A Few Bento Books for Your Consideration

I had purchased a few books in the last year or so either for creating bentos or actually “dissecting” them. One I found very useful the other a big let down.

“501 Bento Box Lunches” p.359 by Grafitto Books was the let down. Although there is a nice intro explaining a bit about Bento Basics and how to divide up your box so as not to contaminate other ingredients, the rest of the book is mostly western style bentos. The ingredients are clearly western inspired as is the subject matter. I couldn't find that many bento lunch suggestions worth remembering or repeating here.

The book is divided up into such sections as “Colorful Bento” or “Stylish Bento”. There is one chapter dedicated to traditional bentos but even there it's mostly onigiri filled bentos or sushi and some recipes for omelette fillers. It would have made more sense to divide the book into primary ingredients(meat,fish,veg) and eventually have chapters for Cute Bento-as they did- or Chariben Bento with people and characters (plus explanations of how they were executed). They do end up including a chapter for special holiday or occasions bento. All I can say is that for years I have been looking for explanations on how to paint facial expressions on bento manga characters and no one has yet to include this in their book (altho I did find it in Japanese. Too bad I can't read kanji.)

Overall it's pretty useless as a bento reference book. You would need tons of bookmarks just to be able to find the recipes or bento you may want to repeat or use. Given that in fact there are 501 bentos it's pretty much stuffed with every type of ingredient you could possible try to use in a bento but with no real index so you cannot easily find what you need. If I am creating a bento I usually have a certain set of ingredients I would like to use. If I cannot find a bunch of bento suggestions based on the main ingredient then the book really isn't very useful to me. It's like a badly packed bento box.

At the back of the book they have listed the contributors who, out of 15 listed, only 2 possibly 3 names could be oriental or asian. I am not saying that westerners are unable to create good bento but I believe it is a cultural thing. You can spot a westerner's bento compared to one that is cooked and created by a Japanese mom hell bent(o) on her kid having the best looking and nutritious boxed lunch at school that day. Perhaps it's generalizing but I defer to the culture that has created and nurtured the bento for my inspiration and instruction.

The book I felt was more useful was “Kawaii Bento Boxes Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go” pag.81. Kawaii basically means cute. The first few pages are dedicated to the basics as usual but explaining it so even a child can understand. The Bento is divided into the Energy Source (carbs) Body Builder (meat fish or soy) and Body Tuner (veg). They even give a nice example of smart packing and suggest how to make the bento fun for kids. There are a lot of photos to explain each section so you can't mess up.

Most of the bento examples offered here are simple with simple ingredients – the only down side is that some of the bentos suggest the use of foods that may be considered less nutritious than others. Lots of ketchup for decorating or hot dogs as fillers or prepared fried foods. But anyone with issues can find substitutes easily.

What I liked most about this book is the explanations on how to prepare the food. They make ample use of the microwave oven and plastic wrap. Both these kitchen tools are essential when making a bento in the morning before going to work. The plastic wrap stuffed in the rice mold facilitates removal of the form without loosing the overall look. When making “sushi” peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, white bread substitutes the nori, it becomes easier to roll and cut them into the pieces and place them in the box. You just throw away the plastic once you are ready to eat.

The book is divided into sections like “Bento for Cold Weather” or “Bread Bento” which is much easier to understand and to choose the ingredients you prefer. There are a ton of suggestions to make each bento special. And each type has some easy to follow recipes at the bottom of the page (one was for Mac And Cheese to be made in the microwave so super fast and doable in the morning) and the quantities for each recipe are perfect for one.

The last sections of the book are dedicated to methods such as “Rolled Meat Variations” or Omelette variations and Accents with instructions on how to cut some of the fruit and veg used to decorate the bento. There is also a section on ingredients and their recipes divided by color so you can even plan your bento – for example cheesy spinach for green (instead of just steamed or boiled spinach) or quick quiche in a muffin foil for yellow – based on what's in your fridge.

The book may not have over 500 bentos but I found it infinitely more useful than the one that did.

No, I'm not dead. Just unemployed.

Well it has been a while since I have returned here to post something. My bento boxes have been neglected since I stopped working. I no longer have the need to prepare them in the morning for my lunch time pleasure. But before I stopped working, I did make one final bento box purchase from my favorite site Bento & Co.

