Matt Wong
For some reason, 7-Eleven only brings its A-game to Japan. Every single convenience store has eminently edible sushi, hot meals of karaage chicken, and, most gloriously of all, at least 20 million different kinds of onigiri, or rice balls. (This level of variety can have a downside; while studying abroad in college, I’m fairly certain I accidentally purchased an onigiri filled with cat food.)
Onigiri are the OG grab-and-go Japanese peasant food, a tote-able snack or meal of rice with fillings inside, handily wrapped in nori for maximum portability. When Japanese nationals made their way to Hawaii to work, their rice balls came with them. With the addition of Spam, musubi was born.
