With a vacation within sight (we shall spend 5 nights in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture from the 3rd of September), the Missus has to make do with whatever is left in the fridge and pantry! Well, rice and potatoes are not a problem! LOL

She kept things simple but made a little “experiment” in view of future bentoes.
She does attach a lot of improtance to the colour balance, especially in summer, as more colours do actually make the bento more refreshing, whereas in winter “darker” colours will make it look more comforting!

Having steamed plain rice she added it with some curry furikake/Japanese dry seasoning
for better colour and taste. She then prepared rolls with lettuce instead of dry seaweed. In the middle she placed smoked salmon (seasoned with tartare sauce), French cornichons and capers. You could call them French Salamon Sushi Rolls!

For the “salad side dish”, she experimented with a Japanese-style Spanish omelette of her own with lotus roots, carrots and cheese. She added two colour-potato salad (pink and yellow, I boiled and pan-dried myself the night before), Ameera Rubbins pearl tomatoes from Iawata City and basil leaves from our balcony!

For dessert, more colours and nutrients with slices of large and very firm plum and blueberries.

I wonder if I could call this bento Multi-coloured bento.
I can hear Debra/Hapabento commenting! LOL

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As weare going on a long holiday end of next week in the north of Japan (expect a long series of articles) I found mysel suddenly extremely busy to the point I cannot come back home for lunch or eat outside. The Missus being very busy at the orthondist she works at on Saturday I cajoled her into preparing a bento for both of us.
“Fine, but it will be a vey simple one!
This was said as opposed to the grand affairs she embarks on Mondays and Tuesdays! LOL

She had the plain rice steamed and made three triangular nigiri/rice balls in two types:
-One with shooga konbu/konbu seaweed marinated with ginger.
-The other two with umebshi/pickled Japanes plum flesh and roasted sesame seeds. She wrapped these in large shiso/perilla leaves.
She added pickled cucumber and ginger (her mother’s) for extra salt needed in these sweaty days.

For the main part, she fried chicken breast pieces with sliced goya and pimentoes with a dash black roasted sesame seeds.

And for the second part of the main dish (and also as dessert) she prepared some tamagoyaki/Jpaanese omelette that she cut square for easy placing inside the rectangular bamboo fiber box.

With instant miso made at the office, I had plenty to last the day!

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Tuesday, Sushi Bento Day!
I can tell you that with heat stifling out all stamina out your body, it is not easy to devise or cook anything.
The grumbling Missus somehow managed to come out (of the infernal kitchen) with a refreshing idea.

First she had thought of preparing a chirashizushi/decoration sushi, but quickly switche to rice balls. Sushi rice balls. not ordinary rice balls.

After steaming the rice (with konbu seaweed) and prepared it as sushi rice, she mixed in sesame seeds and fried salmon flakes. After forming the rice balls she wrapped them in lettuce and placed them inside the box. She then “decorated the balls with raw sliced okra for great effect. A few sansho/Japanese pepper (home-pickled) also entered into the equatione for extra taste.
As for the salt quotient needed in these sweaty days she added home-pickled carrot and cucumber.

The tamagoyaki was plain but delicious. I actually like it plain most of the time.
More pickles with home-made wasabi stem pickles.

Plenty of colours and nutrients in the salad/dessert dish with beans and cheese salad decorated with Shizuoka Ameera pearl tomatoes, Japanese nashi pears an prunes.

Certainly felt better for the whole day!

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The colors of today’s bento seem to remind me of the stifling heat outside.
Apparently the average number of heat days (over 30 degrees Celsius) in Japan (not including Okinawa, I’m sure) is 42 days. Well we are already in our 49th! And the end is not within sight!

Originally the Missus had intended the rice as nigiri/rice balls but give up as the rice was a bit too soft.

She steamed plain rice with black rice/kuromai/黒米. Actually the latter is not black, but a deep violet which tends tocolor the plain rice even if added in small quantities. Not only it is of a beautiful color and very tatsty, but also very healthy as it is whole.
The small green pickles are home-pickled Shizuoka wasabi stems.

As for the meat she had a big block of siar siu/roasted-stewd pork in the fridge. She cut slices of them and accoimodated with provided sauce. The green whirls are thin slices, tagliatelle style, of Japanese cucumber. Makes for beautiful design!

Plenty of vegetables and fruit for fluids, fibers and vitamins!

The salads included carrot tagliatelle and edamame with sesame dressing, Chinese green sprouts and chopped seaweed/kobu and Ameera Rubbins sweet pearl tomatoes (grown in Iawata City).

As for the fruit, sliced nashi pear (very crucnhy and juicy!) and blueberries.