The box is called Ojue and is around the size of a school text book.

It has three compartments so you can prepare more or less food depending on what you're preparing for the day. I like the fact that it slides easily inside a book bag or handbag. The dimensions are slim and stylish (only 5.5cm deep) yet 16cm x 16cm in length and height. So you can fit 740ml of food in it. That's even enough for a guy! In fact, the color selection is great with white or black for men perhaps and green and pink for the more feminine.

I like the explaination of the creator, Chiaki Murata, of the box:

Every day we carry books, files and cellphones in our bags vertically. Why not the same for a bento box? The Ojue lunch box can be carried easily in a vertical manner. It has a small footprint, and the independent compartments can be used and arranged in many ways, using the 'vertical flexibility' concept.

The elastic bento belt actually is adjustable to fit the box in case you prefer to only use two out of the three compartments. There is also a built in chopstick holder and a pair of chopsticks which match the color of the box. At around USD 25.00 it is a bargain considering the quality and design factor - and it's actually on sale now! This is no Hello Kitty bento box! This is stuff for serious eaters and aficionados of the bento!! Enjoy !

The Manga Cookbook

I purchased this book as a gift for my friend's daughter who is in love with all things manga and wants to learn to cook some Japanese food. It is called The Manga Cookbook by the Manga University Culinary Institute (if that actually exists) 158 pages and before I gave it to her, I'd figure I'd post some info about it here.
Honestly, I am tempted to keep it but since many of the recipes I already know quite well, I will not. There are a few tips which I did not know about so it was a pleasure to read.

The book is quite cute being presented in comic book form. The beginning pages have colored fotos and then the book becomes a comic paperback book format. Very effective.
There are recipes for preparing fruit and even how to hold and use chopsticks. They have even included a glossary at the beginning so you can understand the ingredients.
The recipe lists includes everything from setting the table, appetizers, and second course dishes like chicken Teriyaki and Yakitori. There is even a recipe and full explaination on how to make sweet bean paste, sushi and miso soup. There is also a section on how to make and pack two different bentos - with full info on how to cut the food to shapes to form a little train and a garden.
I was surprised to find an actual recipe and instructions on how to make your own Udon noodles.

I like the suggestion to put the dough in a baggy and "remove your shoes...and step on it softly for 15 minutes". Cute way of kneading noodle dough.

It makes lots of safety suggestions for young people learning how to use kitchen knives.
Overall the price is very much worth it. I picked it up on a discount from an Italian Internet book store but cover price is $14.95. As usual, on Amazon, it's discounted and you can actually check out the content of the book. It makes a nice gift for a young person who wants to try something new. And it's not so bad for someone older who thought they knew all the tricks.

Medieval Food

My sister Karen bought me a book a while ago during one of our visits to a museum here in Florence. The book is by Christopher Hibbert and called The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici which can be found on Amazon for a decent price.

I have yet to finish the book since it is not quite as fun as many historical novels but it is interesting especially if you have been to Florence or know any Florentine vernacular. It is great fun to finally understand where alot of strange customs were born and why some survive today. It's like reading a "hidden Florence" book that explains so many cultural differences not just between Italians and non but between Florentines and non.

In any case, there is an excerpt about food that was amazing since today's Florentine cooking doesn't at all reflect the creativity that the Medicis enjoyed.

"...evening meal of garlic-flavoured pasta, ravioli in broth, liver sausage or black pudding, goat's milk cheese, fruit and wine, with occasional pigeon or a piece of meat, usually lamb, on a Sunday. For the richer merchants, of course, there was more exotic fare. Excessive indulgence was forbidden by sumptuary laws; but, as with clothes, the laws were flagrantly disregarding and the most was made of every loophole. If the main course was to consist of no more than "roast with pie", well then, everything that could possibly be desired was tossed into the pie, from pork and ham to eggs, dates and almonds. An honoured guest of a well-to-do citizen might be offered first of all a melon, then ravioli, tortellini or lasagne, then a berlingozzo, a cake made of flour, eggs and surgar, then a few slices of boiled capon, roast chicken and guinea fowl, followed by spiced veal, or pork jelly, thruses, tench, pike, eel or trout, boiled kid, pigeon, partridge, turtle-dove or peacock. For vegetables there was usually a choice of broad beans, onions, spinach, carrots, leeks, peas and beetroot. Finally there might be rice cooked in milk of almonds and served with sugar and honey, or pinocchiato, a pudding made out of pine kernals, or little jellies made of almond-milk, coloured with saffron and modelled in the shape of animals or human figres. Everything was strongly flavoured. A chicken minestra would be spiced with ginger and pounded almonds, as well as cinnamon and cloves, and sprinkled with cheese or even sugar. Into a fish pie would go olive oil, orange and lemon juice, pepper, salt, cloves, parsley, nutmegs, saffron, dates, raisins, powdered bay leaves and marjoram. The red sauce known as savore sanguino contained not only meat, wine, raisins, cinnamon and sandal, but also sumac which is now used only for tanning."

