The Rice Ball Kitchen Crew

The original Holy Rosary story here.

The rice balls are the signature dish of La Italinia Fiesta, aka, The Feast, which occupies Sixth Street and sometimes this blog for much of Mid-August.

I am unable to confirm the precise figure, but a record number of rice balls were consumed at The Feast in 2012. The rice ball ringleader Katie told me at the last day of the feast, sales of rice balls generated more than $9,000, now given that each delicious sphere cost an affordable $3.00, my admittedly inadequate calculations skills determine more than 3,000 rice balls were sold! Two years ago, a record nightof 600 rice balls was recorded. They hit or broke that record every night of the five day festival this year, at least on the average. This may or may not be the case, like I said; I haven’t confirmed the actual rice ball results but I have no reason to doubt this is the case. Even Wednesday, the first night of the feast, a rainy evening, had a lot of folks and the peak of the feast, Friday and Saturday, it was picture perfect August weather and the lines for rice balls snaked into Sixth Street. Similar crowds on Sunday for the balls, which is when the big orders come, instead of just two they order six or more, bring them home for microwaving.

I love the damn things and eat them every night of The Feast, diet be damned. I consider them a seasonal cuisine, like strawberries or asparagus. Sure you can eat them all year round, but because the off-peak flavor is so pale a reflection of the true taste it lessens the experience of eating them at their best.

With the Sicilian girlfriend in the 80s, we would get rice balls. She was a great cook but never made them. There was an Italian deli we got them at sometimes. I remember they were one of her favorites. I was unimpressed. They were good and all but unmemorable. I have had them here or there since then and my opinion had not altered and I had one again in NYC and it simply did not hold a candle to the Sixth street version. Holy Rice Balls are not just the best; they are in their own league and have yet to have one even close.

The Holy Rosary Rice balls are about the size of a tennis balls – I’ve seen them golf or Ping-Pong ball size. Basically there’s the rice, the filling, the bread crumb covering and the deep frying. The fillings seem available on various versions – some recopies call for parmesan fillings. Holy Rosary the fillings are ground beef and peas, which seems the most common and the cheese, Romano, is mixed with the rice, as are eggs, making the rice itself creamy.

Probably the main reason the Rice Balls are so fantastic is they are fresh. The final frying of the balls is conducted within an hour of the rolling of the balls. And of course, they are sold fresh from the fryer.

Arancini is the Italian word for the dish. It means orange, which the balls resemble.

Katie and Betty (who just turned 90 but don’t tell her you read that here) have been making the balls the longest and are training future generations to carry on the tradition. In the weeks before The Feast Betty has been seen warming up with a rubber ball. When I paid my annual visit to the Rice Ball factory at the inner sanctum of The Feast, Betty kept rolling out orb after orb with an unceasing dexterity.

No one can verify what year they were first served at the feast. Decades ago. Where they served before the advent of the eclectic fryers –if yes, how were they fried? It’s a mystery. Longer than a quarter of a century seems certain – how much longer though… probably a lot but how still vague. Somehow it seems they just appeared and are now the anchor cuisine of the street fair. However exactly long may be unclear but they were always made here, in the Rectory Kitchen.

Most of the other food at the fair is now provided by outside vendors, the church makes money by the fee charged to these vendors. There’s a non-compete policy (for example, only one sausage and pepper stand) and as The Feast has grown in attendance, there’s a waiting list for vendors, with preference given to those who have supported the event in the past.

The Rice Balls are made by an all volunteer, multi-generational force. Ingredients are donated. The proceeds go directly to Holy Rosary.

The atmosphere in the kitchen is fun and purposeful. These women know their way around a kitchen and for the duration of the feast the rectory’s galley could not have better tenants. They all love being here, all love doing this and all love why they make this annual effort – friendship, faith, tradition.

Jersey City would not be the place it is without events like The Feast. The Feast would not be what it is without this multi-generation crew making rice balls in the rectory kitchen for five days, morning (well, afternoon) to night.

The rolled balls are placed on trays, which are carried as needed to the Rice Ball stand. And they needed a lot. It’s a production line said one of the Rice Ballers, and indeed there was a system to it, so there is no shortage or backlog. Demand is steady two long folding tables were filled with trays of balls.

I discovered two new controversies about the Rice Balls this year.

One is that especially the earlier nights of The Feast, with the higher humidity, some of the balls, a very minute percentage, broke apart in the fryer. The humidity was believe to be the cause, since modifying the recipe– well, forget about that – the Vatican can alter the English language liturgy of the mass, but change the rice ball recipe? Anyway, the rice ball crumbling in the fryer was a major concern and there seemed to be no consensus on reasons why it occurred or how to cease it from occurring. It just happens.

I know this sounds humorous, and it is not like the Rice Ball crew did not laugh about it, but when I used the word concern, I’m not kidding. You could tell about how they talked about it, this was a point of pride and it bothered them. The rice ball stand, with its row of fryers, is the closet to the rectory so ‘runners’ can bring trays of the raw balls to be fried. When those runners bring back the news from the frontlines that the balls are crumbling, the potential for panic loomed large.

The other controversy – sauce or not sauce? Turns out, sauce is a relatively new addition to the Rice Ball.

”We never had gravy with rice balls,” said Betty.

“I never ate rice balls with sauce growing up,” said Katie. “But people started asking for it so now we give them the option gives the people what they want.”

I mentioned the sauce or no sauce controversy to the frontline fryers. They laughed about the controversy. “We started offering sauce because somebody realized we could.”

I always order two, one with, one without. Which is better? Maybe next year I’ll decide.

Katie and Betty outside, a rarity during The Feast.