Bento Corner

Chibi Maruko is a cartoon character that is popular amongst kids and adults (well, I like her as does my mom). My daughter looked at this bento and said, "Eh-, nani kore?!" (trans: Ah-, what's this?!) No big deal said in an ordinary voice, but she said it like it was more tragic. And there was a moment of silence followed by, "Is this Chibi Maruko~?" And if you read between the lines, she was actually saying, "Are you kidding me?!"But she was being really polite about it, at least.

My daughter ended up being sick on this day because of the snow play the day before, so she ate this at home. Since my daughter was eating bento at home, I made one for my son too:

I see no improvement as far as Chibi Maruko resemblence in the second bento and neither did my kids. My son totally didn't recognize who it was meant to be either. But they both finished it off without complaint so I guess that's more important, yes?

Bento contents include: Umeboshi onigiri for my daughter, son's onigiri has marinated clams, min-hambah-gu, stir fried carrots and zucchini stars, tamagoyaki with kanikama, and sweetened kidney beans for my daughter.

Here is a picture of the back of our condo in Tokyo. You have to look really carefully but the white roof in the foreground is not usually white -- that is snow. And if you look at the brown house behind said roof you can see specks of white snow flakes.

Now to those of you living in snow country, you may be scoffing at what little snow there is, but for us Tokyo-ites, it was indeed a moment of wonderous joy as we gleefully looked out our windows that morning to discover snow...

And it was indeed glorious until we had to walk in the snow to the kindergarten...while carrying the 3 year old son because he was quite sluggish and sick...walking uphill, mind you, while trying to balance an umbrella to keep the snow from blocking our vision...and then to discover after school that the kindergartners were allowed to play in the snow even though they weren't really dressed for it -- which resulted in the girl getting sick...

So in retrospect, it was really more a "disillusioned form" of glory.

Kirin bento 2 with yaki-udon, kabocha pumpkin mash, mini-hambahgu (meat loaf), and strawberry. This is my second attempt at making a kirin bento, first attempt is here. This time I made the kirin with egg and nori cut outs.

Yaki-udon is quite easy to make. It's similar to yakisoba (or chow mein). Just sautee some vegetables of your liking in some oil (very little -- teaspoon to Tablespoon depending on the size of your pan). I used fresh onions and a frozen variety of veggies which included asparagus, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. After the vegetables are sauteed, I added mentsuyu to taste. Then add the udon noodles and pour about 1/4 cup of water to separate the noodles. Sautee until noodles and veggies are incorporated, then I added sliced cooked ham. If you are using raw meat, I suggest you sautee that first before the veggies. I don't like to sautee cooked ham too much as it gets too hard. I just like to just cook it until heated through. Once the ham is added, I add more mentsuyu to taste and then you're done! Very easy and a bit different from yakisoba. Sometimes udon comes with the packet seasoning, you can use that in place of mentsuyu as well.

Mini-hambahgu is a frozen food item and is like a Japanese meatloaf. Not to be confused with American style hamburgers. Hambahgu has eggs, bread crumbs, onions, and other spices. Generally, I think American hamburgers have meat and spices, correct? My husband cooks hamburgers with soy, worcestershire sauce, and dried basil which produces excellent hamburgers. Though some Japanese hamburger joints like Mos Burger will use hambhagu instead of hamburger for their patty. It's still all quite tasty, in my opinion.

Kabocha -mash is also quite easy. I have frozen cut kabocha in my freezer (I am obviously a big fan of frozen vegetables -- they are not as good as fresh but they will last longer and will retain their health benefits better than canned items. Plus you can use a bit at a time and save the rest for later use.). Take out one piece, microwave until done, peel off the green skin, mash with butter and sugar to taste. Then take a saran wrap and drop in mixed contents into a saran wrap and twist it closed into a small ball. Place in fridge to set the shape for a while and then place in a decorative cup. In this bento, I didn't place it in the fridge long enough so it kinda fell apart, hence the heart shaped ham on top to cover it up. You could do it over night and the shape would retain nicely.

Add strawberry and lettuce and fini! Strawberries are not quite in season but they are sold and mighty expensive! They sell them at the local grocer which includes about 10-12 strawberries of good size for about 500 yen ($5 US). But I'm trying to support the local grocer who comes by to sell fruits and veggies on his truck and these were actually 750 yen ($7.50 US) for the same package. And these are prices for non-organic!

I'm also using this bento in the montly Wholesome Lunchbox event.

It's completely appropriate for this bento to be shot as blurry as it is given that the dog is wearing pink glasses. I have no idea what was going on while taking this photo. I'm obviously no photographer but after 10 attempts at trying to take a non-blurry photo, I just gave up.

I actually no longer make all contents of bento the morning of. Like the dog face with glasses in this bento was made the night before. This would take way too long to construct in the morning. So I just make the face, assembled with nori and all and put it on a plate in the fridge over night. Then the following morning, I just place it in the bento -- so easy this way!

Contents of today's bento was left over from dinner the night before. Both my kids filled up on spinach/broccoli soup that I gave them at 3 pm along with curry and bread, etc. So by the time I served dinner, I was the only one eating it -- though my son took a few bites while yelling at my daughter to sit down and eat dinner too.

Anyway, spaghetti with meatballs in the center and corn under the ham flowers were from last night. There's also sliced zucchini with mayo placed at the bottom. To the right is a shrimp mayo dumpling and croquette of meat, potatoes, and cheese.

The zuchini is organic at 280 yen -- that's $2.80 US, per zuchini! Even conventional zucchini would be half that price, but that's still $1.40 US per zucchini. I think in the US you could buy a pound for this price, no?