The amazing thing is that if you ask about many recipes, they have been lost through the ages.
I know of one book published by a chef who actually has a restaurant here and cooks renaissance and medieval florentine. It's called the Pentola D'Oro and his book is called the same although I think it would be difficult to find outside of Italy. I went there a long time ago and Chef Alessi served up tagliatelle al raffano - meaning pasta with horse-radish !! I had never even seen a horse-radish let alone think about using it in a pasta sauce. It was almost impossibile to eat. But really nice.

It's too bad that so much of this cooking has been lost on modern day florentines. I guess some things, like the Medici, where destined to die out.

New Bento Purchase

I would like to direct everyone to a new site which I found while facebooking. It is called bento and co and even tho the site is in French, it is worth a look through even if you don't understand French.

The products come from Japan. I was interested mostly because the prices are given in Euros (which is easier for me) and the transport costs are more than reasonable. For shipping to Europe, the usual insurance is suggested either using EMS or FEDEX. In the case of FEDEX, be careful as they will charge you extra for paying custom's and duty upon receipt of a package (it's considered a sort of COD or cash on delivery even tho it's a bit of a stretch in my book and technically stealing. But hey...)

Here is the bento I purchased.
It can be found under "les sets" and is really nice because so many colors are offered and co-ordinated with the little cotton bag and chop sticks in their case. The chop-sticks are really high quality - something most don't offer.

They also have some amazing little accessories like panda food sticks and bottles as well as unique food cups that can be re-used. The also have really nice onigiri containers - for putting your rice cakes in and keep them fresh.

What caught my eye though was the soup bento. I had been looking for a solution to keeping a portion of soup hot but not using a giant thermos or something. Well, I found it here and in a variety of colors. The nice thing is that it is quite compact and holds a serving of soup and is very very chic. It even has its own little folding spoon. The quality is excellent. No cheap or fragile plastic.

The site changes often since I had purchased not even a week ago my products (which arrived as promised within 4 days) and already I see new products up on the site. Some are very special made of bamboo and if I understand correctly especially for Bento&Co.

Prices can be quite high for the more crafted products but I have never really seen anything like them. Well worth the price I believe.

Browse the site and purchase as they are quite serious and the products really are lovely.
And to keep in theme, make sure you check out their face book page and their blog. They're full of recipes too.

Easter Eggs

Ok, I know that decorating Easter eggs has nothing to do with bentos but since they are food and since this can be considered "beyond" normal food treatment, I might as well post this.

There are many ways of decorating eggs but I found that "Pysanky" or Ukrainian Easter eggs are probably the most fun and elaborate. The method is basically layering colors on top of colors and blotting out sections of the design using wax (usually beeswax) which has been heated with a candle. A small funnel shaped wax applicator is needed and can be found in most specialised crafts shops along with all the egg dye colors. Otherwise, you can purchase a ton of materials right on the internet.

The reasoning behind the egg decorating seems to be religious. The symbols used in most traditional Pysanky are based in the Christian faith. If you're interested in knowing more visit Learn Pysanky where they explain alot of the symbology as well as giving hints for making your eggs.

Step one would be to prepare your eggs and your colors. Since the colors should be cool before working, prepare them beforehand. I used mason jars since the opening is large enough to fit the egg (which should not be emptied yet) and a spoon to fish it out. The color preparation is clearly explained on the packets of color. Hot water and vinegar is needed.

Your eggs can be cleaned with a little vinegar to remove any marks or stamped dates. White eggs obviously work better.

