Shopping at Daiso

#1 had some things to pick up at Daiso. As always, I'm excited too!

Picked up some carving tools. I know I won't be using them because I don't have the passion for Charaben. Just letting my blog readers know that it's available at Daiso at The Curve.

Have fun shopping!

New 100 Yen Store

I bought this at the new 100 Yen store in Aman Suria. It's been open for about one month already and it's our favorite SNOW ICE store. I love the Mango flavor and lately they've added two new flavors.

This store carries a variety of bento boxes and some bento accessories. It's nothing to cry out loud about but it does carry the standard variety of (US) Japanese Dollar store items.

Sometimes when I pack food for #2, I'm not only constrained by flavors and allergies but also food which has gravy. Sometimes the bento box tilts in her bag and gravy or sauce spills and #2 would get all flurried.

I've been eying on this for a while and finally succumbed to the temptation and necessity.

I have the smaller size ones, which are really small and not quite suitable. These are 30ml and hopefully be more useful.


There are lots of sushi helpers, food cutters, molds and food picks if you are interested.

The address is as follows:
100 Yen
Aman Suria
12A-BG, Jalan PJU 1/43
Aman Suria Damansara
47301 PJ, Selangor.

Note: It's facing the main road from Dataran Prima towards Tropicana/Bandar Utama.
Same row as KAYU.

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.

Girls day out!

Emily, our Bento ranger is going back to work tomorrow! Some of us bento packers are now on holiday because school is out for a week.

Some of us found an excuse to take a 'bento tour' together!

Kel and her be-dimpled little girl, Sharon and her very cutesy, curly haired babylet and I met at "Souled Out" in Hartamas this morning. We scooted off to the 100 Yen store at Taman Desa to meet Emily.

This was a very calculated and constrained 'bento tour' because we reminded each other about not going over board!! All of us were 'very good', we bought household necessities and literally 'ignored' the bento accessories. Truth be told, we already had most of the items.

I bought a masking tape dispenser, some velcro to hold back the hair like a hair band and two other accessories for my god-son. The velcro which is packed in the blue and pink packing was a hit with my two elder girls. It's meant to hold the hair back for you to put make up or wash your face - cool invention - thanks Kel for recommending it!


All the bento accessories you see here were either swapped with Emily or given by her. The loose picks were given to me by Sharon. Thank you so much ladies!!


In the swap items I made with Emily, I packed a bottle of the same sesame seed dressing (picture below) which I use for my bentos. It used to come in a 200ml bottle, now it's in a 190ml bottle. Likely an economic decision to hold the price and reduce the content by TOPVALUE.

For those of you readers who have been asking about which brand of sesame seed dressing I've been posting about, this is it. In fact, the packaging has also been changed but it's the same content.

It's delicious with everything, pasta, salad, konyaku, dip for steam boat and lots of other variations.


No plastic bag used today. We all brought our own bags to keep our purchases.


We spent very little time in the 100 Yen stores because we were hungry.

When we arrived at Rosie's, (check out Emily's blog for details) we chatted non-stop, as expected with four women with the same interest! The two little girls spent time in the Rosie's restaurant garden blowing bubbles.

We ate and ate and ate from starters to salad, mains to dessert, from coffee and back for more desserts again! We couldn't breath or down anymore food and vowed we'd meet again, only next time we'll bring our own packed bentos (for a change) and draw lots to see who gets whose bento!

That way, Emily will have no chance to pick up the bill again! Thanks for the treat Em!

Yipee! A swell idea and something to look forward to.

Bento gear updates

I went to the 100 Yen store in SS2 yesterday to see if there were any new stock. Sad to say the stock level is deplorable. The only thing worth my trip was the purchase of these three lovely single layer 'natural series' boxes.

I got all the three colors. They are 480ml and is as large capacity as the 2 tier bento boxes. Best of all, they are made in Japan.


Remember I blogged about the punchers at Daiso here? Two days later, when I went back, they were all gone.

They have a whole new container of stuff in over this week end and have replenished stock for the punchers. They are still in the same spot - the middle aisle near the stationery section. This time they have about eight to ten varieties. Happy hunting!



This Onigiri box came in Daiso's new container. The bento strap is sold separately. I love the way the colors match. It's 145 x 100 x 90H and comes with a separator.



This is how it looks open. This design come is three colors, beige, brown and maroon.




These tiny spatulas are just amazing. It gets into the bottom of hard to reach spaces in jam bottles, peanut butter containers, Marmite bottles and Campbell soup cans!

Emily, one has your name on it!

Notice the lovely handkerchief?


Somebody!! Please tell me to stop this bento frenzy!!!!
Aggghhhhh......!



Note: I have no commercial affiliations with Daiso or 100 Yen stores.

"Girls day out" @ 100 Yen, Tmn Desa

Emily, our "Bento Ranger" dropped a comment on my blog to inform me that some new stock arrived at the 100 Yen store in Taman Desa.

