I called this bento “the Convict Bento” bedause it was not supposed to be posted last Tuesday. The Missus was in a hurry and a grumpy mood (for good reasons?) and tersely ordered, “not for the blog!”.
I have a propensity to disobey the Missus’ orders…

It was the “open sandwich-style” bento with English muffins.
Quite simple, almost analog, but filling, tasty and colourful.

The fillings consisted of:
Boiled baby corns, white asparaguses, pois gourmends/green peas in their pods, cut green string beans with their dip dressing.
Japanese-style scrambled eggs (containing some gren veg), Japanese-char siu (cold), carrot and walnut salad, and mini tomatoes (dessert?).

Pickled green young melons (a Japanese specialty), Boiled and sauteed sato imo/taro tubers with black sesame seeds, violet kawaire daikon sprouts (for more vitamin C and iron). Plenty of lettuce was also included for making the sandwiches.

I was pretty happy about it, actually!

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The Missus might be right after all when she throws the epithtet, “jiji”, at me when she gets exasperated at me.
“Jiji” means “Grandpa” when muttered by kids when they are seeking further treats, and downright “senile old man” when proffered by my supposedly better half.
After using my hi-tec Japanese mobile phone camera, I finally discovered I had picture size options up to 2 MB! I had been using the 30KB option until then….

The pics are truly enormous now, but reducing them to this will mean a finer grain and an enhanced picture.
The only problem is that it takes ages to download and upload!

The Missus has been experimenting of late.
Today she steamed plain rice before mixing it with roasted sesasme seeds and finely chopped pickled wasabi leaves.
She then made large musubi she rolled inside thin pork slices. She fried the the rolls first with a little sesame oil, and then some tare/Japanese sauce.

She is going to kill if she finds out I handled them with my bare fingers!
As for the garnish, she fried some ready cooked sato imo/taro roots seasoned with black sesame seeds.

She also included a soft-boiled egg of hers (she never revealed the full recipe!) and boiled spinach seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing.

As for the side dish, she prepared a salad-dessert with lettuce, mini tomatoes, boiled broccoli, cheese and orange wedges.

A true winter bento, “jiji”!

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The Missus was into her “colourful” mode in spite of all the grumbling today!

The rice was plain steamed rice sprinkled with roasted sesame seeds with enough peeping out for the looks (and photograph!).
Chicken was “karaage”/Japanese-style deep-fried chicken agremented with pimento pieces in sweet and sour sauce.. and a another sprinkle of roasted seame seeds.

As for the garnish it was a bit of an embarrassment of choices as where to start eating!
Tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette 8 ab it on the sweet note this time), lettuce, mini-tomatoes, Boiled carrots, romanesco broccoli and Brussels sprouts, with some dippping sauce under the the broccoli.

And for dessert?
A big orange from Shizuoka!

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Yesterday I had to go to that disliked city called Tokyo for a Cricket AGM and had to ride the Shikansen Bullet train from Shizuoka City.
It was an incredibly clear windy day. Mount Fuji was magnificent.
Back in the evening I enjoyed the rare sight in Tokyo of a dark Mount Fuji in the distance silhouetted by fiery skies.
I managed to take some pics on the way to Tokyo with my mobile phone camera. Look at the pictures at the end of this posting!

The Missus (who now takes her own pics) pointed out I should take the pic of the bento with the rice in the background, not in the foreground… Who can argue?

So I will start with garnish:
Soft-boiled egg/han-yude-tamago, later marinated in soy sauce, sake and mirin (and probably a little ginger).
Alabcore tuna/tonbo magura (the cheaper kind) first marinated for a little while in soy sauce then fried (with the lid on) topped with cheese and served topped again with some home-made wasabi leaves and flowers pickles (verystrong!).
Lettuce for balance and decoration.

For the slad and vitamins part, mini-tomatoes, home-made pickled carrot salad with black olives and black sesame seeds, na ho hana/rape blossoms salad seasoned with goma dare/sesame dressing.

The rice was steamed together with tinned shijimi/basket clams. These small mollusks are very popular in Asia. Check Wikipedia for more information! She had adde thin strips of fresh ginger to them.
Once the rice was cooked, she mixed the lot before placing it in the bento box and sprinkling it with roasted sesame seeds.

A simple dessert of local straberries and ornage wedges.
Nice bento, I agree!

