Bento Update

I know I haven't done a bento update in a long time. The bento making is still ongoing but my creative juices are running dry so I haven't been making any great looking bentos that are worthy of blog updates. Please pardon me if you are a bento fan!

Here's one that I made last week. Nothing fancy but I'm putting it up in case anyone thought I have quit making bentos.

Sorry to disappoint. I told you it was nothing special!
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Bento Update: My name is AIDEN

It seems like I haven't done a bento update in a long time. It isn't that I have been lazy, just that my schedule has been rather crazy with all the travels, occasions (Halloween) and preparing for guests arrival. My 3 year old goes to pre-school 3 times a week and I have been letting him have sandwiches in his lunchbox for at least once a week. Not that he is complaining though. He loves it when he gets to take a cheese and ham sandwich to school because that's what most of his good friends have for lunch. Talk about peer pressure!

A couple of days ago, I woke up feeling inspired to make him a good bento for school that day. But I am getting a little sick of all the teddy bear, animals and smiley face bento designs that I have been making so I thought why not try out the brand new set of alphabet cutters that I recently acquired (from a bento haven in Tokyo). I put on my quick thinking cap and came up with this idea:

A personalised bento!

Aiden has just learnt to spell his name (he knows how to identify his name for a long time but spelling it is only recently) and I thought this can reinforce it. Besides, playing with letters is always fun and this bento is a refreshing change from the usual ones that I have been doing. Don't you think so?

It didn't take me long to prepare this bento. The rice was cooked the night before and was warmed up that morning. I always prepare these meat patties in a big batch and freeze them in portions. I took 2 of these out of the freezer the night before to thaw and they were ready to be cooked that morning while the rice was being warmed up. So the total time I took to prepare this bento from warming up the rice, cooking the meat and assembling them was really just about 25 minutes.

The letters were cut from a piece of cheddar cheese and I had originally placed them on the rice before realising that they couldn't stick well. So I cut some nori in the shape of the letters and stuck the cheese letters on before sticking them onto the rice. Nori sticks well with rice and cheddar so the whole rice ball can hold together well. I think this idea turn out great as the colour of the nori served as a border framing the letters and making them pop. A little 3D effect!

My husband's grandparents are in town and staying with us at the moment. I showed them the bento and they were very impressed as they have never seen any lunchbox like this before. It was the talk of the day!
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Bento Update: Papa Bear and Mama Bear

Finally a bento update. I have been making less than satisfactory bentos lately. Not sure why. Kinda out of inspiration I guess. This Papa bear and Mama bear bento is the only one that I am satisfied with.

The pink ears and "face" (the part where nose and mouth are - not sure what to call that) are ham and eyes, nose and mouths are nori. I also gave mama bear some rosy cheeks with ketchup. These rice bears were accompanied by homemade beef patties.

I am running out of ideas for cutesy bentos. Perhaps its about time I start doing up bento sketches so that my creations don't turn out disastrous in my early morning rush.
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Bento Update: Sea Creatures

It is summer now in Japan and Aiden has been bringing back crafts of various sea animals (octopus, starfish etc) from the summer programme that his school has been organizing. So yesterday I was inspired to make him a bento with the sea animals that he is familiar with.

Tadah!

Say hi to Miss Octopus and Mr Starfish!

Miss Octopus is made of ham and the 8 legs were cut out individually and assembled together. The eyes are from white cheese and the eyeballs, mouth and eyelashes were cut from nori. The same goes for Mr Starfish.

It would have been nicer if the rice that Miss Octopus sits on is coloured in blue, but I haven't figured out how to dye rice naturally in this colour so I didn't bother. Mr Starfish is made from pink rice since I have some leftover from the other day.

I showed Aiden his bento before I packed it in his bag and all he said was,

"But I want sandwich for lunch today!"

So much for my efforts.

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I will be in Singapore to visit family and friends for 3 weeks from tomorrow onwards. Writing on this blog will resume when I return. Please visit this site after 28 August 2010!

Take care everyone!!! xoxoxo

Bento Update: Pancake Sandwich

I don't always have the energy to make cutesy, flavoursome and nutritious bentos early in the morning. Here's one simple pancake sandwich that I made for Aiden one tired morning recently.

Pancakes sandwiched with cream cheese filling. Quick and easy. Not the most nutritious meal but Aiden loved it, and I got a break from rushing. But packaging is still important to me so I decorated it with mini pancakes "ears" and cut nori sheet as eyes, nose and mouth. Can't quite make out what this animal is though....

Bento Update: Froggies

I'm getting more creative with bento-making. This is the first bento that I've made with coloured rice. There are many ways you can colour the rice. The most natural way of colouring is to use strong coloured food like carrot (rice will turn orangey), beetroot (to turn rice into pink) or dried parsley leaves (for green coloured rice) which is of course much healthier for the kids. Otherwise just use food colouring which will save you a lot of time. In this bento, I used green colouring because firstly, I did not have much time, and secondly, I have not used dried parsley in rice before and have no idea if the taste is good. But you really don't need a lot of colouring to tint the rice so I guess it isn't too bad.