Colors, egg, wax applicators and pencil

After choosing your design (books are available or go on the internet where designs are provided free), you pencil it out carefully.

Here I have penciled in the design and added wax over the areas I want to keep white. Meaning that the wax will now block the area from being dyed any color at all. I then dipped my egg in the yellow dye. Generally you work from lightest less intense colors to darker colors.

Here is the egg after dipping and drying and another egg penciled out and ready for dipping. Here I am working on some eggs.

And so on. Each time you apply wax you will maintain the color under the wax.

Green and blue....

and red...

And here is the egg with the varnish partially removed. There are a few ways you can do this since, if you remember, the egg has not been emptied yet and the last thing you want to do is break it while removing the wax. You can use oil based products (like cornoil heated up a bit) but traditionally it's just a small tea candle, tissues (without the softner in them) and patience. Do not place the egg directly over the candle as it will burst. Just heat the wax until it shines a bit and wipe off. You'll be amazed as the finish design emerges from the black wax.

The design finally can be seen !

Here are some eggs emptied and waiting their varnishing. Traditionally you're not supposed to empty the egg. They have a special meaning if they still have their innards. But to let them stay intact, you have to rotate your eggs everyday until the insides basically mummify. I have done it so it does work. I also put some eggs in the fridge and didn't touch them for a year and they stayed fine. No smell, no rotting. Otherwise, make a tiny opening at both ends with a needle, twirl the needle inside to break up the yolk, cover the end you're going to blow into with some plastic wrap (otherwise some of the dye may come off on your mouth!) and blow. Course, you can buy an egg blower too but that would remove alot of the fun.

Varnish your eggs with a high gloss varnish. A few coats will do. And let them dry well.

And that's it ! Ok, seems complicated but it isn't really. And the finally results are fantastic.

Here are the finished eggs. And here are some eggs which I presented in frames or in little environments.

Happy decorating.

Face Food - Christopher D Salyers

"Face Food - The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes" 80 pages by Christopher D Salyers is as cute in size and presentation as the bentos are themselves.

This is the first book I found that deals with the actual philosphy and modern use of making lunch boxes. The book is a testimonial of many Moms (and one Dad) who prepare their kids some kind of lunch at least twice a week. It shows their work (and artwork) but more importantly it asks the real questions of why they make these fab lunches for their children.

I read for the first time the term "charaben" which refers to using manga or other characters in creating the bentos. There is no real explaination of technique but lots of images that give you a fantastic idea of the dedication and creativity behind the bentos. One mom even said her kid had become critical of her bentos when she makes some slight mistakes in the character representation. Another Mom described making the charaben for her kid as " A communication tool between my child and I and between my child and his classmates." It's not just an expression of love but also an attempt to improve the status of the child in school. There is actually competition between children for who would have the best o-bento. And strangely enough, according to the author, the moms are not competative. They actually have get togethers where they exchange methods and secrets on creating and executing the best charaben possible.

The author has his own blog spot as well (http://www.facefoodbento.blogspot.com/) which I suggest you check out as he is constantly on the look out for face food as well as reviews of his book. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I do have a few points on where the author could have improved it. For example, the format is great (quite small) and the actual material of the cover gives a feeling of an old household recipe book. But the pages are printed on some kind of paper which does not render justice to the intricate photos they present. It seems like recycled paper but I was unable to find anywhere which mentions if it is. (ok, I admit, if it were recycled then I guess it's ok that the images are grainy...) The typeset works fairly well (altho at times difficult to read) yet it gives the impression of reading someone's diary entries or their kitchen journal where they document their bentos. The ingredients lists for each bento are not accurate as far as I can guess. But that may be due to the fact that each Mom who filled out some kind of form had to summarise overall ingredients or the translation fell short.

Anyway, without a doubt, for a person who is just getting into charaben and bentos it's definately a book to check out. After reading this one you can probably convince yourself that making a bento is not just fun but possible.

Mona Lisa Bento

Today's book is quite extraordinary.

I don't even know what it's titled (お弁当アートの作り方 (単行本) ) which should stand for "Really Artistic Kick-ass Bento's" by Junko Terashima. It's 78 pages of sheer shock and surprise.