Mount Fuji Views:

I took the pics with the camera almost aginst the window for clarity. The mobile phone camera has enough speed to obliterate all interference.
This pic was taken before reaching Fuji City, the first stop on the way.
The river in the foreground is the Fujikawa River. Because we are in the middle of winter all grass looks brown.

Another pic taken just before entering Fuji City JR Station.

Mount Fuji again caught just after leaving Fuji JR Station. Sorry for the smudges!

Now that pic was taken as we approached Mishima City which stands at comparatively high altitude surrounded by all kinds of mountains.

Last picture taken just before reaching Mishima JR Station.
After that you have to wait a long time (ifyou are lucky!) to see again over the horizon!

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After the deluge we bore yetserday, clear bright skies were welcome today. The drawback is that I had to ride of those stuffing buses to work as I had left my bicycle at work last night. Don’t worry, it’s safe and nobody wills steal it. This is Japan! I still marvel at the patience shown by the Japanese in their common transport. Not a single complaint….

The Missus was quickly back into her meat mode today. I suspect that she is planning well ahead as she has started taking regular pictures of her concoctions!
“I will start a notebook when I have one hundred of them!, she said.
It’s about time she started her own blog!

The rice was steamed together with shredded carrots on top, then mixed before being served with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds and some shredded takuan/pickled daikon.

The garnish consisted of meatballs fried coated in cornstarch first in oil then with a sweet and sour sauce of the Missus’ invention. It was complemented with half-boiled eeg, boiled na no hana/rape flower seasoned with sesame sauce, and beans (canned) and cucumber salad.

Dessert was benihoppe/red cheek strawberry like yesterday with orange wedges.

Hearty, healthy and yummy!

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“You must eat more fish!” said the Missus this morning.
Alright, I love any fish as sushi or sashimi, but when it comes to cooked fish, The Japanese tend to include too much salt for my own liking with the result of emphasizing the “fishy smell and taste”.
I suppose I will have to hold myself on a leash for some time to come!LOL

The positive side of this morning’s (grumpy) conversation is that the Missus is planning to buy a cedar wood bento box for better presentation!

Today’s rice was her specialty: Steamed together with hijiki/sweet seaweed and tinned beans and their juice. It does make for good diet balance and colours.

My compulsory tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette, crucnhy sauteed renkon/lotus root and a sprig of fresh cress for the looks and Vitamin C.

Mini tomatoes for more Vitamin C, Na no Hana/Rape flowers, boiled and seasoned with sesame sauce and seeds for iron, and the fish: salted salmon the Missus fried with soy sauce and other seasoning.

And more Vitamin C with Benihoppe/red cheeks strawberry from Shizuoka and kiwi fruit.

Well-balanced bento, I agree.

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The Dragon is still in a good mood (the bright weater and her day off might explain it! LOL).
For once, she kept away from rice or bread and concocted a pasta bento.

It certainly made for a colourful bento!

The pasta base was made with spaghettini.
After boiling and cooling them she mixed in tinned smoked oyters, and vegetables she had lightly fried beforehand: shimeji muchrooms, red and yellow pimentoe, red onion and sliced shiitake. She seasoned the lot with the smoked oysters oil and smoked salt, and a little dressing. She finally topeed it fresh cress.

As for the garnish: Boiled green asparaguses rolled in raw ham and mini tomatoes lined with lettuce.

The side dish consisted of soft boiled egg, and vegetable sticks with their dipping sauce: carrots, cucumber, and celery.
A few walnuts and a mini banana (not featured) for dessert.

Very healthy, indeed. No wonder the Missus is checking my waistline every morning! LOL

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Today was a bright day and the Missus was in a fairly good morning mood (evenings are somewhat different), and the colourful bento proved it!

The Missus? (picture taken at a fashion store in Shizuoka City)

Friends who know my e-mail address know that a dragon and a raabit are featured therein, but have you ever wondered who was which? LOL
If you want to see more pictures of everyday life in Shizuoka with more dragons and oddities, just go THERE!

As I said, the bento was full of colours!

The rice is violet because it was steamed together with pieces of violet sweet potatoes/murasaki satsuma imo. The potatoes were placed on top of the rice before steaming it. They were then stirred together with black sesame seeds when the rice was cooked.

As for the garnish, I got my compulsory tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette (cooked with pieces of sweet pimentoes), lettuce and mini-tomato.

