BENTO #108

This is #2's lunch today. She is staying back to support her team mates for a College Trophy debate this afternoon at school. After that, she goes for language tuition and I fetch her at 7.00p.m. Long day, so I prepared her a hearty meal.

I used the Thermos flask Bento set and filled it's flask with piping hot miso soup, wakame seaweed and some colorful Fu balls (the same type that I'm including into the Winners Haul from my Bento Competition).

Hot rice topped with black sesame seeds and chicken karaage with a slice of lemon. In the side box was some Chinese cabbage pickle, Tamagoyaki, carrots marinated with sesame oil and sesame seeds and some dried Figs for desert. I had the same for lunch and I truly enjoyed it.


All the bento stuff ready to be packed into the black bag on the left.

Reorganizing of Bento boxes and accessories

In a previous post, I was grumbling about how I was unable to access Biggie's blog and somehow she tracked my problem, tackled it and now I can have 'limited' access!

Not through any fault of Biggie's because I found that I only have limited access depending on which browser I use. If I use FireFox (which is my default) then I cannot view or post any comments. If I open Safari, I get to see everything.

I'm not very IT savvy and I can't understand this, if anyone has a solution, can you please let me know. I know that Biggie has exhausted all avenues and so have I. Nevertheless, ever since I've been able to view Biggie's blog, I've been scavenging her old posts and archives! You can never learn too much from her, the guru of Bento in blogger world!

I particularly liked her post on "Reorganization of lunch gear storage". It's a problem very close home!

I don't know about you, I have an overflow of Bento stuff that's driving me crazy! I have them stuffed into all nooks and corners of my *dry kitchen cabinets. In one of my posts' entitled "Looking for space for my Bento boxes", Lyvvie of Obentobaby made this comment, read here.

Since then, I've been looking for ways to reorganize my Bento gear. This is my third time reorganizing so there really isn't a one time solution to this because 'reorganization' is going to be a continuous process.

My basic requirement for reorganization is to take up as little (dreaming here) space as possible and the fluidity of my movements accessing my Bento gear. I wanted them all in one spot but couldn't completely sacrifice space already allocated for other storage.

Since my last reorganization, I used two shelves with multiple drawers which I could fill with some Bento boxes and some accessories.

See here:
But, I still had left overs stuck in different places and some morning's I'd go crazeeeee looking for a particular item I wanted.


Yesterday I bought two multiple drawer shelves and a handyman's accessory (for nails, screws and small items) nine drawer shelf.

I repacked and reorganized all my Bento gear and this is what I got.

The right side shelves was from my last repacking process. Actually these two shelves were re-cycled from my crafting days where I put huge rolls of ribbons in it. Now the ribbons are all boxed up.

You can see the bottom three shelves contain only Bento boxes. The top three contains paper and silicon cups, egg molds and Onigiri disposable boxes and 'stock' e.g. bento straps, wiener cutters, etc.

In the new shelves on the left, I've packed into them, more Bento boxes.

The handyman's accessory drawer shelf was the best! Top layer contains all the food dividers (baran), small sauce cups and shoyu containers and Onigiri face molds. (Notice I put anti-slip knobs under the shelf).

Second layer has little boxes for soba dips, dried fruits or frozen canned fruits, the middle drawer for various picks and the third drawer for more picks and mini forks.

Finally, the last bottom layer has a mix of face punches and more wiener molds.

This morning when I was packing #2's Bento, all I had to do was pull out the drawers containing the baran and food picks out to use. It was a very organized morning!

This is how I keep the Bento bags and insulated bottle bags, hang it against the fridge.


I recycled this cutlery holder to keep my Bento straps in one place for easy access.

I keep my Japanese recipe books and current reads in this mobile basket which I roll around the house where ever I prop myself for a read with my cup of green tea! Hehehe! Lazy, I know!

I had to push the two fridges all the way to the side wall before I could 'acquire' this spot to 'hide' my mobile library!

See the green clip file with the pen? It's all my homework for each morning's Bento. Scribbles and dribbles, lots of illegible pictures and notes......


Finally, I have lots of space in the one last cabinet shelf which I use to store my cutters, Oshibori boxes, more Onigiri molds, cutlery, zip lock bags, stock, etc, etc.



*dry kitchen - you know, some friends from Taiwan, Hong Kong and some western countries tell me that only in Malaysia do people have two kitchens. One wet kitchen and one dry kitchen.

They tell me that it's 'uniquely' a Malaysian problem! Please, share with me your opinions.

BENTO #107

Pink, Pink, Pink! #2's box has a Salmon paste sandwich with some skewered cucumbers and crabsticks. I tried to skewer the 'stick kind' of cheese but it split so I omitted it.

The right side box has endamame beans, an orange and some Japanese cake. Easy peasy!


Look out for lunch post today.