Category Archives: Bento

Bento, 美食, 農業, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, Shizuoka, 弁当

Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/61): Kanikama Chirashizushi Bento!

November 16, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Kanikama stands for Kani Kamaboko/Crab imitation paste made with steamed fish meat!
The Missus found a very interesting kanikama on the market and decided to use some for today’s bento!

The best way for color and design was to prepare it as Chirashizushi/Decoration sushi!

Having steamed the rice with plenty of konbu, she then prepared it as sushi rice. She mixed it with pieces of Kanikama, thin slices of cucumber, pimento, avocado cubes, cresson and home-pickled sanshyo/Japanese pepper. She decorated the top with the same!

The salad and dessert box was very colorful, too!

Salad of violet potatoes and boiled black beans on a bed of lettuce!

Dessert with plenty of fruit: Nashi/Japanese pear, grapefruit wedges and Red Heart Kiwi Fruit slices!

Very colorful and so tasty again!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/60): Yuzu koshio Karaage Bento!

November 16, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

I recently was offered some yuzu koshio/yuzu, lime and pepper mixed sauce, by Kenya Yoshimura the owner/chef at Uzu, arguably the best Izakaya in the Prefecture!
The Missus decided to use some in today’s bento which also included karaage/Japanese-style deep-fried chicken!

The Missus first boiled sliced renkon/lotus root from Asabata in Shizuoka City and let it cool down while she deep-fried the chicken (one cannot boil and deep-fry food as the same time unless you wish to expose yourself to grave danger!).
Now, for the friends who want to know how the Missus concocts her karaage, I discovered she uses komeko/rice flour instead of wheat flour! No wonder they are so light. Moreover the deep-frying process is done in two stages! The latter will ensure that the chicken is melting inside your mouth instead of a dry tasteless (I mean the meat) inside you find in so many famous diners…

She filled the first box with freshly steamed rice and covered it with stir-fried pimento and chingensai/Qing geng cai
or Green pak choi/チンゲンサイ（青梗菜), then deep-fried chicken and the lotus roots she had seasoned with plenty of yuzu koshio.
The lotus root had a lot of pleasant piquancy for a great balance with the rice and the other ingredients!

As for the salad she filled a box with cress, sliced mini tomatoes and bean salad mixture, the whole seasoned with vinaigrette and fresh lemon.
For dessert I took some mandarines from the Missus’ family garden!

Very tasty bento indeed!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/59): Sakura Inari Sushi & Sakura Ebi Tamagoyaki Bento!

November 2, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Yesterday was the official opening of the Autumn Season (as opposed to the Spring Season) for sakura ebi/桜海老/Cherry Shrimps caught exclusively off the Shizuoka shores!
Naturally, the Missus bought some at a local supermarket!

This time she prepared the rice as inarizushi!

The pouches for inari zushi are made with deep-fried tofu sheets readily available in any supermarkets. You first cut them in halves and then cut inside with a sharp knife to form a pouch. Of course you can also buy them as the finished product!
The Missus prepared sushi rice and mixed it with sweet preserved sakura/cherry blossoms for a cute color!

A side box with beautiful colors again!

The Missus made tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette with sakura ebi and leeks! Soooo tasty!

Fresh lettuce, pickled fuki/bog rhubarb from Nagano Prefecture, Shizuoka plum tomatoes and home-pickled cucumbers seasoned with golden and black sesame seeds!
For dessert, red heart kiwi fruit. Incidentally Shizuoka Prefecture is a major producer of kiwi fruit!

Did I say I loved it? LOL

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/58): Hesitation Blues Bento!

November 1, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

When I heard the Missus talking to herself this morning while she was pondering on today’s bento she reminded me of a piece called “Hesitation Blues” performed by Hot Tuna (Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane) a long time ago!
She didn’t seem to come to terms with what was available in the fridge!

She finally decided to prepare some steamed plain rice with shredded carrot which she later sprinkled with black sesame seeds.
I actually suggested it as it is very tasty and healthy!

As for the side dish she mainly combined “leftovers” with vegetables from her family’s garden!

She first introduced some violet sweet potato and walnut salad she had made the day before. The sweet potato were brought to us yesterday with the renkon/蓮根/lotus roots. Actually lotus roots grown in Asabata, Aoi Ku, Shizuoka City are famous far beyond Shizuoka Prefecture borders!
She fried them with green peas in curry powder before adding them to the salad.

