BENTO #111

This is a tiring morning for me. Yesterday I was busy running errands and #2 had a cast & crew party at 7ate9 in Ascot Hotel. It started late and ended late. Hubs and I knocked off as soon as we hit the pillow - that's how tired we were.

I didn't plan this morning's Bento and I was a little frazzled. Not planning Bento is not good!

Luckily, I had left over spaghetti from yesterday. Aglio Olio again with some skewered fish balls and carrots. In the other box, the orange silicon cup contains leftover minced pork fried with yellow onions and potatoes. There was some alfalfa sprouts for greens and another yellow Kiwi. *yawns* I'm going back to sleep....too tired!

My second award!

Thank you Emily for this "Kreativ Blogger" award! This site doesn't get a lot of awards (one so far) and when it does, I am truly awed and floored by the people who appreciate it.

The coincidence here is, my first award was also a "Creative Blogger Award" given to me by Sue Sue many, many moons ago! LOL!

Emily is a crafter and has done some amazing and awesome stitching. Me? I used to sew (many moons ago) patchwork bags, blankets etc, went into scrap booking, costume jewelery creativity, etc, etc, the list goes on.

Emily and I began our blogger friendship on a very comical set. I made a post on my 'trauma' cooking 'tongue' and she dropped some comments and our blogger friendship bloomed from then on. LOL!!

Emily is a member of the Malaysian Bookcrosses club, which I think is awesome! I've however been unfortunate to have too little time in my hands to enjoy what I love most - read! Reading is my passion but once I get my hands on any book, I drop and forget everything else. My utter weakness!

I try to steer clear of story books and conversations about good reads. Otherwise, I will be 'hiding' in the toilet with a "no-end diarrhea condition" trying to finish the last few chapters of the book at 3a.m. in the morning - that's my perpetual excuse if hubs wakes up and asks if I'm okay (*guilty*).

Anyway, all that said and done, I'd also like to extend this award back again to EMILY! I know you extended this to me but I love 'stalking' your blog if you don't know already! (Unfortunately, I'm a silent stalker!) I think you deserve this award all over again!!!

Then there are my new 'stalking victims':

NOBU who tirelessly keep 'educating' readers about the wonderful world of Japanese Oishii food! I have a passionate love for Japanese food and I find his site very educational! Nobu is diligent in updating his blog and most times when I log into his blog, it's updated!!

I want to thank allthingspurple for consistently dropping comments and thoughts sometime or other in this blog. I think we bloggers thrive on this. It keeps me going and enthusiastic that some people find this blog interesting enough to keep coming back. My heart gives a little jump of excitement when I see random comments becoming 'regular' and then progressing to becoming 'blogger pals' per se. She's got picky kids and she 'desperately' uses different ways and methods to present the same type of food in creative ways, by way of 'kawai' bento boxes and accessories. So much effort! (*salutes you*).

Then there is Terri @ hunger hunger who doesn't care a hoot about 'awards' but I love to silently stalk her creative cooking site because of her honest to heart type of ranting and amazing recipes. I learnt to cook my first "best soy sauce chicken" from her blog!

Finally, I've been stalking all Bento blogs possible. I like visiting Lyvvie @ obentobaby because her blog is updated regularly and I love the creative 'edible' jokes that she writes out for her kid/s. The edible joke is an awesome idea and I've been scouring the bakery supplies for 'sugar paper'. I've found my edible ink pens and soon, I hope to be sending some 'edible messages' with my Bento too!





Ok, here's the rules :
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees

BENTO #110

Last week, when hubs was in Aussie land, I roasted a whole chicken for dinner with #2. She exclaimed "Huh! Mum! How are we going to finish a whole chicken?". Well I intended to freeze the left overs. That's what I did, there was enough to freeze four portions.

This morning, I made Spaghetti Aglio Olio and topped it with some leftover chicken. Added the very last batch of Burdock Kinpira, some Broccoli and Cauliflower topped with salad cream and an orange. Today's Bento!

BENTO #109

I made inari sushi tofu pockets on Saturday and left four pieces out of the freezer for use this week. The tofu pockets were basically filled with the same filling that Maki of Just Hunger recommended for "low calorie high fibre inarisushi (zushi) with hiziki".

It's amazing how people who are health conscious tend to create and re-invent ideas and recipes to achieve their own expectations of a healthy eating lifestyle. I cook hijiki quite often and last year when I had a party, I too mixed the hijiki and sushi rice mixture and stuffed them into the inari sushi tofu pockets. It was a hit! But, that was the only one time I used that recipe because, eventually, I forgot about it!

I was pleasantly surprised when I read the post by Maki and it reminded me of the one time I made the same thing. Of course then, I didn't think of it being low calorie and high fibre but more of using up the balance of Hijiki and sushi rice.

One thing I learnt from that post is that you can also add Hijiki to Tamagoyaki. I haven't tried that and I'll do so before my stock of Hijiki finishes. It'll be interesting to taste the Hijiki and Tamagoyaki.

This morning's Bento is free and easy. I stuffed the Inari sushi tofu pockets with Hijiki and sushi rice. Had a bit of blanched carrots and kyuri. Two pieces of "train shape" watermelon and some left over 'Tempe" from yesterday's experimental cooking. The fruit and nut bar was brought back by Hubs from his Aussie trip.

Tempe

The May-June issue of Flavours magazine ran an article on Tempe. I love eating tempe sold at the local Malay stalls. My favorite of all is the fried tempe with peanuts and ikan bilis (anchovies).

I tried this recipe out and it was pretty good. It's got a more interesting flavour than the ones bought from the stalls because it calls for kaffir lime.

I didn't have time to take photo of this morning's bento because Hubs and #1 were arriving this morning after the two kids were sent to school and everything was a little chaotic. We had "Bak Kut Teh" for breakfast as soon as they touched down. Had to satisfy their desperate need for some local food!

Anyway, this recipe is for Mihoo. We had a little conversation about tempe and this is an interesting and flavourful dish. I didn't follow the recipe exactly because I didn't want to cook so much and I improvised. However the recipe I'm providing is exactly from the magazine.

Recipe:
Tempe Goreng Kering
(Tempe fried dry - direct translation from Bahasa Malaysia to English)

The combination of crunchy tempe and peanuts in a sticky, tangy sauce makes an excellent snack or accompaniment to rice (4 to 6 servings).

500ml cooking oil
100 g skinned peanuts
2 packets (300g) tempe, sliced thinly
3 shallots, sliced thinly

spice paste
80g tamarind paste, mixed with 150ml water to extract juice
150g palm sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 teaspoons salt
5 cm galangal, skinned and julienned (I didn't have this so I omitted it)
15 bird's eyes chillies, sliced (I used dried chillies)
15 kaffir lime leaves, sliced

To deep fry peanuts, tempe and shallots: Heat wok over medium heat. Add oil and deep fry peanuts until golden. Remove and drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil. In the remaining oil, deep fry tempe until crisp; remove and drain on paper towels. Fry the shallots until golden brown, remove and set aside.


To prepare spice paste: Remove most of the oil from the wok, leaving about 2 tablespoon. Add in tamarind juice, palm sugar and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, add galangal, bird's eye chillies and kaffir lime leaves. Leave to simmer for 3-5 minutes or until mixture thickens.


To finish: Toss the fried peanuts, tempe and shallot crisps in the spice paste; stir until well mixed. Remove from wok and leave to cool. Serve as a snack or with white rice. This can be stored in an airtight container for about a week.



The final product.

Enjoy!

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.