Bento 188

Last night at dinner, #2 was mumbling under her breath. She sounded like she was rambling about something. My husband asked her what was she 'chanting'.

She giggled and responded that she was trying to memorize some moral values for her exam. The astonishing fact about this is all high school students need to memorize these moral values throughout Form 4 and Form 5. There are 36 of them.

They have to be replicated word for word or else it is considered wrong. For the life of me, I cannot understand the logic behind this! If you're Malaysian and your child is in high school you'll understand this absurdity, otherwise you won't, it's okay. Just ranting a little.

I made an interesting discovery at the wet market yesterday. I was going to make steamboat for dinner and had discovered noodle konyaku. I used one last night and another one this morning. Initially, I wanted to simmer the noodle konyaku in some sauce because the konyaku takes the flavor of anything that it's cooked in.

Then, I had a bright idea, I just boiled it in water and just dripped some sesame seed dressing on it. It was just too good to be true. It's fragrant and crunchy texture was delicious.

I put three frozen strawberries into the box. I've seen some bento packers put frozen strawberries into their boxes and wanted to attempt and see if it'll still be edible. I'll have to wait for the outcome after school.




Today's bento box has #2's favorite vegetables - the ladies fingers. Ahem... a mackerel sandwich stuffed with onion alfalfa and some butter head salad on buttered bread. The mackerel in oil is from a can.

Bento 187

I baked bread yesterday. The recipe is called "Quick Wholewheat bread". It was quick alright, but the bread turned out very dense, mind you it's heavy not hard.

Either I have some very wonderful children who are great fans of my cooking or the bread was 'really' edible! LOL!!! Admittedly, the taste was acceptable, I just found it heavy and difficult to imagine making a sandwich with it. #1 ate it by dipping into fish curry which I cooked yesterday and she just went mmmmm..... mmmmmm..... so goooood.....! *mum gives a confused look* Well, one man's "bread" is another man's poison!

This morning's bento had some fried "meehoon" a.k.a. Rice vermicelli from my freezer stock. Then I skewered some kyuri and home made fish cake and plopped two cherry tomatoes into the box. *note to self: Need to find some alternative 'red' colored food!!*



The salad in this box is basically onion alfalfa and some butter head tossed in a half and half mix of Thousand Island dressing and natural flavored yogurt. Aha! See that little 'heavy' bun in the orange silicon cup? That's been the main topic of discussion.



*edit*
#2 came back from school and over lunch she quipped "the bun was sooo niiiccceeee". LOL!!! *Happiness*

Bento 186

There is a slab of "tenggiri" a.k.a Spanish Mackerel, fried and sliced into half with the center bone removed. I had to work very fast this morning to cool down the fish so the fan was on high speed all the time.

I blanched some sugar snap peas in salted water and added two cherry tomatoes for color. All the strawberries has been frozen for smoothies.




There is a little corner silicon cup of honey roasted cashew nuts and some store-bought, famous Malaysian dessert called "Onde-Onde" (pronounced ON-DAY, ON-DAY). It's a traditional Malay snack made out of glutinous rice flour and rolled in fresh grated coconut.

It is chewy like mochi and has a piece of gula Melaka a.k.a. Palm sugar in it's centre. I love to pop one of these into my mouth and experience it burst and feel the flow of the gula Melaka on my tongue. There is a mix flavour of sweet and salty in the chewy and crunchy (coconut) texture. Yummy!!

In the larger corner silicon cup on the right side is some home made tatare sauce which I made specially to accompany any fish dish. Click the link for the recipe which I use. I had to top the corner silicon cup with a cling wrap to avoid spillage.

I have not bought mayonnaise or tatare sauce in ages. It's easy to make and much tastier. The only store bought mayo you can find in my fridge is the Japanese Kewpie Mayo. I have a recipe which I have not tried out for Japanese Mayo. Maybe one of these days......

