BENTO #122

Occasionally, I visit SaladTalk.Com for ideas on low calorie meals. I liked this recipe "Warm Chicken Salad with Mango on Baby Arugula", it looked easy enough. I didn't have Tandoori chicken as recommended by SaladTalk.Com so I used some left over roasted duck which we had for dinner yesterday. I also dropped the cashew nuts because I didn't have time to roast my raw stock.

So with a little improvisation, I present to you "Duck Salad with Mango on Baby Arugula". It turned out pretty good, in fact there was a delicious fragrant mango taste in the strong pepperish flavor of the Arugula a.k.a. Rocket.

#2 is 'drowning' in her sinus attack and didn't go to school today. I shared this bento with her. The Kiwi slices and Persimmon was for her and the Duck salad was mine! *smacks lips*

This will be the last bento for the week. Tomorrow I'll be off to a camp and there won't be any posts till Monday. Will be busy as a bee! Take care and I hope you view "Smilebox" recipes and try them out!!

Cheerio!!!

Bento enthusiasts/bloggers meet?

Emily and I have been coining this idea of a Bento blogger's (non-bloggers too) party. Before we do that, we need to know how many 'local bento enthusiasts' are interested to participate.

We're planning for first week of September 2008. It's likely to be held in or around PJ/KL, depending on where the crowd comes from.

Emily and I are working out the details. It's going to be a great melting pot of passionate Bento enthusiasts!

Meanwhile if you have suggestions, please drop some comments.

If you are interested to be part of this event, please e-mail: japanesehomestylecooking@gmail.com
and provide the following information:
Name:
H/P no:
e-mail address:
Which area are you residing in: e.g. PJ - section 12 or SS5 or Bandar Utama or Sri Hartamas etc, etc. This is the deciding factor where we will hold the party. We don't need your detailed address.

Please be assured that your details will be kept private and will not be used for any other purpose other than for the purpose of updating you on our intended Bento Party!

All are welcome and we hope you come and join us in this inaugural event!

Don't worry about being a beginner, an observer, a veteran or just a passer-by, please come and join us! If you don't reside around the area and you want to fly in for the event, please feel welcome to join us! Don't forget to e-mail me at: japanesehomestylecooking@gmail.com

For more details, check these links:

Bento Party updates

More updates on Bento Party

BENTO #121

Again, #2 has asked to skip her break time bento @ school and have one after school. "I'll come back to eat my bento" she says!

I made something more substantial because she would have 'starved' herself over break time.

In the left box is some left over "Sake no Nanbantsuke" (marinated salmon) from last night's dinner and some blanched cauliflowers. The green container contains the vinegared sauce from the "Sake no Nanbantsuke". #2 doesn't like liquids in her Bento because sometimes it spills out onto her school bag and I've learnt to keep her food quite dry.

In the right box there are skewered water chestnuts again. She loved this yesterday and asked for more of it because it's so surprisingly sweet! Initially I tried using the 'cutesy' skewers from Daiso but the water chestnuts split into half because it was too thick. Finally I found these 'dolphin' ones with really fine skewers and it managed to go through very nicely.

Finally, more proteins! Skewered more crabsticks and some nori meat patties.



I ate the balance of the marinated Salmon. Mmmmm...really yummy!

Smilebox recipe will be uploaded soon (I hope!). Been so busy!

BENTO #120

Bento box for school has been scarce lately. #2 is going out for lunch with her friends and asked to pass her break time bento.

She did, however add that she'd like to have a light bento for after her music class.

This is a two tier box which is like a 'tiffin carrier'. In the left box, is marinated tofu slabs fried in minimal oil. There are some seedless grapes and 3 pieces of water chestnuts.

In the right box, there is alfalfa sprouts and tuna mayo and a silicon cup full of some lightly fried straw mushrooms, carrot bits and angle beans.



The good news is, #2 now fits better into her sister's cream colored dress and quite pleased with the progress of her 'diet'. *Phew! Wipes sweat away*

Tamagoyaki

This is another slide show on my favorite Japanese rolled omelet called Tamagoyaki.

I hope you don't feel intimidated by this recipe because it is very easy. Remember no pain no gain!

The recipe:
Ingredients:

90ml Dashi
4 eggs
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp sake
1 tsp mirin
pinch of salt


Method:
Gently mix all the eggs and the above ingredients together. Do not whisk.
Soak a small piece of cloth or kitchen towel with oil and wipe the tamagoyaki rectangle pan.
Set fire on medium and scoop enough of the egg mixture to have a thin layer of egg cover the pan.
For the rest of the method, please view the slide show. It will show you more than I can explain in words.

Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Other smilebox slides:

All purpose Dashi

Soy sauce pork

Salted fish and vegetables curry

Congratulations!

The Bento Pet's Bento competition


has emerged a WINNER in Kel @ Kel's place!!

Wow! I'm awed because in the last couple of days, Kel led the race and quite clearly was going for first place!

Personally, I loved all the shortlisted Bento's, that including Kel's cold soba bento she made for her daughter. It looked simple but I'm sure it was delicious!

So, CONGRATULATIONS KEL!

You are Number One!! I'm sure your little girl will enjoy her Bento's more with the winner's prize haul! There's even a pack of Japanese candies in it!

Someone commented that the winner's prize haul was more for a girl than a boy and so it is and probably meant to be for your little girl!!!

This is on the way to you (once I get your details, so please e-mail me your address).




I think the winner Bento proves one thing. There are lots of mum's out there who are packing Bento's for their kids! It's a kid's bento that won number one! Trailing behind very close was Christene @ allthingspurple, another kid bento packer.

I'm just glad that everyone was very sporting about entering and enjoyed meeting new Bento packers on cyberspace.

Let's all continue to support each other by dropping a line or two in our quest to continue packing regular bento's for regular people!!

Thank you very much for making this competition exciting and fun for all!!

(Edit) Read Kelly's response here!

My new Bento box

I read Emily's post on her new purchase, I was trilled! I rushed off to Jusco @ 1U and hunted high and low to no avail. Boo hoo hoo! It just wasn't meant to be.

I couldn't do without it. It's a Bento blogger's addiction to MUST have it!! When I got home, I e-mailed Emily and asked if she would help me buy it. She responded immediately and in no time she got this for me!

The wonderful thing about this bento is that it came with an insulated bag.



Isn't it just lovely. I love the baby blue color and surprisingly, I don't own one with this color.



It has two containers. The metal container has a divider and is 350ml in size. The smaller plastic container is 200ml in size and both has it's own plastic cover. The plastic container sits on top of the metal container and is Microwaveable without the plastic lid.


This is how it looks completely covered with a bento strap.

Top view!

I was so tempted to buy some other bento's which I saw in 1U and I'm just too happy that I didn't because I simply love this new bento box! Thank you very much Emily!!! I owe you one!

Busy, Busy!

#2 had a an English presentation to complete at school this morning. The topic is on 'Homeless people". Feedback from the teacher was very encouraging. It was a group effort and each had separate responsibilities to make it a successful presentation. Kudos!

I had to fetch her from school during break time to settle some personal matters and then we went for Japanese lunch at Sushi Zanmai, in One Utama.

There was a Shojikiya outlet there and we browsed around and picked up some stock. For those of you who don't know about Shojikiya, it's like a Japanese sundry shop selling all Japanese imported food stuff.

You can find Miso, dried soba, candies, divine chocolates, frozen food stuff, seaweeds, the whole works! They also have outlets in Hartamas Shopping Centre, Sunway Pyramid, The Gardens and of course One Utama. Some items may cost a little more than that sold in Jusco but they do have promotion on one item per month (not very exciting).

Anyway, theirs is an exclusively Japanese import store and I was quite trilled to find these cute furikake bottles.


Aren't they cute? The one on the left is my favorite, the egg furikake. The one on the right is made of beef. I have never tried that and when I do, I'll blog about it.

I've seen this in some of the Japanese Bento sites and I thought that it was an oshibori container. Now I know it's not! LOL!

We then moved on to Watson's to buy some stuff that #2 needs for Korea. We normally shop at Guardian Pharmacy but we were pressed for time so we opted for Watson's.

Most of the items were on sale which was good for us and when we went to pay at the cash counter the cashier just keyed in the price without knocking off the discount. I asked her (let's call her "A") and she said that the item was not on discount. I replied that the whole range was on discount and she took the item and walked towards the aisle which stocked the item. It WAS on discount. She went back to the cash counter and keyed in the discount.

For all the other items (almost RM200 worth) she did the same thing, walk to and fro the aisle to check if the items were on sale. I asked what was wrong and she replied that the system had a problem and couldn't detect the discount. Okay, fine! I'm cool about that even though I was rushing, I stayed very patient, after all what can you do if the machine decides to act up, right?

All the while there was another cashier ("B") next to her ("A") who was also keying something into her calculator. When the cashier finished walking up and down checking and keying in the items the bill came up to RM196/=. She looks at the other cashier next to her who said RM6/= and she knocked off RM6/= from the total which made it RM190/=. I asked if the discount was only RM6/= and I was told that all the other items were already discounted and the RM6 was not taken into the cash machine.