Anyway, I decided to make froggies for Aiden's bento the other day and he really like the cute characters. The eyes were cut from a piece of white cheese and the eyeballs, mouth and nostrils (which are not noticeable from the picture but I did give those froggies some nostrils) were cut from nori sheet. I made beef patties as the side with steamed broccoli, a cherry tomato and a small piece of japanese egg roll (which I prepared the night before). Aiden doesn't like broccoli and tomato so I told him I needed to add those in to decorate the lunchbox and he could leave them out if he really didn't want to eat them. Secretly, I was hoping that if I keep putting these in his bentos, he may just eat them one day. Wishful thinking?

Recipe for Beef Patties (in case anyone is interested)

Minced beef
Finely chopped onion
Grated garlic (I sauteed the onion and garlic to release their fragrance before adding them to the minced)
Grated carrot
Grated parmesan cheese
Sea salt
Pepper
Sesame oil

Marinate the above for a couple of hours. Shape them into patties and coat with plain flour before panfrying them.

Bento Update: Happy Friends

Just realised I haven't posted any bento updates recently so here's one I made recently for Aiden's lunch at school.



I'm trying to be a little more creative with Aiden's bentos but it has been hard. This boy is rather lazy with feeding himself so whatever I put in the bento have to be bite-sized. And bentos for kids are usually decorated with vegetables like carrots cut into shapes of flowers, or broccoli acting as "bushes" or little "trees" to fill up empty spaces in the lunchbox. But Aiden doesn't like carrots and broccoli. And if I put these into his lunchbox, I fear he may be pissed off and will thus refuse to eat the rest of the stuff (it happened before).

The other day, I was feeling quite sick of doing bentos the usual way and decided to just do it and added star shaped zucchini and flower carrot (stuck with a decorative stalk that is inedible) to beautify the bento. I painstakingly cut out strips of nori to make designs of shirts for the rice "people". Don't they just look like 2 little good friends?

Thankfully the bento came back from school that day empty. Well, except for the zucchini (which he will only eat them in grated form) and the carrot. And he specifically told me not to put the carrot in his lunchbox again. I guess that was his final warning to me.

Bento: For the Adults

Another bento for the adults. I made this for our recent picnic at the park.



Stirfry beef in ginger and scallions (chinese style), steamed bok choy and sweet corn.



Bon appetit!

Bento Update: Little People

Rice balls with potato fish cakes and salad (spinach and radish).

I know the eyes of the little faces are too small but hey, I'm still trying to polish up my skills in cutting nori (dried seaweed). These little faces are very challenging and I really don't have that much time in the morning perfecting the skills in making them handsome. As you can see, I threw in a bear as I got too tired fom cutting 2 faces.

Recipe for potato fish cakes

• boil chunks of pototoes (peeled).
• once the pototes are soft enough to be mashed, add sea salt (just a pinch to taste)
• mash the potatoes
• while potatoes are boiling, chop or grate whatever vegetables you would like to add into the mash later. I usually grate some carrots, chopped spring onion and broccoli.
• add canned tuna or salmon (make sure there are no bones) into the mashed potato. No need to drain the canned fish as the oil will help to bind the mixture into patties.
• add chopped vegetables into the potato and fish mixture.
• mix well and shape into patties (I make them very small and bite-sized for Aiden's easy handling at school). If the mixture does not bind very well, you may have to add in a beaten egg.
• coat the patties in breadcrumbs. Panfry in olive oil or bake them in the oven (a healthier option but I do not have the time to bake these in the morning).

A very healthy dish for growing toddlers and you can hide any vegetables in it! One of Aiden's favourites.

Bento: For the Adults

I mentioned in an earlier entry that I have been greatly influenced by the Japanese obsession with bento making. Here is one for the adults that I made sometime back. It was for my mum who wanted to learn the art of making bentos (not that I am an expert anyway).
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Flavoured rice in pockets made by beancurd skin (these pockets are easily available at the local japanese supermarkets. There is a term for this kind of sushi but I have no idea what they are called in english), japanese egg rolls, spinach in japanese sesame dressing and baby tomotoes.



I love this double-decked bento that I got from a 100 yen shop here. It cost only AUD$1.20! Now, whoever says you can't get cheap stuff in Japan?!

Bento Making

My parents flew in from Singapore last Friday to spend 19 days with us here in Japan. I will be enjoying time with them so writing on this site will be slow. For now, I will just share a picture of a bento that I made for Aiden recently.



Rice balls with pork nuggets (marinated in sea salt, pepper, sesame oil and coated with breadcrumbs before panfrying in olive oil) and a baby spinach salad on the side.

"Bento (弁当, bentō) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box."
- as defined by wikipedia.

Like I have mentioned in an earlier post, I love aesthetics and am quite a sucker for good looking stuff (that explain how I chose my husband - no, just kidding!). Since moving to Japan, I have been very fascinated with all the cute and pretty looking bentos that I keep seeing on the shelves in supermarkets and convenience stores. When Aiden started going to pre-school last September, I was excited not for the extra personal time that I was going to have, but for the opportunity to finally create my own bentos for him. Aiden's school doesn't provide lunch (as with most schools in Japan) and I often hear some of the mothers (mainly foreigners) at his school complaining about having to spend time in the morning preparing food. Cooking is one of my passions so until today, I am still loving the bento-making process. Fortunately, my little boy shows his appreciation of my efforts by finishing his lunch most days!