Bento 185

Hubs bought a bag of 'lala clams' for miso soup on his last trip to the fish monger. I kept it in the freezer until last night when I decided to use it to make Spaghetti with Clams.

De-shelling them was a little 'nightmare'. I had to first boil them in water with ginger and spring onions to rid the 'fishy' smell. Then, I had to remove the clams from the shell. After all that, I had to wash out the sediments and broken bits of the shell. Finally I put the clams back into salted boiling water for a final round of cooking.

The preparation process for this recipe is quite simple actually. I just tossed some chopped garlic in olive oil and salt, added the clams and turn off the fire. Added some chopped Italian parsley, cooked spaghetti, pepper and salt, gave it a good mix and viola, it's done!

I prepared this last night so there was no hassle this morning. I only had to skin the Kiwi and chop up the vegetables. I am now using Yogurt to replace half the usual amount of dressing which I normally use.

This morning, I used half sesame seed dressing and half Yogurt. The dressing was mildly flavored with sesame seed and had a tangy taste to it. It was a good mix of flavors.

"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.

Bento 184

This morning, I skewered some button mushrooms and zucchini, laid them on a Butterhead lettuce. There is a homemade Ciabatta sandwich loaded with Butterhead lettuce, tuna mayo and alfalfa onion sprouts. There were two strawberries for fruits.

#2' first term exams begins today. When I came downstairs, I noticed a big jug of what seemed like left over juice on the table. She's been into making smoothies lately. When I saw her, I asked if she had a smoothie this morning (6a.m.). She responded positively, I asked if it were a little too early to have such a COLD breakfast! A quick rebuttal came back "I need the Energy mum!" I just hope her stomach can take all that mixture of fruits so early in the morning.

Now, I have frozen bananas, watermelon, mangoes, strawberries in my freezer for 'instant smoothies'. She makes her own smoothies with some juice and some milk and operates my blender herself. I'd probably have been given a cup of smoothie too if it weren't that early in the morning.


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The rest of this post is a record I'd like to keep for myself. It is a personal expressed opinion. Please do not continue reading if you are sensitive to Religious beliefs or the like of it. Thank you.


My eldest daughter was recapping her Saturday 'exercise' with a group of friends. They met at Kiara Park at Taman Tun and after completing their regular trail, they were off to IKEA for their RM1 breakfast!

IKEA offers 'mee siam' and free flow of coffee for RM1 before 9a.m. Obviously there were lots of other tantalizing dishes like fried chicken, pasta, kueh, etc. While #1 was ordering her RM1 breakfast, her eyes feasted on the deliciously looking fried chicken and was about to pick it up when she realized that it was LENT. Ouch! Some of her friends also suddenly came to realization that it was Lent and refrained from the tempting meat array all laid in front of them. Some had no qualms about adding meat to their base meals.

It's interesting to note that different people have different perspective towards Lent. Actually there is no hard and fast rule and there is really no requirement to abstain from meat during Lent except for when it's called for. It's up to the individual, the type of sacrifice he or she is ready to do.

#1's friends had an interesting conversation about their family practices. Some will skip one meal during the beginning of Lent with no abstinence until the last week. Some will abstain from all forms of meat, seafood and even eggs. Some don't abstain at all, and continue with their regular eating habits. Some, like in my family abstain from meats but continue to eat seafood and eggs.

My personal opinion of all these practices is not about showing how "HOLY" we are, it is about the period of Lent where we keep reminding ourselves, albeit we often forget that we need to make a conscious effort to change from within.

Even as an adult, most of the time, I find it a challenge to stay conscious of my faults. Similarly, to many people's opinion of Valentines day - "it is everyday that you should show your loved ones that you love them and not only on Valentines day" - this is an ideal. NOT a reality, that's why we have Valentines day!

Just the same, the 40 days of Lent reminds us to be conscious of our actions and words in hope that after the 40 days some good habit has formed and some bad habits dropped.