Okay, so I paid the RM190/=, walked to the next cash counter which was closed and checked through my bill. It actually looked fine until #2 exclaimed that the lip balm that she picked up was RM9+ and not RM12+ as stated in the bill.

I'm quite proud of her because she finally has shown to me what I have been always instilling to them, i.e. not to buy things without looking at the price tag!

Anyway, I went back to tell "B" (because "A" was attending to another customer) that there was a discrepancy in the bill and without responding or looking at me, pulled a long face and roughly took the bill and item from my hand and passed it to "A".

I responded by asking her why she had to be so rude and she just walked away. Wow! The cheek of an employee!

I was quite annoyed and went to look for the Manager. When I related the incident to the Manager, he immediately said that he would reprimand "B". I told him that he should find fault with the management and not with "B" because "B" was probably not provided any training to be behaving the way she did and if the management had provided proper training and being manager he couldn't identify a problematic employee then he should be responsible!

He looked shocked that I should find him and the management responsible. Isn't it their responsibility to employ 'qualified' staff and provide training if they are not properly qualified for the job?

Personally, I think in any incident like this, the management of the company should not point fingers at their staff to shift blame but do the responsible thing, respond, act on the problem and improve.

Well, I've done my part to voice out my grouse and the rest I leave to the manager to deal with. I don't wish to know what they do because if their attitude is to sweep problems under the carpet and pretend it didn't happen, in the long term their financial profits will be affected, especially in this economy slowdown.

As for me, I will probably not return to Watson's because I still have to pay where ever I go and I might as well go some where I don't have to deal with some cash machine with an issue with the system which in turn cause delay and irritate the people who have to punch in the figures and manually work out discounts and have to walk about to check if items are on discount!!! *slaps head in despair!*

Okay! With that irritating issue out of my way, I rushed off to fetch #2 from school and rushed her to her favorite cafe for lunch. While there, I organized her birthday party with the owner. I like this cafe because they have lots of board games, IQ and EQ games. It'll be an interesting change, I hope.

When I got home, I saw two paper bags of clothes packed to be sent to the dry cleaners. Hence, off to the dry cleaners I went. Half of the clothes were the used winter clothes from Hubs trip to Australia (yeah, I've been putting it off) and the other half were #2's clothes for Korea.

It's been a terribly busy day. This post is already too wordy and long. Check out my new bento box in my next post!

Last Day to vote for your favorite Bento!!

Dear Bento packers, friends and visitors,

You have approximately 24 hours more to vote for your favorite Bento! Please cast your vote if you have not done so. Your opinion is important!

We have a very close competition between three Bento packers on the poll and your vote may be the one that will emerge the winner!

All you need to do is vote for your favorite Bento out of the thirteen listed here!

Please do not procrastinate because there is no time left!

May the best Bento win!!

All purpose Dashi

Dashi is the most basic ingredient necessary for many Japanese recipes. I make dashi at least two or three times a week depending on how often I cook. There are various qualities of dashi and it can get more gourmet by adding Shiitake mushrooms and anchovies, etc, etc.

I've made a slide show on how to make an all purpose dashi. Personally, I never use packaged dashi because nothing beats fresh dashi. Once you know how to make it, it becomes very easy and becomes an asset in the kitchen because you can use it to cook in so many ways.

The ingredients are:

2 litres of cold water
2 inch kombu - wipe with a wet cloth, do not wash
One and a half cup of katsuobushi


Method:

• Soak kombu in cold water for 15 minutes
• After 15 minutes, the kombu will double up in size.
• Bring water and soaked kombu to an almost boil (about 7 minutes).
• Do not boil kombu in the water because it will give a bitter or awkward taste.
• Once the water has almost come to a boil, remove the kombu.
• Pour the one and a half cup of dashi into the hot water.
• Bring to boil and switch off the fire immediately.
• Skim of scum if any.
• After 15 minutes, sieve dashi into another pot.
• Use as required or keep in a Tupperware in the fridge. Can keep up to one week.
  

Make a Smilebox slideshow

BENTO #119

Was busy the whole day. Didn't really have much time to post this bento.

I julienned some raw carrots, cucumber and turnip ("Bangkuang" - read in Malay). For added flavor, I fried a slab of Salmon and mashed it up, mixed them all up with the raw vegetables and stuffed them all into some Abura-age. I wanted to give #2 some chili sauce but she declined.

Below, you can see the julienned vegetables and mashed Salmon.


Here is the stuffed Abura-age close up.



