Bento 213

This bento took 20 minutes to prepare in the morning. On the left box there is leftover roasted Rosemary lemon chicken, fresh mushrooms and rollo rosa drizzled with Kewpie mayo, all wrapped in a freshly pan fried pancake.

In the middle is a box of cut apples.

The right box is currently #2's favorite box. It's packed with lots of cut vegetables and tossed in salad cream. The cooling gel in it's cover maintains the cool temperature in this box of salad.

I was at Daiso @ the Curve last week and bought two more sizes of this type of box with cooling gel.

The oval one below is 380 ml in size.


This square one below is 450ml and is quite large. I am thinking that besides salads, sushi is another good item to pack in these type of boxes.

Do you know what you're missing out on?

Hey fellow Malaysian Bento Bloggers! Do you know what you are missing out on?

I do! I do! I do!

My friend here is giving away this awesome ensemble and you are not responding! I think that if she were to open this to everybody and not restricted to Malaysia only, there'd be a flood of responses.

You really don't know what you are missing! This is a great piece of work because it's leak proof (no soups though), it's a pretty pastel color and comes with a matching bag which has enough space for a set of cutlery and oshibori.

It's a great item if you are using it for a teenager or yourself. So don't miss out of this golden opportunity - Carpe Diem!

BENTO PET'S BENTO COMPETITION

Today, 8th July, is supposed to be my 100th Bento post. Incidentally, 29th July 2008 commemorates my blog’s first anniversary. I’ve been cracking my grey cells in hope to find some interesting topic to commemorate this milestone in my life.

Unfortunately too many things are happening at one time and I’ve been hit by all life’s challenges all at once!

• Hubs and #1 leaves for Australia in a couple of hours to participate in the World Youth Day celebrations from 15th – 20th July in Sydney.

• #2 has incessant rehearsals at ungodly hours for the upcoming musical which debuts on 11th July and runs till 13th July.
  

• The Mega sale has just started and things are being sold at ridiculous prices.

• My blog has reached it’s 100th Bento post and is one year old on the 29th of July 2008!

Admittedly, all this is good, so I’m going to CELEBRATE to COMMEMORATE this wonderful occasion with a Bento competition. I know it’s not anything new, Bento competitions are quite rampant in Bento blogs but I’m doing this because I want to encourage and provide some incentive to Bento enthusiasts.

I notice that many people start to Bento and after a period of time, the passion dies off. This includes me, especially when life's' challenges become too difficult to handle and when we become busy elsewhere and we tend to take leave from Bento.

To get back into the Bento-action is almost impossible sometimes. I've gone through that roller coaster and it almost cost me the closure of this blog. *shivers at the thought*.

After sending Hubs and #1 off, I sent #2 to KLCC for her rehearsal. I shopped for a while and managed to get some stuff for the Winners Prize haul that I am putting up for the Bento competition. I also picked up some things from the 100 Yen store and I hope it's good enough to lure you Bento enthusiasts to submit a Bento for Bento Pet's Bento Competition.

The reason I am having this Bento competition is basically an incentive for people who are currently packing Bento. Please don't hate me. I am setting some criteria because I enjoy visiting Bento sites that are regularly updated and it inspires me that some people are so passionate about Bento-ing.

I've seen submissions for Bento competitions come in from first timers and even Bentos that don't really qualify as Bento - a sandwich and a fruit doesn't constitute a Bento (my personal opinion).

I feel disappointed that the regular Bento packers are not recognized because theirs was not a kyaraben (character) Bento. Don't get me wrong, I love kyaraben bentos. I am awed by what all the Japanese super mums are churning out for their kids. It's an ART form of it's kind flowed only from the love of these selfless mums.

But what about all the other 'regular people' who pack 'regular bentos'. I see them posting up on their blogs day after day, week after week and months after months. I'm inspired by their effort and their own creativeness. I feel their passion in updating their blogs with their Bentos - also made with care and much love. I want this competition to be for people like "us" - regular people packing regular bentos. I hope you understand.

Often we (yeah! I feel so too) get excited when someone drops a comment and it inspires us to keep going. When there is silence, we continue to plod on until the next challenge comes along to break our spirit or to inspire us to continue. I'm sure many of us Bento packers feel this way.

So, all said and done, I hope you don't get angry with my comments, which are solely my opinions and not meant to insult anyone.