I was trilled and disappointed at the same time. Trilled because I wanted to see the new items which she and Sharon had ordered from the last time they were there. Disappointed because I didn't know the way to get there.

I exchanged SMS-es with Emily and finally called Sharon and we decided to meet in the afternoon.

I've seen these water bottles on the Ichiban Kan site and been on my 'wanted list' for a long time. Finally, my 'natural' lunch box set is COMPLETE!


These rice moulds were new. I already bought the heart shape one on my last trip. This time they had the bird, elephant and fish rice moulds.


The Thomas train cutlery is for my God son. The baran (which I hardly use anymore) is simply for collection until I find a suitable time to use them.

Emily tells me that there will be more stock coming in another two days time. It's advisable to come over the weekend so that more things be available. I just hope the bento accessories are not cleaned out of their shelves before that, but really, there isn't very much new stuff and to make a trip all the way for a couple of things would be a waste of time unless you live around the area.

It was different for us, we had a whale of a time chatting over our 'mango snow ice' and trying out some red bean 'dodol' type of dessert. We even had Nougat (the hard ones from Australia) compliments of the staff there! I felt like a "VIP", thanks to Emily and Sharon! LOL!!! We even made friends with a complete stranger who seem to have visited each of our blogs. What a day out for me!

It's so amazing that bento-ing can actually be such a common subject that you can just make friends by looking at what a stranger is buying. "Aw" our new friend had some bento accessory in her hands and Emily asked if she was a blogger. The rest was history.

"Girls day out" @ Daiso!

I met Emily at Daiso this morning. We were there for about 45 minutes browsing through all their bento stuff with a fine tooth comb! We were like 'inspectors' looking for new stuff. I bought some soup ladles which I needed and a some non-bento related stuff.

I was telling Emily that the bento accessories get snapped up very fast. I was there in the morning last Monday to get some stuff and in the evening, my daughter wanted to get something and convinced me to go there for a second time. When I went to Daiso that same evening, some of the new stuff like the corner silicon cups, the new onigiri moulds and shaped moulds were ALL GONE!

Look at what I found today! Craft punchers which you can use for cutting nori to decorate your bento. They are hanging near the middle aisle of the stationery section.


I also got this pretty bag to contain all my stuff bought from Daiso.


Look what Emily got me! *Sequels with happiness* Thank you, thank you, thank you!!



Emily reminds me that new stock is expected to arrive at the 100 Yen store in Taman Desa early March. Look out for updates in Emily's blog.


Note: I do not have any commercial affiliations with Daiso or 100 Yen stores.

More Bento stash!

I am really contented and happy now. I've been bento-ing for more than a year and I've had to source for bento boxes and it's accessories from all over the world from as far as Japan, USA, Singapore and Philippines because there was NOTHING available in Malaysia then.

I've had to ask favors from friends to purchase these bento stuff for me. Most people are very accommodating, some humor me and some look at my list wide eyed but are still willing to do it because with the list, I've printed details and pictures of the bento stuff I want, of which of course, my friend/s have no inkling what they are buying.

There has been times where over zealous (bless them) friends go on a buying rampage only to buy the wrong stuff and stuff which I already own by the dozen. I just grit my teeth, smile and thank them profusely. Mind you, not the hypocritical way but the very "Malaysian manner".

With the new and endless supply of bento boxes and bento accessories made available via the 100 Yen stores and Daiso @ The Curve, it's a dream come true for any bento packer.

I used to stare at all the stuff on e-bay and wish I could own them but was terribly deterred by the freight charges. It always worked out more than the cost of the items themselves which I thought was ridiculous!

Over the last week or so I've acquired a large variety of accessories. If you've followed this blog closely, you'd realize that I've stopped buying bento boxes. I own one too many already.

Daiso has re-stocked again and I got some fruit forks and then instead of using paper to line my sandwich box I've been recommended to use a hankie, so I got one.


These are one of the most popular items that bento packers scourge for, all made available by Daiso.



Bunny mold and juice extractors.

Banana keeper and some onigiri molds.


Finally, I was at Kuchai Lama, 100 Yen today and managed to get these containers.


I feel like in heaven today......*yelps in joy*

100 Yen & Daiso haul

I'm guilty of lurking and coveting bento accessories. It's a terrible feeling. Emily, our local "Bento Ranger" (one who reports and updates latest bento stock at our local dollar store) has been regularly posting pictures of new bento accessories at the 100 Yen store.

Last Sunday, I sweet talked hubs to take me to the 100 Yen store at Kuchai Lama. It's a good 40 minutes drive from where we live. Guess what? It was CLOSED! I almost burst into tears. I was totally upset. I spoke to Emily today and she told me that they had a power failure and so they closed early (see, she even knew why they closed).

I cajoled hubs to detour to the 100 Yen in Taman Desa, it took another 20 minutes or so through the highways. It's impossible for me to get there by myself. I was delighted to be able to pick up some stuff from there.

