So busy today!

Hubs and #1 are expected to touchdown Monday morning from Sydney transit Singapore and then arrive Kuala Lumpur. As you have noticed, I've been hogging the computer and posting multiple posts/day for the last two weeks.

Not only have I been posting multiple posts, I have a Bento competition running which ends 29th July 2008 which also marks my blog's One Year Anniversary. I've also re-packed my Bento gear and currently enjoying a fluid access to all the items.

Today, in between a long and leisurely breakfast, grocery shopping, music class, and blogging, I was busy cooking and preparing for dinner and stock for next week's Bento frenzy.

#2 is going to KLPac to watch the The All American Boys Chorus tonight. #2 loves singing and since this was a Charity concert she roped in a few friends to go with her.

I decided to make an easy dinner of her favorite sushi! I simmered the mushrooms and fried the Tamagoyaki. Cut up some avocado and kyuri, topped the sushi rice with surimi crabsticks, Kewpie mayo and viola .....Futomaki!


Our dinner, tonight. Yummilicious!!


I prepared my Bento stock for next week. The picture below show you the ingredients for Hijiki and aburaage ni. #2 and I love this seaweed dish.


The picture below shows the Hijiki in slow simmer mode. Delicious. When ready, half of it will go into the fridge and the other half will be packed in small containers into the freezer.



I simmered a batch of mushrooms for tonight's futomaki and for future use.


As usual, half way through I will add all the kombu from making dashi into the simmered mushrooms. After that I will cut the kombu into strips and add to the futomaki. It is very delicious. A good way not to waste the kombu.


This is how I pack the cut mushrooms and slivered kombu. The balance of mushrooms, I will leave whole and pack in another box. The whole mushrooms can be used as a side dish in future Bento.


All packed and ready for the freezer.



A busy and eventful day. Looking forward to seeing Hubs and #1 on Monday! Yipeeee!!

Where to buy Bento gear?

Very often, I have been asked where I purchase my Bento boxes and accessories.
I live in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. The locations are around the vicinity of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur.

1. My favorite is the Japanese 100Yen store. Most items in the shop sells for RM5/=. Currently, they sell minimal Bento items. I like to shop here because most of their Bento’s are made in Japan. Mostly, theirs are the traditional 2 tier Bentos that require a Bento strap to keep together.

However, if you visit often enough, they do have occasional new items, which are few but far in between. Bento items sold at the 100Yen store (when available) are basically:
• Bento boxes,
• Bento bags,
• Chopsticks for Bento,
• Cutlery for Bento,
• Kitchen utensils for Japanese food cooking and
• Some Japanese ingredients for Japanese cooking.

There is also other non-Bento related stuff too. I’ve always been asked for the addresses so here it is.

100Yen outlet address:
• Petaling Jaya 52, Jalan SS2/61, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
• Taman Connaught 94, Jalan Cedas, Taman Connaught, 5600 Cheras
• Taman Pertama 63, Jalan 2/90, Taman Pertama, 3 ½ miles Cheras, 56000 K.L.
• Klang 10GF, Lorong Batu Nilam 3D, Bdr Bukit Tinggi Shoplots, 41200 Klang
• Puchong Jaya 18, Grd Flr, Jalan Bandar 7, Pusat Bandar Puchong, 47100 Selangor
• Sg. Long 32, Jalan SL6/6, Bdr Sg. Long, Batu 11 ¼, 4300 Cheras, Kajang

New 100Yen outlet opening after mid July in Uptown, Damansara Utama.
Opposite to Uptown Towers 2.

Below are samples of Bento's that I have purchased from them.



2. If you are buying for children, there are lots of Barbie, Thomas Train, Barney single layer lunch boxes where they even have a divider in between.

You can get these at:
• Parkson or Jusco at 1Utama.
• Isetan, in KLCC and most major departmental stores.

Look in the stationary section where they sell pencils and school bags.

3. If you are buying for adults and prefer something not so ‘cutesy’ then look up this brand “Lock & Lock”. It’s available in all the kitchen sections of major departmental stores (Parkson, Jusco, Isetan etc).

Very often, there is a 20% discount during the sale periods and personally I think this is a great product. There are sectioned boxes, some remove-able some not. I like their small bottles, which I often use to freeze fruit juices for my kids.