The criteria for Bento Pet's Bento Competition will be:

• You must be currently packing bentos.
• You currently own a blog, please provide your blog link.
• Your blog must have at least blogged about ten bentos made by you.
• You may make a new bento for this competition or send in an old picture of Bento made by you. You may add some kawaii accessories, e.g. food picks, sauce bottles etc.
  
• This competition does not accept Kyaraben bentos (THOUSAND APOLOGIES). You can however have shaped onigiri or other food stuff using cutters or shapers.
  
• Describe your bento components. It does not necessarily have to follow the 3:2:1 formula but require some variety.
• Please provide your name and which country you are from.
• Entry deadline will be the date of my blog's first anniversary. i.e. 29th July 2008.
• (edit) Please e-mail to: japanesehomestylecooking@gmail.com
• (edit) Please link back to this post: http://onabentofrenzy.blogspot.com/2008/07/bento-pets-bento-competition.html
  
• (edit) If possible please include this icon
  

• (edit) More than one entry accepted but only the best, if selected will be posted.
  

I know that by putting up this post, I'm opening myself to much criticism. I plead for your understanding and ask of you to support my quest to promote and affirm 'us', the regular Bento packers.

So, for the rest of 'us' please send in your bento's ASAP (as soon as possible) to win this:

One packet of kawaii bag clips.
One pink Hello Kitty bag.
One pack of 4 pieces Hello Kitty color pencils.
One white 2 tier Bento box - 500ml capacity.
One Tulip wiener cutter.
One scoring wiener cutter.
Two face punches.


One insulated Winnie the Pooh bag (yellow).
One Rainbow Pooh Bento Box with divider (yellow) - 440ml capacity.
One Rainbow Pooh fruit box (yellow)- 200ml capacity.
One two tier Lube Sheep Bento box (blue) - 610ml capacity.
One packet of Japanese sweets.
One packet of dried Fu.

A close up look at the face punches.

One more close up shot.

All these items will go to the first prize winner of the Bento Pet Bento Competition. I will ship to the winner in any part of the world.


p/s
Sorry no Bento today. No more energy after shopping for this Winners prize haul!

How to select the right size Bento box

I picked this chart from : http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yellowstudio/c/0000000352/
This chart recommends the Bento box size to use for age group and height.

Biggie has a detailed, translated version but lately I've not been able to access her site. Another good reference for choosing the right Bento box is from Just Bento. The pink chart on the left is for female and the blue one on the right is for male.

• The first column is the age group.
• Second column is the height.
• Third column is calories/meal.
• The last column on the right is the recommended size box to use.

If you look under your Bento box, you will be able to see the capacity of the Bento box.
I remember reading somewhere that if your activity level and height exceeds the recommended size Bento box, you should add on 100ml capacity to what is recommended. The same vise-versa.

It's something you just adjust to suit your personal need. There's no hard and fast rule. If one is dieting, obviously pick a smaller box. I realized that my third daughter doesn't finish the two layer Bento box that I pack for her.

When I questioned her, she says that there is not enough time during recess. Being a mother, I'm all the time concerned that she's not got enough food to eat.

Looking at her age - 9 years old and her height at 139.7cm, she should be taking a 600ml Bento box. There's no way she can finish so much food - we're talking about packed capacity here, not loosely packed food. Knowing that she should have a 600ml box is one thing, the reality of it is she won't be able to finish the food. So, I just have to follow my gut feeling and go with the flow.

My second daughter is 16 years old and her height is 168cm. According to the chart above she is 11cm taller than stated and rightly should add another 100ml to the recommended 700ml box, which makes it to an 800ml box.

However, #2's a weight watcher and there's no way she'll eat so much. She's already on a permanent fruit and vegetable diet.

The boxes that I pack for her range from 500ml-600ml.

An example below would be the 330 ml for the upper box and 250ml for the lower box which makes a total of 580ml.




This one below also has two layers. The upper large box capacity is 320ml and the smaller box at the bottom is 180ml which makes a total of 500ml.

I usually use similar size boxes for her Bento. She's cool with it and most days finish what's inside if she's not rushing from one thing to another. I have larger capacity boxes but that's only used if I pack sushi for her.

More Eye Candy

For me, Christmas has certainly arrived early! I feel like a 6 year old in Santa's toy factory! I've been Bento-ing for almost one whole year. During this journey, I've scourged many shopping outlets for Bento accessories and had to make do with the miserable few and far in between things being sold in non-Bento speciality shops (not that PJ or KL has one anyway).

