This signalled the beginning of what was to become such a big part of my childhood. Pocket Monsters, or as it's more widely known as Pokemon, recently celebrated it's 20th anniversary of the release of the original games, Red, Green and Blue on the Game Boy. In those twenty years, it's become a globally popular franchise that spans video games, comics/manga, animated movies and television shows, trading cards and toys, and most recently, a mobile augmented reality game, Pokemon Go. Now up to the seventh generation of Pokemon, the newest games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon are set to release 18th November.
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| My hype is real. Thank you to my friends for putting up with my excitement in this week lead up. Also I am fully aware there's an accent over the 'e' in Pokemon. Humour me and pretend there's an accent every time I mention something Pokemon related. (source) |
(Also on a somewhat related note, in the past few weeks, Nintendo released some details about it's upcoming console (the Nintendo Switch) which should be pretty interesting.)
Quick run-down of how the Pokemon games work if you're in the proportion of the population that've never played Pokemon before. Basically, you travel the region collecting Pokemon and battling other Pokemon trainers in-game and via the online system. There's many different ways of approaching the game, and people have devoted hours upon hours working out the best strategies to beat the game.
Of all the items available in the game, probably the most well known of them is the iconic Poke Ball which is used for housing your Pokemon team. In later generations, items based on food were added: Berries, which could be blended together to make PokeBlocks and later, Poffins; Lava Cookies which resemble rice crackers; Apricorns which were used to make specific Poke Balls depending on their colour; and Poke Puffs which are a recent addition to the series.
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| It's one of my dreams to make every one of these Poke Puffs(source) |
Crossing over to reality, there are many examples of food inspired by Pokemon (the ones that come to mind are charaben or character bento, often elaborately designed boxed lunches to resemble people or pop-culture icons; a series of cocktails you can find here, or at one Sydney cafe which, for a limited time, had Pokemon burgers here). I decided to take a page out of the bento book and go with a staple: the humble rice ball or onigiri.
I'll save my ode to rice for a later post, but basically rice can be classified into three broad categories: long, medium and short. This particular recipe uses medium grain rice, because the stickiness of the grains allow for easier shaping and less chance your rice ball will fall to pieces. I used a spherical ice mould that I picked up at a shop some time ago, but I think you can easily get the same result by using a bit of cling wrap and shaping the rice into a ball. Just separate your cooked medium grain rice into two portions, one to be coloured and one to be left plain. Form a rough handful of each into a hemisphere (try to keep them even) and ta-dah, you've got two halves of a ball.
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| Very complex stuff, this. |
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| I'm fascinated by differently shaped ice cubes. I've also got a tray that'll give the ice cube a jewel-like faceted finish. I'm planning to use it to make fancy looking desserts. |
I also decided to be fancy and add some filling (tuna and mayo) but really, anything that strikes your fancy can go in these. Some other ideas for fillings might include pickled vegetables, thinly sliced omelette, or even last night's stir fry (if diced finely enough). If you're adding filling, make a small divot in one half of the Poke Ball and gently pack it in. Don't apply too much pressure when adding the filling otherwise your bottom half might disintegrate. Pop the other half in top, and if using cling wrap, wrap it around and twist the excess to make a tight ball. You're almost done!
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| I was actually very heavy handed with the tomato sauce (or ketchup for all you readers across the ocean) so my rice balls turned out very tomato-ey. |
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| And the other half, not as packed tightly as it should've been. |
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| Fun fact, I had a bit of difficulty removing them from the moulds because in my infinite wisdom, I forgot to grease the tray. Don't despair, because you can easily fix it by gently shaping the ball in your hands. |
The decorations are made with seaweed sheets, or nori, while the white bits were cut from a slice of cheese; mayonnaise completed the picture as the glue holding all the pieces together. I've considered getting a scalpel for more fiddly cut-outs, but a pair of scissors will hold you in good stead here. Just make sure they're clean before using them, and not covered in sticky tape residue and wrapping paper slivers from last-minute gift preparation (as of the writing of this entry, there are SIX more Sundays until Christmas, where did this year go?!)
Cut a roughly 1 cm thick strip of seaweed, a circle of seaweed, and a circle of cheese that's a little bit smaller than the seaweed circle. I cut them freehand with a paring knife, but if you're not the most confident with your knife skills, you can use something as a template. The strip will wrap around the circumference of the ball and hide the join of the two rice halves, so don't worry if it's not the prettiest. The seaweed circle goes on first with either a dab of water or mayo, and then the cheese goes on top of that, fixed in place with mayo. And that's it! A round of applause and pats on the back for everyone, you're now the proud owner of Poke Rice Balls. Bonus points if you eat these while playing Pokemon Go.
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| As easy as 1,2,3 |
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| There are 3 Pokemon here, which will you choose...? |
Happy slothing!!
xx
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