I was at the 100 Yen store at SS2 today and there was NOTHING to buy because the shop is 25% empty, waiting for new stock to arrive in March. Disappointed, I went to Daiso to see if I could get anything new.

Below you can see Sunday and todays haul from 100 Yen and Daiso.

Onigiri plastic wrappers from Daiso.



Food covers from Daiso and mayo disposables from 100 Yen.

I opened the food cover, it looks like shower caps. It's a convenient kitchen helper.

I love this triangle silicon cups which I managed to pick up from Daiso. There are only 4 more packs. Things in Daiso finish very, very fast.

I blogged about the bento straps here and they are all GONE!


I like these forks in their cases from Daiso, convenient and doesn't take much space.

I picked up some silicon cups, furikake containers, mayo containers, etc from 100 Yen @ Taman Desa. The timer and anti-bacterial sheets were from Daiso.

They also have this (or similar), which I didn't buy. I know lots of people covet this too. They have about 10-15 on their shelves. I was shocked to see how LARGE they were. I'm quite sure my daughter would refuse to bring it with her to school. One could put at least 2 - 3 bananas in there!

I'm exhausted from chasing for bento accessories. It's a tiring addiction.

Daiso - just so you know!

I was at Daiso today to get a replacement for the "magician item" which was 'missing' from it's box when I bought it. They were expecting me and immediately replaced it without questions. If only service from Daiso is so pleasant all the time! Anyway, I'm completely satisfied this time.

They have some new bento boxes, but not many. There are some new accessories such as the not so popular fish sauce bottles, new shapes for onigiri molds, heart and star egg molds, more cookie/veggie cutters, some other non-bento related stuff.

I managed to get some very pretty bento straps. This purchase itself made my trip to Daiso absolutely worth it! Only this morning I was miserably looking at my collection of worn, beaten and soiled bento straps. I was going to rummage my store for the bento straps which I bought from 100 Yen to replace them, but now I can use some of the prettier ones!

Picture below are some of my soiled bento straps, some have even lost it's elasticity!


The new bento strap which I acquired (on the left side of picture) against part of my collection (on right side of picture).



Close up on some bento straps!

Update on Daiso

I visited Daiso at the Curve a couple of weeks ago - my first time! The moment I walked in, my #1 daughter quipped "Mum! Just because everything is at RM5/=, you don't have to go crazy and buy everything okay!" Gosh! What a damper to my anticipation of a great night of shopping!

They had shelves of Onigiri Bento boxes and some 'plain ole' plastic containers.



Another shelf of some regular two tier Bento boxes, some come with Bento strap.

There were paper cups, silicon cups, cutters, molds, the works!


Lots of bottle and Bento insulated bags.....

More Bento accessories, loads of chopsticks, cutlery and their boxes....

Ha! This was probably a test shot! I didn't ask #1 to take this photo, but yeah, there are loads of other stuff including ladles, ladles and ladles.....LOL!!


These pictures are a little outdated because they were taken a couple of weeks ago and I just managed to load them.

Unfortunately my visit to Daiso then, ended up with me buying only one item because there was nothing much that was new.

Two nights ago, I visited Daiso again to meet Nancy to pass her some stuff. The Bento stock is now greatly reduced and I've been informed that there will be NEW STOCK coming in after 2nd February! So if you are interested in new Bento stuff, go visit Daiso at the Curve then!!

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Shopping!!!


Please note that I have no affiliations with Daiso in any way.

More Updates on Bento Party

The registration for the upcoming Bento Party is quite encouraging. E-mail was sent out yesterday in regard to the mode of payment and we had an almost immediate response of the first credit to secure a place for the Bento Party from Terri.

SueSue of Cooking Momster has offered to contribute some items to our goodie bag and I'm awaiting for one more confirmation. If any of you readers would like to sponsor some items for the goodie bag or prizes for the two categories of competition, please contact me at: japanesehomestylecooking@gmail.com. We would be most grateful for any support!


Allow me to let you in to a secret. On top of a brand new Bento box, one other item in the goodie bag will be a wiener cutter (sausage cutter). There is a mixed number of shapes and one goes into each bag so let's hope you get the one you want or just swap around till you are happy! The rest of the items is a surprise, can't be spoiling the fun for you!


You can be sure that you are getting more than your RM50/= worth in terms of food, fun, fellowship and Bento toys! So, make your payment and send me the details before it's too late!

The deadline is 31 August 2008 but if we reach our target number, we will close registration because we want to keep this Bento party as cosy and personal as possible.

Cross your fingers because I'm also trying to arrange for accessories like sauce bottles, cutters, food picks, silicon cups, egg moulds, etc, to be sold at the Bento Party.



These items are not from the 100 Yen shop and are very limited. Sales will be on first come first serve basis.

Emily and I are looking forward to meeting all of you!


For more details, check these links:

Bento enthusiasts/bloggers meet

Bento Party updates