It doesn't make one more holy than the other by any form of public declaration of fast or abstinence but it does make a difference for the individual to stand up and be counted to be a believer because of the choice made by that individual to live in the faith.

"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.

Bento 183

I had a meeting last night which ended with supper in a friend's house till after midnight. There was no time to do any 'homework'. Before I went to bed, I made a quick mental check on what I
had in the fridge.

I had boiled "loh han kao" and added some eggs in, so I could use that. I also had some left over simmered mushrooms and kombu from making sushi two days ago. #2 had raved about the yam and "nien kao", so that was going into the box too. All I had to do was to steam the rice and cut the carrots, kyuri and fry the "nien kao". It was all done in 15 minutes.



#1 is out for lunch with friends today because exams are over.

I made this bento for myself. Last night for dinner, I steamed some egg, tofu and salted eggs.
I put some in the foil containers and steamed them separately for this morning. Topped the steamed egg concoction with garlic oil, pepper and shoyu.

I asked #2 to help me put the eyes on my rice ball and saw that she put butterflies for 'eyes'.

There was sliced carrot flowers, delicious Natto, fried yam and 'nien kao' and cherry tomatoes to fill some gaps.


# 2 loved the eggs but quipped "Mum, after you hard boil the eggs, drop them in cold water, then the black ring will not appear".

Bento 182

It was Ash Wednesday yesterday, a day of fast and abstinence for the Catholic church. There was no bento. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent which lasts for 40 days. It is a period of self sacrifice and personal journey to change from within.

This morning's bento was put together in 20 minutes, a lot longer than usual because there was a lot of cooking involved.

I prepared the chopped salad and corn niblets last night, just topped with Thousand Island dressing this morning. The shrimps were also ready and de-veined last night. I deep fried it this morning.


The yam (taro) and 'nien kao' was prepared and fried this morning and though very delicious, it took a while to cool down before I could pack. Imagine the fan at full speed and there I was manually fanning it desperately with a magazine to cool it down faster *sigh, the things I do*.

There was spaghetti from my frozen stash and that was topped with sesame seed dressing. I cut the carrot flowers last night and had them blanched in salt water this morning.

Even though I prepared so many things last night, it still took a full 20 minutes and by my standards it's way too long!

Note to self - too much cooking in the morning! Thus, requiring more time to cool!



This box is already a common sight but don't you just love the bento strap? Butterfly - #2's favorite!

#1 had the same thing packed in her 3 tier box. Same food, except for the fried stuff.

Bento straps galore?

Most school days, I need to use three bento straps. Two for #2 and #3 bento boxes for school and one for #1's bento box (she eats at home).

I don't know if you face the same issues which I do, but after a while, the bento straps come back really messy and dirty. I blogged about it here before.

Thing is, the bento straps looses it's elasticity after a while and looks like these...


These were worth their weight in GOLD when bento straps were scarce.


In the early days before 100 Yen began re-stocking their bento items, it was almost impossible to find any here in Malaysia. Now we are spoiled for choice by the attention 100 Yen and Daiso is giving to these indispensable bento accessories.

Some of these bento straps are recent acquisitions...




The last one on the right hand side is not a bento strap but a correction tape.



Click here to see more.

These below are some recently replenished bento straps which I am currently using for daily bento boxes.



The one on the right side is a multi-size and multi-color bento strap.


Want to share your bento strap loot? Drop me a comment or link so that I can view your used/over used bento straps and your pride.

Bento 181

There's no college today and tomorrow because it's exam week, so, I didn't pack a bento for #1 this morning.

It's almost noon already and I'm hungry. I'm actually waiting for #1 to wake up so that we can have lunch together. Looks like it's going to be a long wait.

I decided to pack a bento for myself and see what to do when she wakes up. Maybe she can lunch with #3 when we pick her up.

Literally everything in this bento is leftovers. The left box contains cinnamon banana, 3 Korean strawberries and a small corner of chocolate cake - both using my new corner silicon cups.