The shiitake and the rolls were fried together and seasoned with wasabi dressing.

The rolls were made enoki (farm-growned) mushrooms rolled into thin pork belly strips and fried together. The enoki being thin, long and tender,they blend in very quickly.

The salad/dessert side dish consisted of a bed of shredded greens covered with pieces of lettuce, celery, orange sweet pimento and cheese, cucumber slices, walnuts, home-made apple compote and wedges of kiwi fruit for dessert.

The real Missus? (picture taken at Komagata Shrine in Shizuoka City)

Thank you, Dragon! (Alright, she is the Rabbit!)

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It’s been some time since yhe Missus switched to “Open Sandwich Bento” mode. The merit is that if you in a hurry, you just look waht is left in the fridge and improvise from there!

A view of my bento as I unwrapped the cloth/napkin.

The toasted muffins.
In Japan they sell pre half-cut, making them easy to prepare or toast.

As you can see, there was plenty of fillings for my sandwich.
Actually I ate half of them with a fork I keep handy at work!

From top:
Fried/boiled taro/sato imo from yesterday’s bento leftovers.
Lettuce.
Sliced baked ham (part of end-of-the-year present).
Peeling cheese.
Japanese-style scrambled eggs.

From top:
Lettuce.
Taro.
Home-made pickles.
Bean (canned) salad.

For dessert, sliced kiwi fruit and home-made apple compote.

Simple but effective!

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It still is cold for the season although the weather is beautiful.
Yesterday we could manage a full day of “gardening and terraforming” at the cricket ground in glorious weather!
Which means I’m quite hungry as I write this posting on the Missus’ bento.

For the rice she came up with one of her “oishii/delicious” creations: “maze gohan/混ぜご飯” or mixed rice.

I “stole” that picture as she was momentarily busy while the rice was steaming.
After soaking the rice for a while with a piece of konb, she first fried the mushrooms in soy sauce, grated ginger and someting I couldn’t steal away. She then transfered the lot on top of the rice and steamed as shown in above picture.

Once the rice was properly steamed, she mixed the rice and mushrooms before while hole placing them inside the bento box.

As for the garnish, she quickly fried some taro/sato imo (bought steamed) in soy sauce and something else before coating them with white sesame seeds. She added boiled Na no Hana/rape blossoms seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing and white sesame seeds, home-made pickles with black sesame seeds (carrots, red daikon, celeri) and freshly made tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette.

The salad and dessert dish included mini tomatoes on a bed of shredded vegetables, trevise cabbage and cress, (tinned) smoked oysters with shiso/perilla leaves to wrap them in and sliced of kiwi fruit!

Plenty of satisfaction here!

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I will have to be more careful when I describe the Missus’ bentoes this year, as she makes a point to read my comments and crash on me, talons extended, if I make a mistake (who do you think is the dragon in my e-mail address? LOL).
The positive side is that she is starting getting serious about her creations!

As in the rest of North Hemisphere, we are going through a very cold spell in Japan. Here in Shizuoka, the mildest region in these islands after Okinawa, the situation is not dramatic, but it is markedly colder than usual. Therefore bentoes need to pack more body-heating ingredients, but at the same time control the calorie intake!

Today’s bento was certainly well-balanced, keeping in mind this a bento for an adult.

It contained three musubi/rice balls (triangular actually) of two different kinds. Two were made of plain steamed rice with umeboshi/Japanese pickled plum.
The plums had been marinated in honey, counterbalancing the salty taste.
The third one was made of freshly steamed (with konbu/seaweed) rice mixedd with katsuo soboro/bonito powder.
The two umeboshi musubi were wrapped in large egoma/shiso-perilla variety leaves. These leaves are even tastier than the usual shiso leaves.

The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette was of the plain variety.
When I asked about my dessert, my other half tersely repled that this was my dessert!
The pickled vegetables are home-made and served with a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.

The garnish part was certainly colourful and well-balanced with boiled brocoli, fresh plum tomatoes, a liitle red trevise cabbage and plenty of succulent wasabi lettuce (nothing to do with wasabi but reminiscent of its taste!).

The meat part are tsukune/Japanese meat balls.
They consisted of chicken minced meat, grated renkon/lotus roots and spices that the Missus would not reveal. They were subsequently fried in oil, soy sauce, mirin and I don’t know what (keeping myself away from those talons!) and served coated with plenty of black sesame seeds.