The 100 Yen store was the best (of the worst) store which had limited collection and because I was kind of a local pioneer, I managed to build up quite a collection of Bento boxes from them. Often I would sweep across the store and manage to buy 8-10 Bento boxes plus it's limited accessories. But after a while, they ran out of stock too.

It's frustrating for Bento enthusiasts like me. I thank God for good friends who travel and bother to entertain my passion for Bento. Most of my Bento accessories was brought back from Japan by my friend Alice.

Since then, I've been surfing the internet and found lots of things that I like but didn't want to pay a ridiculous price for. I've had one bad encounter with an e-bay seller (now defunct) who conned me and I wasn't too keen to put my money where I already had a bad experience.

Often, I was tempted to purchase the Wilton silicon cups - something like RM55 for half dozen or something and that too you only get them in one size and shape. Wilton has two or three shapes I think.

One of the things I appreciate of my late Dad is, he forcibly taught me to be PATIENT. It's not my best virtue but "I can wait". That's what I did and today, my friend Felicity who travels Singapore quite often brought these back for me!! I am so excited, she bought 30 items from Daiso at 2 Singapore dollars each. I almost died of elation!

New Bento and Onigiri boxes - my dream come true!
I had seen the Onigiri boxes selling for RM39.90 and I refused to buy them.
Felicity bought them at 2 Sing each!

A pink furoshiki, Onigiri molds and tiny condiment boxes and another pink Onigiri box. *swoons*.

Silicon cups in all shapes, sizes and colors. SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT!
*Thank you! Thank you!*

New age Bento straps? Kung-Fu Panda - I think #3 will be trilled!! Cute chicky faces and matching pink balloon straps for the single tier balloon Bento box.

Sauce bottles, furikake shakers, mayo boxes. *I'm going crazeeeeee with happiness*

My dream food picks! *God is good!*

*I'm currently floating on 7th Heaven, walking on clouds and dreaming dreams*

Hugs to everyone. Thank you friends!

BENTO #75

Today's Bento is mostly left overs from the weekend. Cut up the Kyuri and crab sticks to fit the box. Added the simmered shitake mushrooms and fried a quick tamagoyaki.
I made the miso soup fresh and it, in itself is a meal because I added in clams (lala), Japanese fish cake, Wakame seaweed and Aburaage (Japanese taufoo pok).

Notice my black Oshibori box on the right?

This is going to be a very filling lunch because #2 has Choir practice up to 3p.m. today. The school choir is going for the Trinity Choir examination this Friday and #2 says they are not ready. Good luck then!

Passing on some Bento Love

Went shopping with #2 yesterday and got very excited over the stuff in the picture above. Wanted to buy the lovely bento box for my girls but...*thinks, ponders, pause, some more logic thinking* NO!!

Wwwoooow!! I just had to buy it and found an excuse, heheheh, #3's little friend Gabby is celebrating her 8th birthday tomorrow. A perfect reason to buy this bento box to share some bento love!!

I love this bento box because it has a side compartment to keep the fork and spoon. I also got a pair of hair clips and a bag for her. *I'm so tempted to go get one* NO! NO! NO! *No more space*!!!!

BENTO #64

This morning, #2 asked if I could bring her lunch at school. I checked my schedule, although quite tight, I agreed. She asked for a single box bento since I was going to send her lunch. The bento below contains some blanched broccoli and carrots, coated with salad cream. Next to it is a scoop of macaroni and cheese topped with some freshly ground pepper.

I am going to sell Mac and cheese this Sunday for a fund raising event. My youngest girl will be having her "First Holy Communion" this year and the monies raised is supposed to help defray expenses for the whole year's journey of camp and activities.

I tried a 'commercialised' (cheaper)version of the Mac and cheese recipe and it turned out pretty good. There is a certain 'fish' I know who in his blog declares that "God is a funny fellow". I wasn't happy with the macaroni I bought from Tesco because of it's texture. I bought it in the first place because there was a RM2 difference from the regular one I buy from
This afternoon, when I was at Jusco, One Utama to pick up the balance of the stuff I couldn't get at Tesco, I found that the Barilla macaroni was being sold for a mere 50 cents difference more. I bought all the macaroni they had on their shelf - thirteen 500g packets would yield approximately 100 packets of cooked macaroni.

