Have you seen these little triangular onigiri at your local Bio Company or for sale at the main sales point, a little kiosk in the Schönleinstrasse U-Bahn station (down on the tracks)?
I confess that I knew about them for a while before ever wanting to try them. I thought the packaging looked a little odd and that they were too German-looking to be any good. Turns out the joke was on me. I bought one in a fit of desperation the other day - your typical toddler nightmare: we were leaving Bio Company, Hugo was having a meltdown as we were passing the bakery display, but he'd already consumed his weight in bread that day and I didn't want to give him another Rosinenbrötchen, when right there next to all that good bread was a neat little row of onigiri stuffed with kimchi. I bought one for Hugo and then, after Hugo got a few bites of rice and quieted down, I proceeded to demolish it all myself. It was SO good.
The design of the onigiri is ingenious. There are three parts to the thin plastic shell - each one insulates the seaweed perfectly so that it stays crisp and dry until you buy the onigiri and open the packaging. The rice has just the right texture and seasoning and most of the fillings are spot-on. I love the crackle of the seaweed when I bite into the onigiri and the soft sinking into the rice below. The Rice Up's I've tried so far are the kimchi, the shiitake and pumpkin and the salmon with spicy plum (alert: it's not that spicy). I stick to only getting the ones that have "Asian" fillings, because those make the most sense in the rambling country road between my brain and my taste buds. (I can't fathom the ratatouille & goat cheese filling.)
Rice Up's onigiri are all-organic and seasonal and made fresh every day. If they can't get a particular ingredient one day, then they don't make that filling. Each one costs somewhere between 2,50 and 2,80, which is a little steep for what is ostensibly a snack, but they are very filling, so delicious and I think the care taken with the whole assembly explains the price.
Bonus: If you're on the run, two of these would probably do you for lunch.
Double bonus! Kids like them.
Thumbs up, Rice Up!