Although sometimes a bit difficult to open for both visitors from abroad and residents alike, onigiri, or rice balls, are a fan favorite of those looking for a satisfying snack or even meal from convenience stores in Japan. While many traditional fillings and flavors such as umeboshi pickled plum, salted salmon, or tuna mayonnaise are popular, in recent years it's become common to see more "modern" flavors such as bacon and egg, fried rice, or omelet.

While rice balls aren't particularly thought of as drinking food, Japanese convenience store FamilyMart has released a new "rice ball" that fits the bill perfectly: Dry-cured Ham sushi with black pepper and cream cheese sauce!

While found in FamilyMart's rice ball section, the snack is billed as Western-style sushi. This is because chain sushi restaurants in Japan sometimes offer dry-cured ham (typically prosciutto) as a menu item (this is called "nama-hamu" sushi, which translates to "raw ham" but usually refers to dry-cured cuts). And given that it meets the requirements of having vinegared sushi rice and a topping, it can technically doubles as either!

The unusual hybrid definitely caught our eye however, so we grabbed one from our local FamilyMart to give a taste test. While quite a few rice balls can fall apart when opened, we were pleasantly surprised to find the sushi rice ball wrapped firmly with cured ham and sprinkled with parsley. When plated, it actually resembled an actual dry-cured ham sushi dish you might find at a restaurant.

When cut in half, you can see the black pepper cream cheese sauce layered between the ham and the sushi rice.

The sourness of the sushi rice and the saltiness of the cured ham and cream cheese mixed well together, and the black pepper added a nice accent. We expected a somewhat sweeter taste, but the onion and lemon contained in the sauce made for a welcome mellow flavor profile...which, as some are saying online, makes it quite the pairing with a nice alcoholic beverage!

Paired with a nice glass of white wine, we couldn't help but feel like the 155 yen sushi rice ball seemed a bit like a luxury bar treat for its modest price. If you're in the mood for a "fancier" onigiri (or sushi, depending on how you look at it) that could go along with your even libations, consider trying FamilyMart's Dry-cured Ham sushi with black pepper and cream cheese sauce!