Different from my previous blog's book, this is less everyday bento and more extreme Bento. This is not to say it's better - only that you can go to a higher ground when creating bentos.

If you google images with her name, you will definately find an infinite number of images to check out. Here are some of the most amazing :

Here is one that uses food in the most amazing landscape. There is cabbage for the mountains, colored rice and egg for a setting sun. Not to mention the rolls and well organised food to give the entire bento not just visual content but nutritional as well. I don't know much about her. All I know is that she does alot of classes in bento-ing as she does this mostly for her kids. There are pics in her book of her kids eating the most intricate bentos like no big deal. I'd almost feel terrible to see hours worth of work go into their mouths. I guess the true testimonial to dedication to your children.

Here is another :

This one is great since it shows an incredible sense of humor. I don't suspect her kids ate this one. Or maybe they did. And here for your enjoyment :

I wonder whose stomachs would turn and who would eat it hungrily.

Check out the contents. Lots of seaweed but lots of pumpkin, egg rolls wrapping everything from imitation crab leg to okra, beans and carrots, there are strawberries, apple slices - basically the most balanced meal a kid could ask for. And they would eat it all up.

I wish I was able to read her book - also again in kanji - since there are sections devoted to how she transfers facial designs to the ham or bologne slices. I'll just have to wait until a friend of mine translates it for me.

And in closing....

Mozart (notes on an egg !!) and

A take-off from a famous woodblock print with Mount Fuji in the background.

I wish I could find her internet site but I couldn't. So, navigate....and let me know if you find something.

Bento Books

Over the past year or so, I have purchased a few books about bentos (as previously mentioned below for recipes) and bento making. But a few books have ended up being for inspiration more than anything also because I was able to find them only in Japanese (of which I cannot read). In any case, I am seeing that many of these types of books are becoming available as bento and lunch boxing becomes more popular in western cultures.

So, for a few posts, I will dedicate some time to the people who have dedicated their time to their kids and then to passing on ideas and advice to others when it comes to bento building.

First up is Mari Miyazawa who's internet blog e-obento was one of the first I came across. With the help of Babelfish, you can understand quite alot on her site. But more to the point I discovered she has written a few books. The one I purchased is called "Fantasic Lunchbox" (111 pages), and I found it only on amazon.jp (amazon Japan).

What makes this book fun is that even though I was unable to understand what has been written, I could easily get tons of ideas on how to create new and interesting combinations of food. Some are quite straight forward whereas others are almost impossibile to understand or replicate since not all kinds of food stuffs are available where I am (or maybe where you are).

The book is very well organised. It starts out by presenting bentos by season meaning first lunch boxes with a spring theme (for example certain flowers or events which take place in the spring time), then into summer (with a fantastic bridal bento), into fall with it's harvest themes then finally into winter with christmas symbols and santa too.

There are then sections dedicated to color and all the different foods used to achieve certain chromatic additions to the lunch boxes. Chopped up pickles and avocado for two different tones of green, chopped up ham for pink and scrambled egg for yellow and so on.

Then she divides the book into special events such as the first day of school complete with boys or girls in school uniforms and backpaks. Birthdays, sports events, anniversaries, arrival of a newborn, housewarming and holidays. Each is presented as an actual bento in that one part is often full of food with no particular design and the other half of the bento has the design or is the visual part of the presentation. As I've shown in previous posts, most bentos are two-tiered so it makes sense that the two parts are shown in the book to complete the idea of the entire lunch.

Part of the book is techniques and tools as well as particular ingredients. She shows how to use the same cookie cutters to achieve different shapes or animals. She has an entire section devoted to eggs, meat cutlets and another to fish paste. Here is one of those ingredients which is tough to find. Fish paste is usually white fish pressed into a block. It's sold in many shapes and sizes and even pre-prepared manga characters. Here is an example of Hello Kitty fish paste used in making sushi (thanks to Hello Kitty Hell - this guy really hates Hello Kitty)

The fish paste is pressed into blocks. When cut one way it will come out as the manga face or whatever the design is but if cut horizontally can be used for other color combinations. Mari shows many ways to use it - even as minature bento kimonos. Really fantastic.

An entire section is then dedicated to the most important staple of the japanese diet - rice. Even here the creativity in the presentation of mundane rice onigiri is amazing.

