Cha Soba

Friday classes at college for #2 is only an hour and a half. Breakfast is a healthy rolled oats so there is no bento required.

Tonight's dinner below:


Cold Cha Soba! Yums!

Bento 236

It's been more than a month since my last bento. Today's bento is for lunch, I am supposed to drop this off at school because #2 stays back to take an exam paper she earlier missed due to a throat infection.

Today, in the box on the left, we have Cha Soba topped with sesame seeds, some home popped popcorn coated with melted butter, honey and salt. The Cha Soba recipe can be obtained on the right side bar under Labels - look for Cha Soba.

In the center box, there is a mixed salad consisting of rollo rosa, julienned carrots, tomatoes, green apples and fresh button mushrooms. The prawns were fried with olive oil, garlic, mixed Italian herbs, salt and pepper. Very fresh and very delicious!

The small box on the right is filled with cold dipping sauce.



Here's a close up of the bento.


EDIT

I had Cha Soba for lunch too and it was delicious with the additional condiments!!

Care eating Japanese noodles this way?

This morning before Mass, I met some friends (young adults). One of them was recounting my "sushi" sale last weekend for the fund raiser. He was relating to another friend about how a 'sushi machine' should be invented because he had witnessed #1 and I, "laboriously" rolling sushi from wee morning up to noon time.

Rolling over two hundred packs of sushi for sale over a five hour period and raising a four figure revenue is no easy feat. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself and had a great time.

Out of curiosity, I Googled for "sushi maker" but more interestingly I found something else!!!

When I read this article about the Ramen Robot I was amazed! It's able to offer "40 million different flavor permutations".

As though that wasn't an exciting read enough, I also read about the noodle water slide which is the cream of the cake for these 'noodle related' inventions!



I've seen the "Bamboo" water slides" in TV but this?? To eat somen this way is akin to eating marshmallows dipped in a chocolate fountain! Wowweeeee!!!!

• Slightly unravel boiled somen, and place them at the top of the rail by the waterwheel
• Try to catch the noodles on their 140cm trip down! Don't worry, if you miss, there's a tray at the bottom to catch them for you

BENTO #106

This morning's bento was easy. I made preparations last night by boiling the Cha Soba and dipping sauce. All I needed to do this morning was to dish them into the Bento box.

In the left box are twirls of Cha Soba and a box of frozen dipping sauce. In the yellow container, there is sesame seeds to compliment the Cha Soba. The sauce bottle is for the Gyoza.

In the right box, are two pieces of Gyoza and some salad tossed in Parmesan cheese. Simple!

The kids like "Mamee monster" and I bought a pack yesterday. I don't like them dipping their (dirty) fingers into the packet and putting the noodle bits into their mouth. I filled the triangle "formula containers" with crushed "Mamee monster" so that they can dispense shots of it into their mouth without touching with their fingers.

I added a pack of Ice substitute to keep the Cha Soba cool because my kids won't eat it warm! Tsk! Tsk!


To maintain the coolness of the ice substitute, I also used an insulated furoshiki.


Ready to go!

Cha Soba

Boil Cha Soba in a pot or kuali. Add some salt.
It's like cooking Spaghetti.












When done, pour into a basket and rinse under cold tap water.
























Twirl the Cha Soba with a fork to make separate little portions.

I've already posted up the recipe for the dipping sauce earlier. Bon Appetit!
BTW this is for tomorrow morning's Bento.

Sabbath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The term Sabbath or Sabbat is originally derived from the Hebrew shābath "to rest". In Judeo-Christian religion it refers to a weekly day of rest and worship. In religion: Sabbath in Christianity, a weekly religious day of rest in Christianity.
In Christianity, the Sabbath is a weekly religious day of rest as ordained by one of the Ten Commandments: the third commandment by Roman Catholic Church.

For my family, Sunday is a day of worship and time spent with our Catholic community. After Sunday Mass, we normally spend more than half the day at Church participating in activities of personal interests and appeal.

For me, it's also Bento preparation time for the upcoming week. I need to get my Bento staples and supplies ready.

Today, I prepared the "Aburaage" (Japanese taufu pok) for Inari Sushi. It's very easy and delicious. I always prepare the aburaage ahead of time and leave in the fridge. It can easily last for 10 days. This recipe I have is much nicer than the commercial ones that you can buy from Jusco.

The recipe:
1.
10 pcs aburaage
2 cups dashi
4 tbsp shoyu
5 tbsp sugar
8 tbsp mirin

Remove oil from aburaage by rinsing in hot water.
Simmer all the ingredients in a pot and line arburaage layer by layer gently without damaging it. Just let it simmer until almost dry. Use a "Otoshi buta" (literally: drop-lid) so that it doesn't dry out too fast.

2. Squeeze dry the aburaage so that all the remainder liquids are removed.

3. Then you cut the aburaage into half and gently open it up so that you can stuff the sushi rice into it.

4. Viola! It's ready - Enjoy!

Note: I didn't stuff mine today because I'm preparing them for use later in the week.

I also made a batch of dipping sauce for 'Cha Soba'. This is my children's all time favourite dish. It's good for 'abstinence' days or hot days because it's meatless. So easy!!

The recipe:
1.
2 cups dashi
1/2 cup Mirin
1/2 cup shoyu
pinch of sugar

Mix all in a pot and bring to boil. Cool down and refrigerate until chilled.

Note: In my case, I freeze it and thaw when I need to use. I freeze some in small containers so that my daughters can also bring Cha Soba to school to eat. By break time at school, the dipping sauce is half thawed. You just need to keep them in a plastic bag so that the cold water droplets don't wet the rest of the stuff in the Bento bag.

I made a whole batch of Onigiri this evening.
See top row: Onigiri with mini hamburgers
See middle row: Spam Musubi and some Onigiri with mixed left overs.
See bottom row: Triangle ones stuffed with tuna and mayo.

Look at the 5 cups of sushi rice I cooked!

Onigiri with mini hamburgers

Spam Musubi