She thawed leftover shrimp and pork belly rolls and fried them before placing them on a bed of fresh lettuce adorned with a few Ameera Rubbins Pearl Tomatoes from Iwata City.
Finally she added plenty of tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette for dessert!

Well, I certainly won’t mind her hesitation next time!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/57): Cress Udon Bento!

October 26, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

Shige Chan is a famous producer in Shizuoka City who not only grows top-class cress and tomatoes but also makes and sells udon seasoned with them!
They do make not only for great taste but also for great health!

So the Missus having prepared and cooled down a batch of cress udon, she seasoned them with tomato puree and a secret ingredient she refused to reveal. She lightly stir-fried large shrimps cut into small pieces and added them to the udon before tossing the whole lot and filling a bento box with them. Naturally she decorated the udon with fresh cress for design, taste and welcome fibers, iron and vitamins!

As for the side box, she prepared an avocado and walnuts salad she placed in cups formed with Trevise leaves and completed the dish with boiled egg halves seasoned with black sesame seeds and a few fresh radish and their edible leaves beside a couple of French pickles.
Dessert? The walnuts! LOL

Once again a very healthy and tasty Autumn/Fall Bento!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/56): Healthy Prawn Sushi Bento!

October 25, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Good bentos do not have to be complicated.
The Missus today came up with arguably the simplest and healthiest bento of the year, and a very tasty one to boot!
And apparently it didn’t take too much time either!

While the rice was being steamed she prepared “soboro” eggs, that is, Japanese scrambled eggs. The main difference with European/American scrambled eggs is that they are sweet and milk is not included. She uses only olive oil, sugar and dashi.
She boiled some large shrimps from the refrigerator with a little vinegar and sake and let then cool down before cutting them in halves.
Once the sushi rice was ready she mixed it some soboro eggs and filled the main box.
She then made a rim of fresh cress and filled the top with soboro egg on which she placed some of the cut prawns.
She put the finishing touch with some lime and cut Ameera Rubbins Pearl Tomatoes.
Simple and beautiful!

For the dessert box, Autumnal fruits: fresh figs, persimmon and nashi pears!

Simple as it may look, I was full and really satisfied!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/55): A Real Local Bento!

October 20, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

This time, apart of the seasoning the Missus has come up with the real local Bento using only ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture!

I have to say it was realized with the help of her own mother’s cooking and garden!

The rice she steamed for the bento is “Koshihikari” grown in Suntoh Gun in the Eastern part of the Prefecture!
The sweet pickled ginger were prepared by her mother. She seasoned it with golden and black sesame seeds.
As for the Shizuoka-grown red and green peppers she sliced them and stir-fried them before adding them to the rice.

The ingredients in the colorful side box were also all grown or bred in Shizuoka Prefecture!

She prepared two types of rolls with thin strips of pork belly wrapped around okra and thick leek before stir-frying them.
She placed them on a bed of lettuce with green lemon for design and seasoning!

The tamagoyaki were made “Bioran” eggs produced by Mr. Shimizu in Shizuoka City and very thin leeks. The kaki/persimmon come from her mother’s garden and the Ameera Rubbins Pearl Tomatoes are grown in Iwata city, in the Western part of the Prefecture!

It would certainly be fun to see what friends could come up with, using only local ingredients!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/53): Pre-Halloween Bento?

October 11, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Now, why did I call today’s bento “Pre-Halloween Bento”?
Simply because the Missus used a local pumpkin called Red Kuri Squash or Uchiki kuri in Japanese! Other names include Japanese Squash, Orange Hokkaido Squash, Baby Red Hubbard Squash, Potimarron in French and Onion Squash in the United Kingdom.

Mind you, I could have called it a “Rustic bento” with all the mushrooms included in the sushi rice!

True to say, “rustic” might overdo it as the mushrooms involved, eringe, shimeji and enokitake, are all cultivated, not picked in the wild!
The Missus prepared a sushi rice and then mixed it with chopped parsley and the mmushrooms she had marinated in the fridge for the whole night.

Once again plenty of colors to remind me we are finally come into the Fall/Autumn.
This the longest season in Shizuoka, the most temperate region in Japan!

