Bento Corner

Above is not quite a cake, but it's actually a "unagi rice cake" that my friend, Mrs. Yamada made! Wow, right?!

Mrs. Yamada invited a few moms to her house for a Hinamatsuri Party!

I must apologize for the poor picture quality -- I took it with my phone cam since I wasn't expecting to take food pictures. It's too bad since the picture doesn't do it justice.

All the ladies were amazed at her talent and presentation so we asked her how she did it and this is what you need:

• plain white rice
• unagi (already cut into bite size pieces with sauce)
• shredded egg omelet
• sakura denbu
• round cake pan
• heart shaped mold

Mix together rice and unagi with sauce, then press the mixed rice into the cake pan. There is a ready-made already cut up unagi mix that is sold in Japan which can make the process easier.

Then top with shredded egg. I was floored when I found out that they also sell pre-made shredded egg omelet which makes this whole process even easier.

Next, take the heart mold and place on top and sprinkle in the sakura denbu. Repeat this until you've created a flower on top of the "cake". 

Mrs. Yamada said it was all quite easy to make. The rice was still warm and it was soooo good! Try it and impress your friends!!

This was my contribution to the party.

Here's what you need:

• strawberries
• chocolate
• microwave

Wash strawberries and make sure they are completely dry with paper towel (otherwise chocolate will not stick). Pour about half a bag of chocolate chips (or bar, whatever type of chocolate you are using, I always use chips) into a bowl and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Take out, stir, put back in for another 30 seconds. And repeat the process until everything is melted. It usually takes 3-4 tries depending on the strength of your microwave.

Then lay out some wax paper/kitchen paper, dip the strawberries and lay them out on the paper to dry.

You can do variations of this mixing with white chocolates or dark chocolate. I've made tuxedos before by dipping in white chocolate first on one side of the berry then letting it dry. Then dipping in dark chocolate by creating a "V" shape surrounding the white chocolate. Then draw the tux tie and buttons on the white part with dark chocolate.

Or do something like this if you wanna get fancy.

So I complain about my kids...a lot.

Probably because they are quite demanding, noisy, bossy, full of robust attitude and the like. But, there are certain moments when I feel like my girl is going to be alright underneath all the surface drama. Tonight was one of those moments...

I was invited to a party this afternoon by another kinder mom and found out that many of the girls gave out Valentine's to certain boys on 2/14. I was surprised to hear that this phenomenon started at such an early age. And also felt a bit distressed that it is more a selective process and not really democratic -- I mean, come on. At this age, why not give out Valentine's to all the kids or at least all the boys instead of select ones? That really rubs me wrong. Anyway...

So tonight after I finished reading to the kids, I was talking with my girl about how I found out that some girls did give out Valentine's to boys and my girl said, "Yeah I know. When my friend asked me who I gave a Valentine to, I just told her I gave one to my dad."

Ouch. I felt kinda bad about that.

So I asked her if she would like to give one to someone maybe tomorrow after school since it's still February. It's a bit late, but I thought the gesture would still be appreciated. And she was totally stoked.

I thought she would give one to the popular boy or the kakoii (trans: cool) boy or the boy who kind of hangs around her quite a bit -- I think he may have a slight crush on her. But she said, "The boy I like the best in my class, his name is Yun-chan." And she went on to describe him and the boy that kept popping into my mind was the boy who is physically challenged. So I kept probing her to make sure we were talking about the same boy, and indeed we were.

My heart melted with gratitude.

Gratitude that she had the ability to see a person for who they really are. To go beyond what is presented to her on the surface and was mature enough to see the heart and goodness of one person.

My girl said, "This is great, mom! When my friend asks me about who I gave a Valentine's to, I can say, 'I gave one to Yun-chan!'"

And she said this without any pretense nor judgement. Just happy to be able to give something to a boy who she really liked because he is nice to everyone.

My girl is 6 -- a  6 year old with a lot of heart.

Bee bento -- first attempt is here.

We had yakisoba (Japanese style chow mein) the night before so I wanted to use that up for this bento. I wanted to make omu-soba-- like omu-rice except with yakisoba inside. But  wrapping the egg around the mein looked really difficult for my girl to eat, so I made egg shaped flowers loosely placed on top so it's easier to pick up. The bee was constructed the night before made of cheese and nori. Above the bee is chikuwa fish cakes stuffed with butter fried okra. And kiwi and apples cut out in heart shapes.

Kinder lets out in 3 weeks which means I won't have bentos to upload so I may start with some suggestions I've already received like creating a how to on making some of the characters, a better explanation of Japanese food items used, better navigation settings, etc. I'm open to suggestions you have, so just go ahead and leave a comment. Can't promise anything, but if I'm cleared of bento duty, I'll have more time to explain things in more detail or what would be more helpful.

Thank you, arigaotou, and yoroshiku onegai itashima~su!

Candy bento -- mini-rolled sandwiches, chikuwa (fish cakes ) stuffed with umeboshi and cucumber, and carrots sauteed with tarako (fish roe).

There are two kinds of mini-rolled sandwiches. One is filled with mayo, nori, lettuce and fish sausage. The other is rolled with banana with this spread:

A chocolate whipped cream (yay for kids!) with added calcium (yay for moms!).

But seriously, who do the marketing folk think they are fooling? The general public should not get caught up in their marketing tactics. But uh-, yes, OK. Worked on me... had to at least taste it once, yes? Just don't fool me twice, mmkay?

The cream tastes like that chocolate you find stuffed in bread pastries (like chocolate coronet),  so it's not as sweet nor dense. I particularly don't care for this type of chocolate, but I must admit the combination of this and banana rolled in sandwich bread was quite good.

The carrots were sauteed in butter and then I added tarako to it. The chikuwa with umeboshi and cucumbers was a recipe from my bento book. I know this bento is quite fishy, and if you're not into fish, you could easily use other substitutes. Like roll the cucumber in ham, use plain sausage in the rolled sandwiches, and sprinkle the sauteed carrots with white sesame seeds. Less fishy, but still tasty.

Oh,  almost forgot! Lastly, look at the above bento -- did you think the green part was actually lettuce?! Ha! Feast your eyes on this:

Now what could be more useful than lettuce foil??

Made to just look like lettuce but without the lettuce! Genius!

And looky what else you can do with this:

Use if for picnic outings! Sandwiches! Add more color to your meals!

Marketing victim? Anyone, anyone?