I don’t use the Lock & Lock boxes for Bento but I do use them for freezing my stock for Bento. My frozen Gyoza, Spam musubi, Mac & Cheese, leftover cooked meats, spaghetti/pizza sauce etc, etc. goes into the varied sized boxes.

Best thing is they all come with snap locks on four sides and you don’t have to worry about spillage and spoilage. They are stain resistant, microwave safe, freezer safe, and dishwasher safe. 4. Alternatively, if shopping and searching for a suitable Bento box from complex to complex is not on your agenda, then you can purchase on-line from the comfort of your own home.

To be honest, I’ve been conned before by e-bay sellers and having being singed, I’m quite skeptical about buying on-line.

When I found a local vendor “New Stylish Tokyo” selling some quite comprehensive Bento stuff on-line, I couldn’t resist the temptation and took the risk to purchase some stuff from them.

I’m happy to say that I am completely satisfied with their service and support. I think most of their pricing is reasonable compared with many e-bay sellers and the best thing is, their postage/shipping cost is almost negligible (for local delivery).

Certain items may be on the high side if compared to what one would pay buying from Daiso. But the nearest outlet is in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and the next one in Singapore.

New Stylish Tokyo shipping charges are cheap so it makes sense to buy from them because it balances off the cost of the item which makes it reasonable in the final calculations.

If you are intending to purchase on-line then there are lots more choices and with a little effort to research, you can have anything your budget permits.

Personally, the shipping cost is way beyond what I want to pay for. I noticed that often, the shipping cost is more than the item itself.

All said and done, I want to add that if you want to start to bento, you can go for the practical methods like using an existing Tupperware that you own at home or buy a practical container.

No need to go 'insane' like me hoarding up shelves and shelves of Bento gear. I excuse myself for this 'addiction' because I keep telling myself that it goes a long way just because I have 3 kids.

One already past the stage of taking Bento to school. One has another year and a half to go and the last kid who brings food that don't qualify as "Bento material" so I stopped blogging about her box for a while until I can get her eating 'food' again!

Disclaimer: Please be informed that I have no affiliations with the 100Yen stores or Lock & Lock or all the mentioned Departmental stores or New Stylish Tokyo other than being a regular paying customer. All opinions are mine personally and does not serve to be or claim to be an authority of any sort. I receive no monetory rewards or discounts from any of these mentioned stores (other than commercially available discounts for all customers) or any other companies or persons mentioned in this article.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday sweetheart! This song says it all!! Love you!

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.

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!

BENTO #105

For today's lunch bento, I grilled a piece of Cod fish, blanched the same vegetables which I used from this morning and wrapped a lettuce to hold them. There was some rice in the same box.

In the front box, was a slice of pizza, some caramelized ginger and leftover braised vegetable roots. This morning, when I logged in to Biggie's site, I was in for a surprise. She announced that she had reached her one millionth hit. To commemorate her one millionth mark, she has created a page for community announcements of packed lunch blog events & contests.

And she mentioned Bento Pet's Bento Competition! Wow! Was I excited! Biggie is like the pioneer and authority in packing Bento in Blogger world and it's really an honour to be mentioned in her site.

While we're on the subject of "Bento Pet's Bento Competition", please send in your entries soon. We have approximately two weeks before the competition ends.

Refer details here:

BENTO #104

Today is #2's first day back to school after 10 days. *swoons and wipes forehead* Last night before she went to bed she reminded me about wanting salad for her Bento. My week long and forgotten salad was rotting and I threw them away this morning.

I put together some carrot sticks, French beans, baby corn, baby tomatoes and some dried cranberries for the left box. There is no dressing, she'll have to experience the taste first hand and for added flavor she can eat them with the dried cranberries - it's a little tangy so it's got an extra kick.

In the right box I packed dates stuffed with almond, some more tomatoes, a tub of Mini Mooh Rupp cheese and some baked crisp bread. I'm learning not to over stuff food into #2's Bento because after last week's experience of having to eat from the Bento's, I realized that it's a lot to have to eat for break time.


If you have time to come back to browse, I'll be packing my lunch bento later for uploading.

Have a great day!!

BENTO #103

#2 has finally *phew, sigh of relief* completed her 3 day stint at KL Convention Center playing a supporting cast in a local musical. She had a long weekend and this morning we attended a funeral. #2 anchored the keyboard for the funeral Mass at church. The grandfather of one of her team mates passed away and she felt strongly about being present to offer him support.