Then I saw the smoked sausages that I bought to try from Tesco going on promotion here in Jusco at an even cheaper price!! I was trilled!! I swiped what I wanted and was grinning all the way to the pay counter.

On the way I saw "Dutch Lady Full Cream Milk" on offer at RM3.50 per packet. I swiped four! Utterly satisfied with the day's haul, I remembered my 'fish' friend and how true his declaration that "God is a funny fellow".

Back to bentos!

The bento below was packed for #2's lunch. I had a piece of Unagi in the fridge that I decided to use. Unpacked it and steamed it for about 3 minutes with the sauce. Cooked some rice and packed it into a bento box. Topped it with the Unagi and added some side vegetables - tomatoes, kyuri and pickled daikon.
The picture below shows you the bento box and cover. *Sorry about the poorly taken pictures*

I had to use a furoshiki to tie the box because there is no strap that can accommodate the box.

Spring Cleaning!

The kids are on holiday for a week. No Bento packing but a lot of spring cleaning of the cupboards. I cleared out the cupboards and took some pictures of my ever-growing Bento and accessories collection!

Top, clockwise from left: Shuttle flask bag which contains the flask and three small containers in front together with the white chopstick holder. Next is another red flask with two containers. In front of the red flask are two pink bentos with a movable partition. Next to the pink bento is a double layer red tiffin styled box. In front and side are two sandwich boxes with fixed partitions. (I haven't used them for a long while). The colorful tupperware with the individual sections are good for a Chinese style meal plus two dishes type of Bento.

Above, some of my two tier Bento boxes.


Above, some of my single tier Bento boxes and side dish boxes.


These are the Bento accessories which are in my cupboard. I think that I should stop buying and stocking because suddenly, I realise that there seem to be a lot!


The tupperware right at the top contains food cups and sauce bottles. In front of it are food picks for skewering small bits of food or vegetables. I've got some fancy food dividers on the right and some wiener cutters in the middle. Right in front are some spoons and forks, sized for Bento boxes and on the left top you can see more sauce bottles.


This picture has most of my cutters in two boxes. You can see my limited number of pipping nozzles, some more food divider grass and leaves and some yellow plastic flowers in the front row of the right box. In front of the two boxes are some more side dish and sauce containers. In the front middle is a box of Glad 'rainbow' bags - good for sandwiches. Left is a box of zip lock plastic bags for freezing udon and sorts.
The yellow bottles in the back are used to freeze soba dipping sauces and tempura sauces. Next to them are tea containers. I now officially own six because I love them and are so useful containing my different variety of teas.

I've uploaded pictures of some of the above items in my older posts. While packing I just gathered them together and took these pictures. There are some more knick knacks and loose pieces here and there which I have not sorted out. Perhaps another post.

I'm still working on the Japanese ingredients part II, so look out for it soon!!

Bento Maniac in a "Hyakuen" shop aka 100 Yen shop

I was at the 100 Yen shop today. As always, I'm like a bull in a China shop only I don't break things, I can't stop buying!

I was trilled by the bento boxes that they had. When I looked at the bottom of the boxes I found that some of them were made in CHINA! I immediately called one of their Managers whom I got to know since my frantic, manic shopping sprees in the 100 Yen shops.

I asked about the lead scare on CHINA produced plastics and he assured me that the bento boxes produced in China under the licensee of their Japanese brand was safe and lead free.

See the blue and pink Clikety Click boxes, I bought two of each because they come in single bentos. You can buy many and stack multiple bentos.

The rectangle pink ones in the back attracted me because they had a movable divider. This allows a lot of flexibility. The white one in the back is quite standard, just wanted to add another color to my collection.

I loved the chopsticks they had on display. I pick up some for hubs and I. The 'fun' chopsticks in their cases are for the girls bentos.

The three cylindrical containers are for tea leaves. They only had three colors, I got them all. Coincidently, I am brewing three different types of tea (by rotation) daily.

The plastic box is to contain some of the Onigiri molds as they are bulky and difficult to contain.

The rest of the non-bento stuff, you don't want to see - too many of them! Hehehehe!!!

Lead free Bento Boxes

I was blog hopping last night and came across an article alert about plastic containers from China suspected of containing lead. Not one to be paranoid, but I was concerned and I remembered an article I read from Gwendomama which I thought I should share. One of her readers also alerted her on the possibility of lead in the plastic bento boxes that she uses.