I highly reccommend purchasing this book and have high hopes that these books will be translated one day. A new book has come out and to be honest I'm quite tempted. Will have to wait till Christmas I suppose....

and here is today's bento (from Mari's site e-obento - please check it out !)

Nothing better than Halloween themes !!!!!!!! Boooo!

Sushi Party

Sushi Party April 2008 - Here is one of my spur of the moment sushi parties. Was put together last minute since I had found some excellent fresh tuna. We made tuna, shrimp and various rolls with even super hot thai sauce tuna rolls. Fabio, Rosella and Daniele ate to their full. Mini beer keg (japanese beer I believe) rounded it off. I love eating and preparing sushi. It may take a few hours to prepare a spread like this but it is sooo worth it !

Hope it inspires you to at least try something different.
It's always a pleasure to make sushi for Fabio and Rosella because they truly enjoy it. And so does their 6yr old son Daniele who shouts out for more "wasabi" every chance he gets.
Some deep fried anchovies in an inside out roll topped with Tobasco.
And some shrimp and tuna nigiri. I found these serving trays by chance at a supermarket and they work great for sushi presentation.

And the sushi vid with full presentation (in italian of course)
Sushi Party


And today's bento pic can only be of sushi :

Blog Update

It has been a while since I had put together a post so even tho the dates result the same, these blogs are actually taken from my myspace pages. So, they are not so recent. This one is from March of this year.

Well, back to some bentos. It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog but it doesn’t mean I have been neglecting my bento making or purchases of bento material and boxes.
My latest purchase was made end last year where I found in one of my favorite sellers the nori punches I had been looking for for some time. While I bought those, I added in a few plastic food picks, some animal bottles and a new funky cheese burger bento.

It may seem small, but inside it’s quite roomy. It only cost $7.99 so definately a keeper and has proven to be one of my favorite boxes. As soon as received, I packed up this lunch for work :

In the bottom we have some P&J sandwhiches cut into flower shapes. Some prosciutto and a hot pepper and olive mini-salid. In the "lettuce" part, I made some nori, cheese slice and prosciutto roll ups and divided it from my dessert which was orange slices. Little mini crackers finished it off. The "burger" section has a fork and spoon and enough space to put in a napkin as well. Pretty funky.

I had also made one day a nice Panda Bento. I like this bento box because it’s Panda shaped but I have to be careful not to use sauces or other red based products as they will stain the white plastic. No tobasco, no meat sauces or tomato sauce of any kind. So, I stuck with salmon for this one.

I have salmon with dill sprinkles, broccoli and a cup cake holder filled with philadelphia cheese. Then I made "pancakes" for the salmon. I had eaten once at a posh french restaurant "blini" with salmon. Basically, they make pancakes, then you put slices of smoked salmon on top of them and eat. I spread philadelphia on mine, then the salmon and then a sprinkle of dill (in the red container) on top of that. Really tasty. The pancakes were a blast to make :

I had seen this woman on TV use a squeeze bottle full of pancake mix (self rising flour and an egg will do if you don’t have real pancake mix like me) to squeeze out onto the pan and make all kinds of animal shapes. I added a twist. All you have to remember is that the first layer is the one to be seen. So I made the ears, eyes nose and mouth and then filled in the rest of the head. The form fits perfectly into the bento too. Very cool and yummy to eat.

Keeping on the Panda bento theme, I had made an "ode to the panda" in his bamboo thicket.

This was fun because I created the bamboo thicket using rice, carrots and zucchini thinly sliced with a potato slicer. I actually made the face before buying the face nori punchers. So believe it or not, I did use tweezers to position it. The salad is made with carrots and radishes sprinkled with lots of salt then squeezed out. The top part of the bento has turkey slices rolled around bamboo heart. And the fruit is figs ! Don’t get to eat those often out of season.

And the last bento was made after receiving the nori punchers. I made some hard boiled egg and decorated them.

Again tweezers helped but they are tough to position. It's easier if you punch the faces out, place them on a plate then press the egg over the plate. Some salami and turkey roll ups and cheese and nori with omlette roll ups too. Small side salad of carrots and olives. And the bottom of the bento had a bunch of flowers :

Some regular brown rice was the bottom and an omlette cut up into flower shapes. Celery stalks for the stems and carrots for the centers. I have little punches in the form of dragonflies and butterflies so added those in.

