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Bentos (2003-2008)

torakris

By torakris
in Japan: Cooking & Baking

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helenjp

helenjp

Posted
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Wow, ID your furikake at 100 paces! We never had bought furikake until DS2 started at middle school, and I wanted to disguise just HOW much of his bento I was filling up with plain rice :biggrin: .

DS1's favorite is sakura-yukari. DS2 seems to like a soft katsuo furikake.

I think it's great that your daughter told you what she wanted in her bento. My DS2 gives me complete request menus, but DS1 tells me things like "I want a bento shaped like an airport, with a control tower that pops up when I open the lid". Right...

The thing that amazes me about Majra's bentos is that almost NONE of the foods in it are available where I live. My sons' classmates would be absolutely astonished if they saw a bento like those!

Helenjp

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  • 1 month later...
Majra

Majra

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The thing that amazes me about Majra's bentos is that almost NONE of the foods in it are available where I live. My sons' classmates would be absolutely astonished if they saw a bento like those!

That's funny! How about this one? I'm betting that it has more recognizable items. This was my 12 year-old son's lunch from about a month ago.

gallery_17370_4103_28867.jpg

I have a question about inari. We always eat them with soy sauce and wasabi. I love that whole sweet/salty/spicy sensation. When we were in Japan, however, inari was never served with soy sauce. Are they usually eaten plain?

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Majra

Majra

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Here's a bento that I made for my daughter last Saturday. I got this box in Tokyo; I think it came from Loft.

gallery_17370_4103_94528.jpg

It contains apple flowers and red grapes, mini cheese crackers, peanut butter and bacon sandwiches on oatmeal bread, and dried cranberries.

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Hiroyuki

Hiroyuki

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I have a question about inari.  We always eat them with soy sauce and wasabi.  I love that whole sweet/salty/spicy sensation.  When we were in Japan, however, inari was never served with soy sauce.  Are they usually eaten plain?

Yes, plain. I've never thought of eating them any other way. :blink:

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JasonTrue

JasonTrue

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It's also worth pointing out that in Japan the age puffs used for inari are almost always simmered with water or dashijiru seasoned with soy sauce, mirin, and sometimes sugar briefly before using, so the Japanese culinary convention would be not to add any additional soy sauce at serving time. It's rare (maybe not unheard of) to add additional soy sauce to dishes already seasoned with it.

I like my inari with beni-shouga or, in a pinch, kizami-shouga.

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

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helenjp

helenjp

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Love those apple flowers!

I like to make inari with black sesame and ginger mixed into the rice filling. Son2 loves inari, and the bento routine has fired up for the year...but somehow I find it hard to take photos at 5:30am!

Son1 maintains he never looks at other people's bentos, but son2 says the ultimate simple bento is the "donburi bento" - one of his classmates rolls up every day with a lidded plastic bowl of rice with a stirfry flung of top of it. :biggrin:

Helenjp

* Pickles foodblog

* New Year foodblog

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cookaburra

cookaburra

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an exerpt from my documented trip to Japan........

Part of the tour price included a bento lunch which we could eat at our leisure after the bus had stopped at the local rest point to pick it up. The bento was from Utsunomiya. I just love bento and ekiben as they consist of lots of different taste sensations. Often with some local specialties. Sometimes the taste can be mazui but most of the time I like it. This one had 2 onigiri-flavoured with sesame and umeshiso. It also had some chicken katsu and a kind of mince meat loaf.

Not part of the cost of the tour was the option of purchasing a Sendai bento box for the afternoon/evening journey back to Tachikawa. At only ¥1000 for a mystery box of tastes I jumped at the opportunity.

The box contained a few items that were new and exiting for me;

Sasa-kamaboko, zunda, which was wrapped in bamboo leaf and the miso grilled onigiri.

Some ika sembei(squid rice crackers) added interest to the long bus ride home.

gallery_44148_4151_585104.jpg

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torakris

torakris

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My daughter, Julia (age 9), and I are going to be making bentos on TV!