The right box has some 'Arab bread' which I bought from 1U during their local food producers festival over the last weekend. It's really nice with curry, ham, tuna and just about anything!

The two pieces of Arab bread was filled with tuna mayo. There were slices of spicy 'bak kua' and some mixed salad in lemon juice.

You never saw the 'bak kua' in #2's box because it's spicy and this is what she publicly declares "I'm from the 'Western' side of Malaysia so I can't take spicy food!" LOL!!!!

It's quite obvious I cannot cover the bento box because it's packed 3D and the food stuff is all sticking out and up. It was packed that way because I'm eating it now. Let me tell you how it tasted.

The Arab bread and tuna was delicious and so was the 'bak kua'. The salad was refreshing. I didn't like the Strawberries. #2 always rave about how sweet they are but I don't like the taste. I prefer our Cameron Highlands version - a little sweet and sour. It's the first time I'm trying them after 3 days in the fridge. The chocolate cake tasted as good as it did yesterday, but the cinnamon bananas were my favorite! Absolutely heavenly!!!

*smacks lips*

Bento 180

A casual friend (MT) passed on yesterday. It came as a shock because I saw him at Sunday Mass in Church and had exchanged pleasantries. In the night, hubs and I were having drinks with another couple and our conversation had led to this same man - of and about his characteristic as a fair and righteous person.

In the morning after that, I received news that he had a heart attack, a little over 50 and gone forever, I was a little dazed. Not that he was a good friend, no, he was only a casual friend. It was always "Hello and Bye" and down to serious stuff if we ever did have any conversation. Yet, I feel a loss, because he was a good man.

My only consolation is that when I remember him, I remember that my encounters with him were pleasant. If one didn't know him, he came across as a stern and 'no nonsense' kind of a person but I found him to be a good and righteous man.

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Back to bento, I made some kappamaki filled with kyuri, crabstick, carrot, simmered mushroom and kewpie mayo. In a silicon cup next to it is some mixed salad with sesame dressing.

The gyoza was left over from last night's dinner. I have a frozen stash and need to finish it off. Some sliced Kiwi and viola, a complete bento for the day.

This is how the bento looks, packed and ready to go. Notice, I am using new bento straps. I've taken out a number of new ones to use and it's a breath of fresh air to see them.

Bento 179

Weekends are busiest for my family. Everyone has something going on, on Saturdays, either a replacement class, an exam, an outing, something or other happening.

Last Saturday was fun because everyone was available except for #1 who had exams in the morning so we scheduled to have lunch in Kuchai Lama. Hahaha! It was intentional because I wanted to visit the 100 Yen store there.

We had a delicious lunch and managed to pick up some necessities from 100 Yen plus have their yummy mango snow ice for dessert.

Anyway, this morning, we had "Chinese Lup Cheong" sandwiches and some very sweet Korean Strawberries.

The other box contained 2 pieces of chocolate cake and some shredded 'bangkuang' aka Jicama, carrots, apples and raisins all tossed in lemon juice and a little honey.

The box below belongs to #1, it's packed with the same food stuff except for the strawberries.



There are some advantages and disadvantages packing in this 3 tier box.

All the food can be separated distinctively without having to use separators or silicon cups but presentation wise, it looks so plain. A couple of picks on the chocolate cake would have brightened up the picture but packing is a pain so I refused to use them.

I would have to force the picks or forks down and the chocolate cake would probably break apart in the process and look all squished when #1 opens the box.

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*

Bento 178 & some life lesssons

I had another late night last night and woke up with a splitting headache. I quickly put together this unplanned bento.

There was bread and butter pudding which #2 baked last night, some left over spaghetti and a box of mixed vegetables consisting of chopped salad, cauliflower and chopped tomatoes topped with sliced shrimps. Drizzled some salad cream on top.



On the request of my daughter, I have removed the rest of this post. I respect her request to give her some privacy to rant in her own blog.