Smoked salmon and avocado salad decorated with mini tomatoes!

Baby corn with frilled lettuce.
And a salad of boiled Uchichi kiri pumpkin sprinkled with black sesame seeds for dessert!

A truly well-balanced and colorful bento! And yummy!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/52): Chicken Roll bento!

October 7, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Today’s bento drew inspiration both from the land and the sea!

But before I start explaining the preparation of the bento, let me show you the new “furoshiki/風呂敷/Traditional Japanese cloth wrapping used to carry gifts, boxes, bento and so on” that I have acquired at the Serizawa Keisuke Art Gallery in Shizuoka City!

I bought it small enough to wrap around my bento box.
But I might need a larger one for the round boxes!

Very cute with its food motifs!

For the rice box, The Missus drew inspiration from the sea by steaming the rice with canned scallops she shredded beforehand.
Once cooked, she mixed the whole with sweet seaweed/konbu preserves and her own pickled Japanese peeper/sanshyou/山椒 seeds for plenty of zip!

Except for the grapes, the ingredients in the side dish are all local!

She stir-fried the eggplants/aubergines, green shishito peppers and red pimentos from her family’s garden in miso paste, soy sauce, mirin, spices and black sesame seeds, and placed them alongside celery leaves.

Before preparing the rolls she boiled carrot and burdock root/gobou/牛蒡 sticks.
She used Shizuoka-bred chicken sasami/filets for the rolls after having flattened them.
She then rolled them around the carrot and burdock roots and slowly stir-fried the rolls in sauce.
She let them cool before cutting and arranging them inside the box.

Imported Chilean grapes for dessert!

This bento was certainly great fun and really tasty!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/51): Beef Chirashi Sushi Bento!

October 5, 2011 dragonlife 6 Comments

“Chirashi Sushi” means “Decoration Sushi”. Contrary to what you might think it does not have to include fish or seafood.
The Missus can make a beautiful one with beef!

It certainly looked colorful and appetizing!
I couldn’t wait to break it in! LOL

The Missus first concocted the Chirashi Sushi rice as a normal sushi rice before mixing it with small pieces of beef and vegetables as well as chopped shiso and others.
She then covered it first one half with shredded beef stir-fried with sauce of her own (blending) making including soy sauce and black sesame seeds.
She covered the other half with soboro tamago/Japanese-style scrambled (sweet) eggs.
She drew a boundary with a mixture of shredded carrot and shishito/thin peppercorns seasoned with wasabi vinaigrette!

The side dish for all its colors required the Missus’ hand for all the ingredients!

The aubergines/eggplants and goya/bitter melon, both from her mother’s garden, were prepared as o-hitashi, that is, first steamed/cooked and then lightly marinated.

The renkon/lotus roots, also coming from her mother’s garden were prepared in two manners. They were both sliced and boiled first. Half were pickled in umboshi and umezu/sweet vinegar into a pink color, the other half was marinated in soft wasabi paste of her own making!

As for dessert, the Missus cooked apples in wine and grenadine!

Beautiful colors reminiscent of the Fall season! Beautiful in many senses!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/50): Tuna Meat Balls Bento!

September 28, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

I found myself in a hell of a hurry this morning and did not have the time to look at the Missus preparing my bento!
She was kind enough to bring it to my office before she went to work herself!

She was also kind enough to send me the pictures for my report!
Very colorful, isn’t it?

She tries to use only local ingredients whenever possible!
The rice is “Koshihikari” grown in Suntoh Gun, Shizuoka Prefecture!
After steaming it, she decorated it with fresh okra and home-made umeboshi! Italian bento?

She kept things colorful as usual but she did not include dessert…
She will probably reply that she has to keep in mind my expanding waist…

The vegetables consisted of boiled broccoli and carrot seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing.
She added her specialty: onsen tamago/soft-boiled egg marinated in soy sauce and sprinkled with black sesame seeds.

The meat balls were made of fresh tuna surimi (tuna flesh grated from insde the skin, probably an albacore tuna) and minced shiso/perilla leaves. She pan-fried them in sauce. Beautiful and lighter than one might expect!
She included more vegetables with lettuce and home-pickled burdock root with chili pepper!

Very satisfying, tasty and colorful!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/49): Gomoku Takigohan Bento!