The show is called Ufufu no Pu and it will be mostly Julia preparing a bento for her father. So far the plans are to show us discussing what to put into the bento and then Julia actually making it by herself (while I watch on) then us taking the bento to my husband at work.

We are still unsure about the logistics of the last part as my husband works on a high-rise construction site. We are scheduled to film 5/18 and 5/19 and once I find out the air date I will let everyone know. For those of you located outside of Japan I be sure to post pictures of the finished bento on this thread!

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Majra

Majra

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!!! Torakris !!!, that is so exciting! How did you score this gig?! Does your husband know? Congratulations to Julia, and to you. I can't wait to see and hear the details of this adventure!

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torakris

torakris

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!!! Torakris !!!, that is so exciting!  How did you score this gig?!  Does your husband know?  Congratulations to Julia, and to you.  I can't wait to see and hear the details of this adventure!

This is actually my 7th TV appearance and Julia's 4th, up until now the focus has always been on my as a foreign wife living in Japan but this is the first time where food takes the main role. Once you appear on tv once your name gets in te system and you get calls quite a bit. I am quite picky about the shows I will be on and I have turned down twice as many as I have actually been on.

The husband isn't supposed know about it but we had to discuss with my husband the part about delivering the bento to him at work, he has to get a bunch of stuff cleared before we can walk on the site.

Ok now I need help, Julia and I are still deciding what to make in the bento. Julia wants to make it a surfing theme, my husband's favorite hobby, but I am at a loss for what to do/add.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Norio

Norio

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Ok now I need help, Julia and I are still deciding what to make in the bento. Julia wants to make it a surfing theme, my husband's favorite hobby, but I am at a loss for what to do/add.

How about Hawaiian Plate Lunch style? You know, something with "two scoop rice, one scoop mac salad?"

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helenjp

helenjp

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OK, after 24 hours, I think I can be sure that my post got lost!

Congrats! What channel is that going to be on?

What about the kind of food that is served on Japanese beaches...the old saba subway, for example.

Somewhere I found a recipe for jellyfish salad (the Chinese type) and peanut butter sandwich...

Helenjp

* Pickles foodblog

* New Year foodblog

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prasantrin

prasantrin

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I'm not a very creative person, but I think if you have rice (and what bento doesn't have rice??) it should be sprinkled with copious amounts of goma, to simulate sand, and maybe some wakame for the seaweed. I can't figure out what to use for water, but cutouts of people on surfboards would be oh so cute!

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Hiroyuki

Hiroyuki

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Hi guys! Haven't posted in awhile. Been in school and the work load has been pretty busy.  I am out now and have a little more time to post and such.

On Flickr, we have a huge bento community.

http://flickr.com/groups/bentoboxes/

I participate when I am able to. :)

This one of mine that I have done:

40656747474ec93ef3fca5.jpg

Interesting! Where on Flickr can I find your other bento? I tried to identify them, but I failed.

One other question: Do you make bento for yourself or someone else?

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torakris

torakris

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The show will be on Fuji TV, I will let everyone know the air date when I find it out.

We are working on the bento so far we have sort of a beach scene with a fried quail's egg for the sun and some spam shaped like a surfboard. I like Rona's idea of sesame seeds for the sand but are still having a hard time deciding what to do about the water. Ｏｒｉｇｉｎａｌｌｙ　Ｉ　ｗａｓ　ｔｈｉｎｋｉｎｇ　ｎｏ　ｓanｄ　ａｎｄ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｎｏｒｉ　ｓｈａｐｅｄ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｗａｖｅｓ but the director is trying to find some kind of blue colored food. I have food coloring but I can't really think of anything that would still look appetizing after being dyed blue.

As for the rest of the bento we have the typical Hawaiian macaroni salad but are trying to think of two more Hawaiian style/themed vegetable sides...

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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