I fried some Tamagoyaki and added some wakame and bits of pickled Chinese turnip ("Choy Poh" - read in Cantonese or "Chai Por" - in Hokkien). See the close up in this picture below.



The complete Bento box contains of 2 pieces of stuffed Abura-age with mashed Salmon and veggies, some blanched baby French beans, Tamagoyaki fried with pickled Chinese turnip and wakame, an orange and some Hijiki simmered with carrots (frozen stock).



A bland variety of flavors with an orange to save the day!

BENTO #118

I think the trick to 'diet bentos' is to use lots of vegetables! I used most of the same as you can see in the picture.

In the left bento box are rolled ham slices with some slivered carrots and lots of alfalfa sprouts.

In the silicon cup is some vegetables I kept back last night from cooking the "Yasai Itame" for this morning. I blanched the vegetables together in salted boiling water, mixed them with a dash of shoyu, pepper and sesame seed oil. I bought some Jackfruit yesterday so I skewered some with my new picks!



In the right bento box, I filled one and a half mini croissants with more alfalfa sprouts, some slivered carrots rolled in thin slice of ham with a dash of mustard. More cherry tomatoes to accompany the sandwich.

Yasai Itame

I saw this in Nobu's site. I just happened to buy "Taugeh" a.k.a. bean sprouts yesterday. Normally, I would fry with salted fish but I tried frying it "Japanese style".

I used Nobu's 'recipe' and managed to fry a deliciously fresh and sweet vegetable dish. I dropped the meat because we were having soy sauce pork as another dish for dinner.

• carrot
• sliced snow peas
• onion
• cabbage
• soy bean sprout
• yellow pepper
• straw mushrooms
• soy sauce
• salt
• pepper
• salad oil

Soy Sauce Pork

I love Smilebox! It's given me endless opportunity to experiment and convert my pictures into a slide show.

In a previous post, I mentioned about my mum cooking without proper measurements. I realized that one of the reasons I never picked up on cooking Chinese is because she always estimated her ingredients and that put me off.

I am one who had to have my weighing machine, my liquid measuring jugs and measuring spoons (both Japanese and US standards) and recipe available before I get cooking.

I found that by taking detailed pictures of her cooking, I could easily follow and re-make her recipes! What a Gem I found in Smilebox!!! Yipeee!!!

I showed mum the first slide show I made on her Salted fish bones and vegetables curry and she was tickled! She cooked Soy Sauce Pork for dinner and I asked to post the recipe again. She was a little trilled, I think! Both of us are having fun!!

This is it, the recipe:

Approximately 600 grams of pork belly and lean pork marinated in 2 Tbsp of dark soy sauce.
Season for 15 minutes.

Spices:
A handful of garlic
3 cloves
half a Star Anise
1 inch of cinnamon
1 tsp of crushed white pepper
1 piece of rock sugar (to caramelize the pork to give it a glossy look)

Half ladle of cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up half a ladle of cooking oil
• Fry cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves and then add garlic
• Add crushed pepper corns
• Add marinated pork
• Saute and toss pork and add the rock sugar
• Add half a soup bowl of water
• Bring to boil and cook on medium/low fire for 15 minutes
• Add 3 Tbsp of soy sauce (Mum used the dinner spoon - she says it's the same!@#?!!)
  
• Add a ceramic soup spoon into the pork (this is to tenderize the pork)
• Add 1 Tbsp of dark soy sauce for darker color
  
• Continue to cook for another 15 minutes on medium/low fire (leave the ceramic soup spoon in the pot!)
  
• Taste and add soy sauce to taste if not sufficient

Mum's Soy Sauce Pork is different from others I have eaten because she adds spices like cinnamon and cloves into it. It adds a nice flavor to the soy sauce pork dish.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Note: I have no affiliations with Smilebox

BENTO #117

I've been surfing the Weight Watchers site for low calorie recipes with no luck! Most recipes would require me to cook the night before to be ready for packing into my Bento a la minute in the morning! Can't work for bento!

I decided to come up with my own 'diet' menu today!

I made some guacamole from this recipe. Added some bread (baked dry) and corn in the left box.

I rolled up carrot strips, thinly sliced ham with peas and baby corn for a light meal of protein and more veggies! Skewered some papaya and pineapple for fruits.



Hopefully, this is low calorie enough because #2 is stubbornly sticking to her 'diet' decision.
When I went to buy the ham, I asked the man behind the counter to slice the ham as thin as possible. He looked at me and asked again "thinner?" madam! "Yeah! thinner!" He looked confused because I'm the same person who used to tell him to slice the ham thicker!

Oh well! Desperate situations require desperate solutions!