Read about how she went on to purchase a test kit and tested the Bento boxes under the Clickety Click line and some others, made in Japan and found that they were lead free! At least I know someone has done some tests and it helps to set some fears aside.

Japanese Restaurant promotion

My daughters and I go to this Japanese restaurant very regularly for lunch because it's fairly cheap and the food quality is edible.

They do not have a Japanese chef (all local chefs) but the food is of a decent standard except for the cawan mushi. They tend to overcook it and it's hard and sometimes the texture looks like honeycomb. Dn 2 says that the recipe is just not right. And in her opinion, her mother (yours truly) makes it much, much better. HeHe! Other than that it's ambiance and design is nice and the toilet is also very clean and (lol!) cosy.

Dn 2 and I were there for lunch today and I had their Bento while Dn 2 had their Raw fish salad. The Bento had a piece of Saba shioyaki, tempura prawn, brinjal, pumpkin and beans, There were about 8 slices of sashimi and some salad.
Each set meal came with a bowl of rice, cawan mushi, miso soup, pickles and fruits. The bill was just under RM40/=.

They are having promotion from today for one month - 20% off Ala carte items. I think it's ridiculously cheap so I thought I'd share this information with the local people staying around PJ.
The name of the restaurant is: "Onsen". It is situated at Lot: B-G01, Block B Jalan Persiaran Surian, Palm Spring @ Damansara.
Kota Damansara. Tel: 7801 5366.

If you know where the Chinese restaurant, Damansara Palace is, Onsen is on the same row.
I don't think the restaurant owner or it's staff know that I'm blogging about them or it's promotions. I thought it was too good a deal to keep to myself. Happy eating!

Sorry the pictures turned out 'yellow'. I was a little embarrassed to take the photos so it was a 'quick shot'. I have to learn to take food pictures in public and not be shy about it. Yeah! This will be one of my new year's resolution.

BENTO #7

It's Onigiri from my "stock box" again. Today is hamburger onigiri and Spam in a barrel shape rice ball in the right Bento box. Next to it is some fried fish cake. These are rectangle shape and very nice. It all looked very 'Yellow' so I used 'flower' carrots to garnish it.

The Bento on the left is a cup of corn kernels and some blanched Asparagus. In front of the Bento is Tartare sauce which I made yesterday for part of our dinner.

Did you know?

How to make a Bento

I picked this up from Wikipedia. I hope it's okay otherwise someone please inform me if I'm contravening some kind of law or something.

A bento is traditionally made in a 4:3:2:1 ratio: 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of the side dish (either meat or fish), 2 parts of vegetables, and 1 part of a serving of pickled vegetables or a dessert. However, almost anything can be used to make a bento.

Several precautions should be taken when making a bento. The most important thing is to avoid food poisoning, especially in summer. Foods should be cooked well and the bento must be stored in a cool, dry location. If sushi is a part of the bento, it should be prepared with more wasabi than normal. Foods covered with sauce should be carefully packed, or avoided altogether, as sauce may spill over on to the other foods. When cooked rice is a part of a bento, it should be cooled by leaving the bento open first. If a bento is closed before it is sufficiently cooled, the steam from the rice will condense inside the bento and make the food soggy.

Single Tier Bento Box for #3

This box is for daughter number 3. Can hold up to 360 ml.

More Bentos

I think they call this Sakura Bento boxes. Also can be seen sold on the Internet.

As usual, bought this at my favourite
100 Yen shop!! Lol!!






This is how it looks inside.

...and then I bought another two...

Clikety Click Bento box by Lube sheep purchased from 100 Yen shop @ RM4.90.
Can be seen sold on the internet for USD 8-10.
Top tier can hold 330 ml, bottom tier can hold 250 ml.
Top tier under the transparent cover allows you to hold your fork and spoon or chopsticks, otherwise you can also put small snacks like seaweed or some m&ms.
The bottom layer is smaller than the top one thus you can stack it inside the top layer when you've finished with your food. Then you get a half size bento to bring home.


Swiped all the bento straps off the shelf of the 100 Yen shop.
There weren't many left so I bought them all.

The inside of the Bento box. Each layer has a cover on it's own.

Puti Fresh going Bananas, also can be purchased
on the internet for USD 8-10.
I bought in 100 Yen shop for RM4.90.

[bento strap]

My first Bento box

[bento]