As we are leaving on our (very short) Spring holiday tomorrow to Kume Island near Okinawa Island, the Missus had to concoct today’s bento with whatever she could find in the fridge and the “pantry”.
My bento friend at Hapabento will note that my (?) half is using traditional (and small) bento boxes until she finds one of her liking make of cedar tree wood. I agree that the woven box ought to be fine, but I’m going to contradict the resident dragon!

This time she actually used two boxes as the rice and meat garnish took all the space in the bottom tier.

The rice was plain steamed rice, but the chicken that she fried with mushrooms (shimeji maibly) and cut leeks provided for plenty of “sauce” and seasoning, agremented with black sesame seeds..

The pickels were all home-made: red daikon, mini lemons and wasabi stems and leaves.

The second granish box made for plenty of colours!
marinated carrot salad and celery leaf, tamagoyaki containing shiso leaves, boiled peas in the pod and radishes.
Plenty of vitamins and fibers!

For a better view of the tamagoyaki.
Frankly speaking I love these “leftovers” bentoes! LOL

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook, Bento Boutique, Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World, Palate To Pen, Yellin Yakimono Gallery, Tokyo Terrace, Hilah Cooking, More than a Mount Full, Arkonite Bento

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What with our pending trip to Kume Island, Okinawa, which promises a lot of eating and drinking, the Missus will keep an eye on my calories for the next two days!
So it was back again to a more traditional form of Japanese bento!

She steamed the sice with shredded carrot (you know, those carotenes?) and mixed later with black sesame seeds. She accompanied the rice with home-made pickled red daikon for colour and balance.

As for the garnish, she kept it well-balanced but controlled the volume with an eye for colours.

Salad of pickled green and red cabbage, carrots and konbu seaweed for the fibers. Boiled peas intheir pods for more fibers, iron and vitamin C, seasoned with umeboshi!

For the meat garnish, she prepared a pork and beans stew by frying pieces of pork belly before adding boiled beans and tomato sauce. She sprinkled the lot with chopped parsley and rested a soft boiled egg half which had been marinated in a soy sauce mixture of her own.

For dessert, benihoppe/red cheeks strawberries from Shizuoka. Did you that 2 strawberries contain enough Vitamin C for a single person for a whole day?

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook

Please check the new postings at:
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Spring has come early in Shizuoka, the mildest region in Japan after Okinawa.
This is both a bonus and a pain. We get all these great vegetables before eveyone else, but we are also plagued with grotty weather and cold rain. Mind you, we shouldn’t complain compared to other regions.
In the end it means that the bentoes will be both rich in calories and vitamins!

The rice part this time consisted of two kinds of te-mari sushi balls/手まり寿司. The missus, used freshly steamed rice, formed the balls by wrapping rice and the garnish together in cellophane paper, twisting it closed and shaping in balls with her hands. This type of sushi is particular popular in the Kyoto area, where they are both served to adults and kids with beautiful effect.
One of my te-mari sushi contained cheese and was topped with raw ham and some fresh dill.
The other contained Japanese-style pickled cucumber (Very finely chopped) and sesame seeds, and was topped with smoked salmon, lemon, capers and a little tartare sauce. A small piece of lettuce added colour and vitamins!

The salad part included home-made marinated carrot tagliatelle salad with walnuts, mini tomatoes and soft-boiled egg. The whole was surrounded by a wealth of hand-broken leaf vegetables: ice plant, trevise, luccolla, and others as well as sliced red radish and mini tomato.

As for dessert I took a couple of mikan/madarines from The Missus’ family garden.
Once again, colourful, healthy and tasty!

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog, Chronicles Of A Curious Cook

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Shizuoka is replete with new vegetables in this supposedly early Spring and buying them at the local markets in view of including (sorry having them included by the Missus) in the next day’s bento is great fun!

It certainly makes for very colourful bentoes, too!
The Missus has been looking around shops for this elusive (meaning big enough) pinewood bento box for better looks and better taste (she believes that the pine wood will enhance the taste of her creations).
The steamed rice looks violet because it has been supplemented with a little (too much would the rice too dark) with Kuromai/黒米 or “Black Rivce”.
Actually it is not black rice, but dark violet rice. It comes from Iriomote Island in Okinawa. It is simply “ancient rice” as it used to be many centuries ago. It does provide a lot of useful nutrients that have disappeared after white rice was polished.

Now for the garnish:
The Missus concocted her tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette with cheese and ciboulette, also called civette, chiboulette, brelette (French), Schnittlauch (German), chives (English), cebolleta (Spanish). They habeen cultivated for some time in Japan and people are starting discovering them. They contain plenty of Vitamin C and iron! The vegetables include boiled and fried lotus root slices, home-made pickled mini lemons and a new vegetable grown in Fukuoka, Kyushu. I still remember the name but I will check today again and write up some information!

More of the mystery green vegetable, eringe mushrooms. sweet red piments chicken fillets, the whole fried in spicy sauce and agremented with black sesame seeds.

Dessert was benihppe/red cheeks strawberries and mikan/winter oranges from Shizuoka.

Complete, healthy and tasty bento!

RECOMMENDED RELATED SITES:
Warren Bobrow, Bread + Butter, Zoy Zhang, Hungry Neko, Think Twice, Frank Fariello, Mangantayon, Hapabento, Elinluv Tidbit Corner, Tokyo Terrace, Maison de Christina, Chrys Niles,Lexi, Culinary Musings, Wheeling Gourmet, Comestiblog

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi

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