September 27, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

The recent typhoon has created havoc in the local supermarkets with less vegetables available and at steep prices! This might continue for some time unfortunately!
“Gomoku Takigohan/五目炊きご飯” means a steamed rice (takigohan) cooked together with 5 ingredients (gomoku)!

So the Missus steamed the rice with two kinds of mushrooms, shiitake and enokitake, carrot and chicken and their juices as well as a little soy sauce and whatsnot. That accounts for 4 ingredients!

As a fifth ingredients she decorated the rice with boliled black beans!

As the rice box was quite copious she kept the side dish to the strict minimum!

The missus’ specialty: Tamagoyaki with parsley and cheese accompanied by some lettuce!

For the fibers and vitamin C: mini-tomatoes, lettuce, violet cabbage and marinated cucumber with fresh ginger and golden sesame seeds!

A very healthy and tasty bento considering the weather and the availability!

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Today’s Bento/Lunch Box (11/48): “What a pickle!” Bento!

September 21, 2011 dragonlife 6 Comments

No, for all the frightening Missus I was not in a pickle! LOL
It is just that we had been offered a batch of Kyoto pickles and the MOTH (Mistress Of The House) decided to combine them with her own home-made pickles!

They certainly made for great colors!
The Missus prepared the rice as sushi rice and mixed it with chopped shiso leaves, golden sesame seeds and her own home-pickled Japanese pepper/sansho seeds.

The white and dark daikon pickles are Kyoto pickles.
The pickled ginger sticks are the Missus’.

The pickled cucumber, myoga ginger and eggplant/aubergine are all from Kyoto.
They make for beautiful design and are very beneficial to health!

The side dish is more Shizuoka-like although some of it comes from Hokkaido!

The half-boiled egg was produced by Mr. Shimizu in Shizuoka-City. The celery leaves and tomato are also from Shizuoka prefecture, but the smoked salmon is from Hokkaido while the capers and avocado came from very distant shores!

The dessert was all from Shhizuoka Prefecture: Japanese “Nashi” pear and plum!

Very healthy bento typical of early Autumn/Fall when the typhoons are crashing around our necks!
Naturally very colorful and yummy!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/47): Talk of the Day Bento!

September 14, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

Why “Talk of the Day Bento”?
I actually did not eat it in my own office but at the office of a company I do work with!
And I was certainly asked many questions by the (Japanese) ladies present!

When I opened the box, the first comment was “I want some of this lotus root!”.
Quite understandable as it looked appetizing…

After having steamed plain rice the Missus mixed it with “chirimenjako”, deep-fried sardine whiting and home-pickled Japanese pepper/sansho/参照. This sansho actually adds a great zip to the plain rice.

As for the vegetables the Missus proceeded in two steps:
She pan-fried the sliced lotus root with plenty of chopped red chili pepper and other ingredients she agreed to reveal to the ladies at the office but not on this blog!
The other vegetables, eggplants/aubergines, red and green peppers were also pan-fried in olive oil and other “secret” spices separately as the lotus root took a lot longer!

The side dish included the only meat (there was some fish, too) in this bento and the Missus had not forgotten my dessert!

Simple, tasty and cute pan-fried bacon rolls containing okra or black pepper cheese with some celery leaves and French pickles.

Lightly boiled goya/bitter melon mayonnaise salad and freshly sliced fig!

Great balance again and yummy!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/46): Deep-fried Tuna & Avocado Bento!

September 13, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Bentoes can become a great way to acoommodate some “errors”!
The Missus having cut an avocado which was not ripe enough and couldn’t be appreciated raw simply deep-fried them (my suggestion!)!

But when it came to preparing the rice she didn’t bother much about my suggestions, then!

She steamed the rice with finely chopped carrots and once cooked mixed the lot with freshly steamed edamame.
An Irish rice?

But for the side dish we did share suggestions!

She deep-fried the avocado as it was, cut into small bites.
As for the tuna she deep-fried cubes of it dipped into cornstarch. She later seasoned them in tonmato sauce.
She laid the lot on a bed of celery leaves.

She added her specialty, soft-boiled egg marinated in soy sauce and seasoned with black sesame seeds. She added freshly cut plum tomatoes for the vitamins C and completed the lot with a Japanese marinated salad of cucumber and fresh ginger.

Perfect for the ongoing heat, healthy and yummy!

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