No complaints!

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Today’s bento was the first of the year.
The Missus being still on holiday made it in a bit of a hurry as she being bsuy cleaning our place like very Japanese housewife does at the beginning of the year. A good time forme to escape to work! LOL

Being conscious of the too many calories I’ve been infgetsing recently she kept my bento to a healthy minimum.: musubi/rice balls, tamagoyaki and salad.

The musubi/rice balls were an interesting concept: She had marinated large egoma leaves (a large and very tasty variety of shiso/perilla) overnght in miso and what else. After steaming the rice, she made triangular rice balls (balls is not the right term, then!), sauteed and then wrapped them inside the leaves. They also contained a honey-sweetened umeboshi/Japanese pickled plum. Very tasty!

The salad dish was basically made up of leftovers:
Potato, onion, cucumber and tobikko/flying fish roe salad, boiled large green beans she rolled with some dressing in the middle. home-made pickled red daikon with black sesame, and plum tomatoes on trevise cabbage.

Colorful, healthy and tasty! No complaints! LOL

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This could be very well be the last bento of the year as it will be difficult to fool the Missus into making another one tomorrow as I shall not be working but “escaping to my office”! LOL
As we are going through a slimming phase (BIG business here in Jpaan!), today’s bento bento is definitely on the lean side. I’m not one to complain a I like my bento healthy and tasy!

For the rice part, three simple triangular musubi/rice balls made with her new musubi gadget. Freshly steamed this morning one contains a umeboshi/Jpaanese pickled plum and seasoned with black sesame seeds and the other two tiny grilled shirasu/hard moth sardine whiting. The last two are wrapped in shiso/perilla leaves.

As for the garnish, it certainly was colourful!

The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette contained stewed black beans (look at their eyes!), and the home-made chicken ham wa seasoned with English chutney brought to me by Lojol.

It was laid over a bed of cress and contained cress and wasabi lettuce (not relatied to wasabi), boiled broccoli, white cauliflower and violet (which turned blue!) cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, savoury peas in their pod, more chicken ham, sliced radishes and pieces of jirou kaki/squat persimmon.

The colours would qualify this bento for a health contest!

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It has taken a long time, but I’m slowly convincing the Missus to work on her bentoes and take her own photoes for reference (posterity?). It is a battle (“what about my privacy, blah, blah…?), but I’m bent on winning it! LOL

She’s recently bought all kinds of contraptions/artifcts for the kitchen and cooking. Among those she has acquired these boxes to shape musubi/rice balls into perfect tringular shapes forbeeter arrangement.
The present musubi are “maze gohan/mixed rice”. The rice was steamed together with “tsukudani/Japanese- style stewed food” made up of bee, bamboo shoots, carrots and others.
She added home-made pickles for vinegary garnish.

The rest of the garnish included her own style of oeufs mimosa/boiled eggs with their yolks manipulated, shrimps and snack pea pods salad seasoned with black sesame seeds and stewd black beans.

The salad was composed of hand broken lettuce, cress and other greens, plum tomatoes, sliced radishes and black olives, the whole topped with cold marinated mushrooms (done in Greek style with olive oil and spices).

Vey simple dessert of grenadine seasoned compoteed apples.

I think I’m right to egg on the Missus! LOL

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Today’s bento is typical of a traditional Japanese lunch box in Winter.
As I have to keep the calories in check, the Missus slightly reduced the amount of rice and extra garnishes.
The rice was steamed together with some konbu/seaweed cut in tiny pieces she left mixed into the rice.

Being in a good mood, the Missus took particular care of the colours and design.
She covered half of the rice with fired minced chicken with black seasme seeds and made a “border” with young soy beans in their pods she had cut after slightly boiling them.

Instead of making tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette, she prepared iretamago/sweet Japanese scrambled eggs.

As for the garnish, she fried sato-imo/a variety of Jpanese sweet glutinous tubers with black sesame seeds, home-made pickled Kyoto carrots (deep red carrots), an an assortment of broccoli and cauliflower:

Boiled broccoli, white cauliflower and mauve cauliflower (grown in Shizuoka City!).

The dessert was kept very simple: grenadine compoted applaes and stewed sweet black beans.

Plenty and tasty, actually!

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

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