After that, she went back to school for a Choir meeting. I made her lunch bento and took the shot with a stalk of Sunflower from a bouquet that a 'fan' gave her on the 2nd night of the musical performance.

In the left box, I fried some tonkatsu and had some onigiri cylinders topped with black sesame seeds. There was a tub of tonkatsu sauce.

In the right box I had some braised vegetable roots (Gomoku-ni) consisting of burdock (gobo), carrots, daikon (raddish), lotus root, 1 block of konnyaku and shiitake mushrooms. Actually the recipe called for chicken but I chose to give it a miss. I blanched some broccoli and cauliflower in salted water and drizzled some Japanese Kewpie Mayo on it. Pickles is a definite must and I added some shiba zuke and finally to appease her sweet tooth, I put in two nimm2 soft centered citrus sweets.

BENTO #102

Yesterday was an insane day because I had to run un-imaginable number of trips to settle outstanding errands. I'm making up this Bento for yesterday because my next run begins in the afternoon and I need lunch.

Remember? Hubs is still in Aussieland with #1. #2 is downtown @ KLCC for her second day performance and "Miss Picky eater" and I don't share the same menu! So, Bento, I must!

I made a 'sushi sandwich' today. I buttered a slice of bread, put some tomatoes, some salad, asparagus (the last lot) and a squeeze of Sweedish Creme Salmon (from Ikea - looks like toothpaste). I topped a piece of Nori with a slice of cheese and smothered it with Mille wholegrain mustard. Then I rolled it in the plastic cling wrap and sliced it into half.



Today's Bento has some rice topped with black sesame seeds, two pieces of Gyoza, my absolute favorite Gobo Kimpira (last lot *sniff, sniff*) and the balance of some blanched Asparagus spears .

In the front box, I filled the hard triangle plastic container with Natto, the two halved sandwiches and a Hello Kitty hard boiled egg - was trying out my new mold bought on-line from New Stylish Tokyo.


Look at the frozen Natto before it thawed. Mmmm.....DELICIOUS!!


Now, let me tell you how my lunch tasted. I had a bite of the sandwich first. Not a good idea to add the salad. The first bite resulted in drawing out all the salad. It left my sandwich with a hollow in the center. *Note to myself - pack this without salads* The taste was good though except with the little struggle of the salad.

Next, I had a piece of Gyoza, this is a sure win because I've kinda perfected the recipe and it was delicious. The rice was eaten with the natto and Gobo kimpira and was the most satisfying mouth full from the entire meal.

Honestly speaking, I didn't eat the Hello Kitty hard boiled egg. I was too stuffed up and even the 'cuteness' of the egg couldn't tempt me. *Burps!* Excuse me! *Burps again* What a wonderful meal!

I don't know why but I feel so satisfied and happy after I have my Bento. I'm sure that it's not because "I" made it. It's more like the excitement and anticipation of the flavour that I experience with each bite of the 'unexpected?'. This is amazing and addictive.

Looks like it's going to be two Bento's a day from next week onwards! Yippee!!!

Recipe for Miso egg plant

Pan-fried egg plant with Miso - (Nasu No Nabeshigi)

Ingredients:
(A)
6 egg plants - cut into rounds about 1cm
Oil - 3 Tbsp
Sesame oil - 3-4 Tbsp
(B)
Miso - 3 Tbsp
Mirin - 3 Tbsp
Sake - 3 Tbsp
Water - 2 Tbsp
Sugar - 3 Tbsp
(C)
Toasted white sesame seeds - 2 Tbsp

1. Mix (B) together in a bowl until smooth.
2. Pan-fry (A) egg plants in oils till brown on both sides.
3. Pour mixture (B) over the pan-fried egg plants. Cook until the sauce thickens and egg plants are well coated.
4. Serve on a plate topped with (C) toasted sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Burdock Kimpira

Burdock Kimpira (Kimpira Gobo)

Recipe:
Ingredients:
(A)
150 g burdock root (gobo)
1 small carrot
(B)
1 1/2 Tbsp Sesame oil
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp sake
2 Tbsp shoyu
(C)
1 1/2 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
Dried Japanese red chilli (optional)

Method:
1. Scrape burdock root and cut into julienne strips.
Note: The burdock root turns black easily when exposed to air so you need to keep it soaked in water (like what you would do for potatoes).