So, as you can see, I still make lots of stuff when I do have time and energy. Depending on what I make, I usually only need 30 minutes to an hour to prepare. And the pancakes are prepared the night before so no big deal. I have to remind myself to take pics of the bentos tho. I have made some nice ones (food wise more than designs) with some nice recipes so I have to remember to take pics. You never know who may get inspired by my bentos.

And here is a pic of a bento which I purchased recently :

Even though the chopsticks are too long for the bag, the bento is quite spacious and a very nice quality. So, here is today's bento :
Yuck ! EVIL CLOWN BENTO !!!!!!!!!

Bento Recipes 3 & 4

Back to the blogs!


Hopefully back to my diet program so I can get back to losing a few pounds too.
During Karen's visit, I hit a shop in Florence which sells lots of international foods and found a japanese tempura mix and breadcrumbs. So, we made some tempura the night before and the day after, I had a few veggies and seafood leftover.
Tempura isn't difficult but a few factors have to be controlled otherwise the batter and final lightly fried effect won't result. The beauty of tempura is that the food is not overfried. Veggies are still crunchy and seafood is cooked just right.
The batter is made a few ways but basically a super fine self-rising cake batter should do the trick if you can't find the real japanese tempura mix. The proportion of water to flour should be enough to leave the batter thickish and not too lumpy. The water must be very very cold. I usually throw a few icecubes into some water till it's super cold. Then it gets added to the flour and you start frying right away.
Regular frying oil is ok to use but be sure it's just hot enough to cook the pieces of food right away. This is not a deep frying kind of deal where you leave stuff in till it goes all brown and too crunchy.

It's important that you don't throw too many pieces of food into the oil at the same time otherwise you will lower the temperature of the oil and the food will not cook correctly. Another important thing to remember is to make the food pretty much the same size so that it all cooks evenly. For example, don't cut your eggplant slices too thick or they won't cook inside and be overcooked on the outside. I found also that seafood is very easy but that scallops, if bought frozen, are best cooked semi-frozen still. That way they don't reduce much during cooking. Certainly, anyone living near the seaside doesn't have to worry about finding fresh sea scallops. They are excellent in tempura.
Shrimp can be shelled (with end bit of the tail remaining) and then butterflied to give them a nice appearance on the plate.
A nice dipping sauce can be made to serve with tempura. Mix a little water with vinegar and red pepper (fresh is best but flakes will do) a bit of sesame oil and seeds to top off. If you don't have a dipping sauce, soy sauce will do.
The above tempura bento has eggplant slices, scallops and shrimp.
The lower portion is chopped fresh baby shrimp, spinach with sesame seeds and sesame oil, and scrambled eggs (adding a bit of sugar, soy and mirin into the eggs before cooking them). A few grapes finish off the bento.
Just a short note on bento bags. I recently shopped at Ikea and found them selling velvet type bags in the children's department. They are intended for putting kid's toys and such but I found they are pretty good as bento bags too. I just sewed across the bottom to square them off and I can fit even my largest bento plus my utensils without trouble.


This bento contains more fish. During the summer time I can't resist using fresh fish when possible. Once the winter arrives, we return to mostly meat or veggies and the fish is always frozen.
I cooked up some chinese noodles and tossed them with just a dash of soy sauce to stop them from sticking. I topped them with fish fillets marinated in oil and parsley. Then just a sprinkle of rice seasoning on top to taste.
The main portion is sweet green peppers filled with philadelphia cheese and shrimp. The peppers are cooked over a grill or, in this case, on a grill plate over a gas stove. The cheese is used just to cover the bottom and inside of the pepper which has been slit and cleaned of it's seeds and white ribs. I've packed two sauces too – tobasco for the peppers and soy for the fish fillets. Also here a few grapes for dessert.
I have more fun and eating pleasure creating these bentos. Since every day I eat at my desk (we have no cafeteria or lunch room to speak of) and I can't go home since it's too far to get there, eat and get back in time and furthermore, there are really no places you can buy a lunch where I work, at least I look forward to lunch time knowing I have made an effort to create a tasty dish that's nice to look at too.

Here is today's bento pic :