I would not mind the heat if I had something like this everyday!

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“Soboro” is a form of decoration in Japanese gastronomy.
It is almost impossible to translate, although it means that the decoration looks like little snow balls, whatever they are made from.
They are extremely popular in home-made bento.

They certainly make for beautiful geometrical designs and colours!

The Missus first prepared fresh sushi rice. She then mixed it with a little of each soboro, finely chopped Japanese pickled cucumber and sesame seeds before fuiling the first box.
She covered the left half with egg soboro. You could compare it to a sweet scrambled egg. She made it this very morning. Colours and nutrients are provided with sliced mini tomato and buckwheat sprouts/himesoba.

The right part is covered with meat soboro she prepared the night before with minced pork and beef.

Plenty of colours as usal with the salad/dessert box!

The salad consisted of boiled yellow and pink potatoes, violet sweet potatoes, walnuts and basil leaves from our verandah, the whole lightly seasoned with rice vinegar dressing.
Some lettuce made up for the separation and more Vitamin C and fibers.

Home-pickled mini melon and myoga ginger for the salt needed in these very hot days.
More vitamins and fibers with Japanese “Nashi/梨” pear (so crunchy and juicy!) and large blueberries!

I can see that hot day off with that!

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The Missus couldn’t go shopping yeaterday and she had to make do with what was left available this morning (BG will probably comment that I’m bonding the Missus into slavery!).
But apparently there was still plenty left in fridge and the “pantry”.

She steamed plain sushi rice she mixed with edamame boiled the precious evening and added some seasme seeds for seasoning.
There was still one frozen duck confit left in the freezer.
The benefits of internet were clearly felt there. The Missus orders a lot of French ingredients dirctly from Dining Plus, a Japanese import Company based in Osaka, with a great list and very fast service.
You don’t really need to unfreeze the duck confit in a hurry. Just Put it on a teflon non-stick frypan and cover it. It will cook to a crispy state in its own fat.
Once cooked you, you tsrip the bone (“for me!”, said the Missus. BG, keep quiet!) and cut or shred the meat. Don’t forget the crispy skin, it’s beautiful!

She topped the rice with plenty of shredded duck confit (cooled down), Shizuoka-grown cress, and deep-fried (small) renkon/lotus root slices.
French pickles were added to contribute another French note to the bento. I should have called it “French Sushi Bento”!

The dessert/salad dish included mini tomatoes, pink and yellow potato salad on lettuce.
Dessert wers plums (the Japanese call them “prunes”, another Japlish word!), and sliced peach.

Another solid bento for this stamina sapping weather!
Definitely a French bento! I wonder who the “Japanese half “is! LOL

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You do not have to fill yourself with supplements to insure your sufficient intake of Vitamin D, Omega 3 and Iron.
Red-flesh fish contain far enough and more!

The Japanese take an abundant catch of Pacific Saury or Sanma/秋刀魚(Autumn Sword Fish) and these fish are full of them all!
They can be accomodated in many way although the Japanese will either broil or stew them.

As the have just come in season, although it is still Summer, the Missus buys them in batches, already dressed, and first fry them before stewing them for a short while in sauce of her own.

She steamed the rice with umeboshi flesh and chopped myoga ginger before mixing in two types of roasted sesame seeds.
She placed the fish on top with the sauce wich added plenty of taste to the rice.
She sprinkled the lot with a few home-pickled sansho/Jpanaese pepper seeds and added ome home-made (her mother’s) cucumber and ginger pickles.

The fish certainly looks appetizing, but all that brown color tends to dull the eyesight.
That is when the Missus became a bit inventive!LOL

She started with a Japanese-stylesemi-soft boiled egg sprinkled with balck roasted sesmae seeds.
She the added “chikuwa/fish paste tubes” she filled with okra and cut for artistic effect!
The greens are boiled and fried “tsurumurasaki/Indian spinach, Malabar spinach” seasoned with gomadare/sesame dresing and ground sesame seeds.

The rest of the salad consisted of boiled/fried renkon/lotus roots. carrot, and edamame with some seasoning for plenty of fibers and vitamin C.

More Vitamin C with a dessert of sweet mini tomatoes, plums and nashi/梨 pear!

Great balance!

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Tuesday: Sushi Bento Day!
Did I say it was flaming hot outside?
I am certainly going to enjoy my day in my air-conditioned office!
“Shake or Sake/鮭”, although BG will come with another snide remark, means “Salmon”. Both words might turn a bit confusing for some when you write them! LOL

Salmon can easily be bought all year round at supermarkets as “Shiozake/Salted Salmon/塩鮭” and frozen when you have any left.
The Missus is always keen on using some, although I always ask her to discard the skin and fat after sauteing it.
She steamed some rice with a big piece of konbu/seaweed before seasoning it into sushi rice. She mixed it with sauteed salmon flakes, thinly cut pickled myoga ginger and cucumber and sesame seeds (these were not cut, BG!).