2. Pour sesame oil onto skillet and saute the (A) burdock together with the julienned carrot for a few minutes until tender but not soft.

3. Mix the (B) liquids and sugar together and pour it into the skillet and continue cooking under medium fire until almost dry.

4. Toss in chopped dried Japanese chilli and top with toasted sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

BENTO #101

I've always thought that green and yellow is an ideal match in terms of color? I tried to theme today's bento in those colors.

In the left box is some plain onigiri rice topped with some ume furikake. In between the rice, I slipped in some takuan. I filled the huge silicon cup with Burdock kimpira.

In the right side box, there was a foil cup filled with asparagus, spring onions, beaten egg, shoyu, mirin and mayonnaise - baked in an oven toaster. For vegetables, I had steamed baby corn. I steamed some Japanese sweet potato for desert.

For more desert, I had dried cranberries which I put into the small "froggie" box.

Now, let me share with you how my lunch tasted. The onigiri cylinders went well with the Burdock kimpira, it was crunchy, flavorful and spicy because there was dried chillies in it.

The baked egg was really good. I think the mayonnaise added to it's flavor and this is definitely going to appear in future bentos because I'm sure #2 is going to like it too. The corn was 'ordinary' but the Japanese sweet potatoes were awesome. So, so sweet, as though dipped in syrup!!

The dried cranberries had a tangy taste to it so again, it was a good finish to a simple meal.

I am going to post up the recipes for yesterday's miso egg plant and today's Burdock kimpira. I think they are delicious and certainly worth trying out.

P/s
I sent this bento post to Coffee & Vanilla for their Wholesome Lunchbox monthly food blogging event.

More reasons to Bento

I was checking my mail this morning when I came across some interesting articles on primary school pupils 'eating healthy meals'. According to the Press Association, research has found that more pupils are 'eating healthy meals' - read here.

However, where primary school pupils numbers are on the increase, the Secondary school students numbers are on the decline. According to the same article "Teenagers are independent young people and changing entrenched eating habits does not happen overnight. They need food education and encouragement from schools to change their eating habits."

And so true it is. Eating habits does not happen overnight, parents like us can vouch for that statement. It is a life long process beginning from an early age. Like what the Chinese saying that goes "You cannot straighten an old bent tree or You cannot teach an old dog new tricks."

The statistics in the article relate to schools in UK where the new Government rules require greater use of fresh ingredients cooked from scratch. The only setback is the escalation of food prices which deters purchasing of quality dinners.

Pupils prefer to 'choose junk food' because it's cheaper and the queues are shorter. Read here. Quote: "Our research found that local takeaways in the school fringe were undercutting the school canteen by offering child-sized portions for £1.

"This meant that for the equivalent price of a school meal, pupils could buy chicken and chips or a whole pizza and still have money left over for a drink or sweets."

In a bid to keep the pupils within the school compound, a UK government minister said this "Children should be forced to stay on school grounds at lunchtime in a bid to stop them eating junk food". Education minister Kevin Brennan insisted the restriction could help tackle obesity and prevent tensions with those who live nearby.

As a parent I find this statement amusing. In a country like UK where there is so much said about freedom of rights and development, they are trying to use 'force' on their citizens?

Hahaha! What a joke. Isn't healthy eating habits, behavioural patterns and accountability part and parcel of our responsibility as parents to our own kids. You don't need to agree with me, this is solely my own opinion. Any moron can see that trying to 'force' anything on any people in any part of the world cannot work!!

Part of the reason my daughters insist on bringing their Bento to school is because of the long queues at the canteen during break time. The local Malaysian school system breaks for 15-20 minutes including the time taken for the kid to walk from the third floor downstairs and another 10-15 meters to the canteen and that again take the same route back to the class within the stipulated time. No wonder, sometimes, my kids either have to wolf down their food and risk a tummy ache from lack of chewing or leave the balance for after school to consume!

One of the reasons that has made me a 'frenzied bento packer' is because in Malaysian school canteens, the most salable foods are nuggets, fries, nasi lemak and junk food.

Read here for more insight about how, quote: "food bought by pupils outside school provided at least 23% of their daily energy requirement and was often high in fat or sugar.

The top 10 foods bought in local shops included fizzy drinks, chocolate, sweets, crisps, cakes, biscuits and chips.