Bigfoot

151 plus food writing books. In a fit of insanity, I created an ordered list of all of them with commentary about each and photos of my new kitchen bookshelf here on my blog. Lots of packed lunch (bento-style & non), kids stuff, and some Japanese-language cookbooks.

Thanks, smallworld! The takoyaki tutorial is a popular one.

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I've got a takoyaki recipe and step-by-step tutorial on my blog here.

Leftover Japanese chicken curry with rice and rakkyo pickled scallions. Here it is assembled donburi-style, nuked and ready to eat: I packed it to go in a microwave-safe donburi bento box I picked up in San Francisco's Japantown -- pretty cool. Full details and a review of the box are on my blog.

For Turkish food, I like The Art of Turkish Cooking by Neset Eren.

A new Emile Henry lasagna dish to replace the one with a crack in it. Too mundane? Maybe a nifty double oven with both convection and microwave built-in so I can free up some counter space...

Okay, this is classic! I'll have to do something like that on April Fool's Day! Thanks for the laugh.

Spanakopita, crisp Fuyu persimmons, teriyaki pineapple chicken meatballs (Aidells brand), hummus sprinkled with Aleppo pepper, and vegetable sticks of carrot, cucumber, red and yellow bell pepper, and snow peas to dip in the hummus. Morning prep time: 4 minutes, using leftovers. Details at my blog.

If you go to the restaurant supply district in Osaka (and Tokyo, to a lesser extent), the prices are negotiable if you play your cards right. I've negotiated for knives in both districts much like you can negotiate in the Osaka electronics district: ask a clerk how much each product will be, show them that you'll pay in cash (important for a stronger bargaining position), and wait for them to pull out the calculator and figure out your discount. If you make faces at their first offer and act hesitant, sometimes they'll reduce the price even further (it helps a lot if you can speak Japanese and sweet talk them, of course, but I bet you can act this out effectively).

Pork and Chinese spinach gyoza with dipping sauce, purple kale with garlic and red wine vinegar, curly leaf lettuce, black Corinth Champagne grapes, and a peeled fresh lychee. Morning prep time: 12 minutes. Kale recipe, preschooler and husband dinners, and detailed packing notes are at my speedy packed lunch blog.

Pork and Chinese spinach gyoza with dipping sauce, purple kale with garlic and red wine vinegar, curly leaf lettuce, black Corinth Champagne grapes, and a peeled fresh lychee. Morning prep time: 12 minutes. Kale recipe, preschooler and husband lunches, and detailed packing notes are at my speedy packed lunch blog. (Edit: Just realized I actually ate this for dinner instead of lunch -- anyone know how to delete a post?)

Thanks hummingbirdkiss!

My son and I had dolmas, slow-cooked salmon with yuzu miso sauce, plum tomatoes, tabbouleh, a bunch of tiny Champagne grapes, baba ghanouj and Hami melon. Morning prep time: 6 minutes, using leftovers and deli food. Recipes for the salmon and yuzu miso sauce, and detailed packing info here at my blog.

Yup, that's exactly what I have -- a squeeze bottle. I'll try it out with cucumbers -- thanks for the tip, Jason!

I had some leftover Japanese chicken curry from dinner, so today’s lunches are a Leftover Remake using the curry and frozen unsauced pasta: curry pasta. I packed curry gemelli with chicken, carrots, onions, potatoes and added broccoli. The fruit layer has fresh figs, half an apricot, blackberries and mango nectarine. Packed in 6 minutes. Full info on the curry, reusable hard plastic food cups, packing delicate fruit, and packing details is here if anyone's interested.

OT, shinju -- what do you do with yuzu miso? I picked up a squeeze bottle of it last week and am contemplating... Coincidentally, I also tasted some durian gelato yesterday in SF Chinatown -- it was on display with all the other gelatos, not separately. Very creamy, but still distinctively durian flavor.

Yup, I made it from a recipe in Steve Raichlen's "How to Grill" book. Press firm tofu for an hour to get out excess water, marinate at least 1-2 hours in the fridge with a combo of teriyaki sauce, tangerine juice & peel, star anise and garlic, then either grill on skewers or pan fry. We had extra marinated tofu leftover from grilling before, so I just had to pull it out of the fridge and give it a quick sear on the stove. Handy and FAST!

Thanks shinju! The little tamagoyaki pan on the top cost me a grand total of US$1.50 at a Japanese dollar store in San Francisco, so I couldn't resist. Unfortunately the quality is really poor (duh), so I don't use it as much as the good one underneath. :-)

Thanks jumanggy! That's one way I got him to eat pretty much anything -- chop it up small, saute it, and mix it in with something else.

I just did a tutorial for making dashimaki tamago (or tamagoyaki) here with recipes if anyone's interested. Some tips sourced from Japanese cookbooks Kihon no Washoku Recipe (基本の和食レシピ)、Washoku no Kihon (和食の基本)、and Non-No Washoku Hyakka (NON-NO和食百科)。

Steamed pork buns and sauce, tangerine teriyaki tofu, edamame, cherry tomato, and pepperonata (roasted red peppers in rustic tomato sauce). Packed in 8 minutes: how-to at my packed lunch blog. My preschool-age son had the same, plus doctored macaroni and cheese with ham, sauteed red bell peppers, onions, zucchini, green onions, and jarred mild ajvar (roasted red pepper and eggplant spread) for a little something different.

That looks really interesting -- not like the onigiri I used to see in Japan. Is it a new trend for convenience store onigiri to have "filling" on the outside now?

Asahi Ponzu is my favorite, but forget about finding it in Kanto. When my ex from Sakai (south of Osaka) and I moved to Tokyo years back, he was desperate to find Asahi Ponzu and called their factory -- begged them to send him some or tell him where to buy it in Tokyo. They said because it's a limited edition ponzu they only sold it pretty much in southern Osaka (although they did wind up selling us an entire case and shipping it to Tokyo!). Last year when I went back for a visit I couldn't find it in department stores/etc. in Umeda, but hit the jackpot when I went back to my old neighborhood in Shitennoji. One fun place for tourists to buy it would be the shotengai (little covered shopping street) leading to the Tsutenkaku JUST south of Nipponbashi (Denden Town -- electronics district). All of the little stores around there carry it (slightly seedy, but super interesting). Take the subway there, pop in and get your Asahi Ponzu, then walk north up Nipponbashi towards Nanba. The kitchen/restaurant supply district is between Denden Town and Nanba (just north of the secondhand shops, where you can find cool vintage obi/kimono as well as appliances!). Great way to spend an afternoon -- don't forget to bargain for EVERYTHING in Denden Town! Posted prices are not final there (they'll give you a discount if you can pay in cash).

Looks like tororo (grated yamaimo -- mountain yam) to me. Slimy textured, right?

Majra, Check out the Flikr Laptop Lunch group -- it's a good place to post photos of these type of lunches. Also good for browsing to get lunch ideas for the Laptop Lunchbox (for both adults and kids). There's also a Kid Eats Flikr group here for children's lunches -- including bento boxes, Laptop Lunchboxes, etc. (full disclosure: I started this group last year).