She lined the bento box with fresh lettuce before filling it with the sushi rice. She topped it plenty of thinly sliced fresh shiso/perilla leaves, home-pickled sansho/Japanese pepper and a piece of lemon for extra seasoning.

The Missus came up with a Salvador Dali (or is it a Picasso?) like side dish!

She came up with the interesting idea of including a half avocado pear inside its skin as a kind of vessel with its filling, the whole to be eaten with a spoon (I’ve got one at the office!). The semi-hard egg had been boiled in onsen tamago style with its yolk still running. The egg had furthermore been marinated in soy sauce and amazu/sweet vinegar, thus providing the seasoning to the avocado (you “crush” the egg into the avocado with your spoon when eating it!). Some more lettuce for the fiber and Vitamin C, and walnut for dessert.

The salad part was completed with raw sweet pimento sticks and home-pickled cucumber. Cream cheese dressing was provided as a dip sauce for the pimentoes.

I should have called that bento, Mexican Bento!

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We are in for a long and dreary summer, what with the infernal heat or torrential rains. Take your pick.
I’ve been repeating this for a few weeks now, but I suppose I’m only emulating the Missus who is having a hard time in her hot kitchen!
Accordingly, although meals still have to stay balanced and contain enough greens for the vital vitamin, they must also pack for more energy as we tend to drink more and eat less.

The Missus foraged in the refrigerator and came up with a curry of her own (she can’t live without pasta or curry, incdentally!). I do not really want to go into details as I was busy while she was cooking.
This is one her favourites: beans of all kinds stewed with minced pork and mushrooms, the whole in a curry sauce of her own.

She used these dear old tupperware box and filled it with plain steamed rice, making a dip/valley in the middle to include more curry.
The Vitamins and fibers came boiled brocoli and sliced raw okra (very much in season. Have you ever seen their flowers?), red and yellow pimentoes ad a few sliced black olives.
Plenty, I can assure you!

Fresh peaches for dessert.

I should be able to hold until tonight!

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Most Indian people have to devise their food according to a somewhat harsh climate (at times. Of course people living at the foot of the Himalayas would say otherwise!). The Missus is a great fan of Indian cuisine and anything called “curry”!
Today, sushi bento day, she came up with a simple twist to call her sushi Indian-style!

Having prepared the sushi rice, she added a good measure of curry furikake to it. Furikake means “seasoning to be sprinkled” in Japanese. There a good many of them including the curry variety she used today.
Simple, ain’t it?

She deep-fried large prawns in breadcrumbs and included them in rolls she made with a bamboo sushi roll and cellophane paper. She then took the rolls out of their cellophane paper and rolled them inside lettuce before wrapping them again into cellophane paper to facilitate the cutting.

plenty of home-made pickles to provide me with the salt I will lose during the sweating-hot day: cucumber, fresh geinger, carrot and sansho/Japanese pepper.

Loads of fruit for dessert for the vitamin C and fibers: red grapefruit, nectarines and blueberries. The latter are supposed to be good for the eyes. If true, they will help mine which tend to get tired at the end of the day with all my PC work!

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-“I hate this place! It must be 50 degress (C) in this kitchen!”
The Missus has been badgering me for some time with moving to a new home. What with the neverending scorching heat assiling us for the past two weeks with no end in view, her argument sounds the more convincing by the day!

All that heat means a lot of sweat and loss of body salts.
The Japanese are conscious of their health to the point of addiction. You wouldn’t believe the number of TV health programs we are subjected to ( no wonder I keep away from the TV. BG, that’s one for you!)! be assured that my bento are partly devised according to them (LOL)!

To compensate this loss of body salts, The Missus mixed the freshly seamed rice with home-pickled umeboshi (in vinegar, not slat). mini melons, asabi stems and sansho/Japanese pepper (I mean all are pickled)!

Now, for the stamina and vitamins!

She first made karaage/deep-fried chicken, and then cooked them in amazu/sweet vinegar, seame seeds and cornstarch. Very tasty!

Some fresh lettuces, fried goya and red pimentoes seasoned with gomadare and tamagoyaki.
Mow, these tamagoyaki were a bit different with the white in the middle and the yolk outside. I don’t have a clue as to how she made them but they were delicious!

The heat has finally a good side to it!

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