better than the starch and meat only diet I demanded as a small child, I’m still not the greatest with greens, aha. Still, in the name of science and this blog’s content, I must persevere. Down the hatch!
I have to say, WOW! This one’s WAY better than the Niku-Soboro flavor, by a landslide. The filling’s more generous, and the flavor is much more noticeable, with a nice mix of punchy pickled tanginess and the slight kick of the mentaiko. While I’m a bit late writing this report, you can bet that I’ve been eating this every time I’ve stopped in a Family Mart this past month.
Humorously, Ohtani himself ate 19 of these rice balls during filming of the announcement ad, which is linked below:
Granted, with the amount of running around he does on a daily basis, I don’t think he has to worry about those carbs all too much. Me on the other hand…yeah, I think it’s time to sign up for my local kickboxing gym.
If you’re in Japan, stop by a Family Mart near you and see if the collaboration’s still running! These rice balls are definitely worth trying. Otherwise, why would I bother writing about them?
That wraps up our inaugural article, so stay tuned for our next post! It’s already in production and quite the zesty sight, if I do say so myself. Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned via my mailing list if you’d like!
