You don’t need to investigate Mika Kazato’s credentials to know that the onigiri she serves at Parami in Sydney’s Surry Hills is true to its roots. One bite of these little flavour-filled cushions of fluffy white rice will transport you to Japan’s Oita prefecture where the co-owner of Parami grew up.

Mika arrived in Australia in 2004 and says it’s taken almost 20 years of working in the hospitality industry to realise she wanted to open an eatery selling onigiri, the food she grew up eating in her village, which was surrounded by emerald-green rice fields.

“I wanted to open an onigiri shop because I wanted to eat onigiri. I have been very pleased at how many people in Sydney also want to eat onigiri and how popular it has been since we opened a few months ago,” says Mika, who worked as a sous chef at Sydney’s Chiswick and Aria.

“I grew up eating onigiri like many other Japanese kids in Oita. My mum always made shiso onigiri to put in my bento box. It wasn’t as fancy as the onigiri we serve at Parami and just had a little umeboshi (salted plum) inside it,” she says. Mika says onigiri is to the Japanese what a sandwich might be to an Australian. “Onigiri is something simple, yet something versatile. “At Parami, we play around with the fillings and make things that excite the child in me.”

The corner café, all brick and glass, is tucked away on a corner of Alberta Street, near Alberto’s Lounge and Haco and on the former site of Cre Asion (which relocated to Pyrmont). Mika says the Japanese comfort food, also known as nigirimeshi, omusubi, or rice balls, is a staple in bento boxes and izakayas all around Japan.

Related story: What to expect when Restaurant Gordon Ramsay opens in Aria, Sydney

Mika says her style of onigiri is like “that you find in a konbini store, which is like a Japanese convenience store or Family Mart”. She says her customers like to mix and match the onigiri which she says are traditionally eaten as a light snack, breakfast or lunch.

“Since we opened, I have seen a lot of regular customers choosing a different flavour every day. I used to do this in Japan too. And I’m so happy to see this happening in Sydney,” she says. Mika uses koshihikari rice from the Toyama prefecture to turn out an average of 300 onigiri on weekdays and up to 500 on weekends. She says the rice is sweet and aromatic and one of the best on offer from Japan thanks to the mineral-rich terroir of the mountainous Toyama prefecture. 

The most popular onigiri produced in the pocket-sized café is now the roasted, salted salmon, closely followed by the chicken soboro and seasoned egg. The rice parcels can be shaped into triangles, rolled into balls, flattened or cylindrical and are not always wrapped in seaweed. Parami also serves squishy savoury bread rolls stuffed with a prawn cocktail mix or an indulgent sweet mix of strawberries and cream. There are also cookies, crème caramels, mochi and muffins on offer. Expect killer Killerbee coffee from Single O.

Parami
101/21 Alberta St, Sydney
Mon-Fri 8am to 3pm, Sat 9am to 3pm
@parami_alberta

Related story: First look: Bulgari Hotel Tokyo, where Italian luxury meets Japanese tradition