Today’s bento is called a “Picnic Bento” because of many factors:
I made myself free for lunch and afternoon.
The Missus couldn’t stay home on her day off because of noisy works around and in our appartment bulding.
Lastly it was a gorgeous day, so we decided to go away and enjoy our lunch in the nature!

Now, keep in mind this is a (large) bento for two adults!

The musubi/rice balls are “maze-gohan/mixed rice” styly. The Missus steamed the rice topped with sauteed mushrooms and hijiki/sweet seaweed with their juices. She then mixed the lot and added some roasted sesame seeds.

She made plenty of plain tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette and included home-pickled wasabi stems and myoga ginger.

A very colourful “garnish and salad” box to go with staple rice.

The Missus’ specialty: juicy and so tender chicken karaage/deep-fried chicken with Meyer lemon fopr extra seasoning.

As for the salad, she included sticks (with tartare sauce sachets) of Shizuoka celery, carrots and cucumber. The pointed tomatoes are Renaissance tomatoes grown in Kakegawa City, halfway between Shizuoka and Hamamatsu cities.

Note: The bento boxes are disposable/degradable pastic boxes.

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Have you ever heard the expression, a “grotty day”?
That is when you wake up in the morning looking at an overcast sky and hear the first drops of the rain that wil come and go at the wrong moments all day!
Well, being a hedonist, I can see only one way to ignore such outside influences: eat, and eat well!
If you know a good lunch is awaiting you, you can take things along in your stride however unpleasant they are!LOL

For once, I will change the description order of my bento of the day, and will start with the sala and garnish paert.

From right to left:
Small daikon marinated/pickled in sweet rice vinegar and umeboshi/pickled Japanese plum.
Freshly boiled green peas.
Violet sweet potato/beni satsuma imo salad.

The Missus boiled the egg last night long enough to obtain solid white and still soft yolks. She then marinated it all night in soy sauce and other ingredients. The same eggs can served in all kind of fashions and garnishes any time of the day.

Now, for the main dish:
The Missus filled the box with freshly steamed rice that she covered with finely shredded vegetables.

She fried pork fillet slices in “tonkatsu” style, before brushing them with plenty of miso bbq sauce. The same sauce has the merit to seaon the vegetables and rice under the pork. She then cut them across for better size and sprinkled roasted sesame seeds over them.

For dessert, Shizuoka oranges and mini tomatoes compote!
Tomorrow’s forecast is fine!

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The present Bento boom is not happening only outside Japan, but very much in this country, too, as witnessed on the NHK News this morning who ran a report on young professional (and eliglble) men not only making their own bentoes, but also devising, creating and marketing their own boxes!

The main difference with the traditional bento boxes is that they are definitely hip and hi-tec!
In the coming days, I will run a series of postings on bento and bento boxes to provide as much as information as possible for my blogging friends!

Now, to come to today’s bento, I had forgotten most of the (cleaned!) boxes I had been given last Saturday and the Missus had to do with a motley assortment of boxes!

The “main dish” was placed in my old bamboo leaves woven box.

The Missus came back to her classics: boiled violet sweet potatoes/beni satsuma imo, and deep-fried chicken/karaage niwatoriniku, with a piece of lemon for extra seasoning and some lettuce for colour and vitamin C.

As for the rice, two types of “musubi/large rice balls” made with frshly steamed rice: one containg cheese and seasoned with soy sauce, the other wrapped in nori/dry seaweed and topped with (and also containing) pickled Japanese plum/umeboshi.

The salad/dessert side dish as usual was very colourful, although the Missus grumbled that the whole bento was a failure! (I can tell I don’t mind about herfailures!LOL).

A mixed salad of various boiled beans and hijiki sweet seaweed, pickled carrot parpadelle, walnuts and lettuce. A home-made pickled myoga ginger sprouts made for extra seasoning and colour.

The “tubes” are “chikuwa/fish paste tubes that I filled myself with cucumber sticks. Some home-made pickled wasabi stems and the first cherries of the year for dessert!

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I’m not supposed to get a bento on Saturdays, but the Missus and I being very busy from early morning, my other half decided to make one for both of us. It is simpler in concept than the bentoes she usually makes on Mondays and Tuesadays (none for this week as this was Golden Week Holiday), hence today’s title.

I took this pic to compare the sizes of our respective bentoes. The Missus’ is smaller (front one) and I had some extra dessert!

Today’s bento was not only smaller, but also lighter and definitely in healthy and nutritious-conscious style:
Over some plain steamed rice, she placed lightly pickled carrot parpadelle salad, Home-made pickled wasabi stems, plum tomatoes and freshly boiled peas from her family’s garden.

Then sliced soft boiled egg, katsuo/bonito flakes (not the shavings, but thin flkes like the ones for tuna. You can buy them anywhere in Japan. Very practical and tasty!) and home-made pickle myoga ginger.

As for dessert I had orange wedges and strawberries from Shizuoka!

Simple, colourful and healthy!

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Today’s bento has been named “Johoku Park Bento” because the Missus who had a day off yesterday called me during the afternoon to join her for a walk in Johoku Park during a break at work. I actually had to bicycle there first. LOL.

But it was defunitely worth the trip.
Johoku Park is located by the new Shizuoka Municipal Library and it is the ideal place to stay away from the bustle of city, but still within manageable distance. On the other it gest crowded on Holidays.

One can freely choose his/her right spot for a deserved rest and meal.
If it rains, no worry as there is great cafe called Tables Spoon nearby (I’m planning a post on it)!

The Missus did work a lot preparing today’s bento.

She had concocted the meat balls with minced beef and pork and bits of lotus ro0ts the night before before frying them this morning. The lotus root provided for a welcome crunchy bite. Tomatoes are sweet and grown in Shizuoka. As for the peas in their pods, they come from her family’s garden.

She added chopped red pimento and string beans (boiled) and cheese to the tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette (very soft and yummy). Lettuce and Kyoto-style red pickled cucumbers provided the colours and fibers.

The “mame gohan”/rice and green peas has an interesting story.

She first boiled the green peas inside their pods.
She discarded the pods but used the water she boiled them in to steam the rice, giving it plenty of nutrients and a beautiful colour.
She mixed the boiled peas with the rice only once the rice was steamed. If you steamed together the peas will become mushy.

For dessert fresh orange from her family’s garden and canned Chinese lychees!

Next time, if the weather is fine (it was a horror today…), I plan to take my bento to the park!

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The title “Canned Bento” is only a joke. It just pointed out to the good use of canned food in a bento!

Now, what is the fish laying on the rice?

This is where the title, “Canned Bento”, comes into play!
The Japanese are very good at canning food, especially fish (Shizuoka is a major canning area). They do it more or less along traditional European process (did you know that the French were the first to successfully can food?), although their tins are definitely smaller and seasoning is far more varied.

The Missus used a small Japanese (it is also very popular in South Korea) can of “sanma/秋刀魚/Pacific saury:

Sanma/Pacific saury is a very fat red-meat fish and its marinade makes for a delicous seasoning on the freshly steamed rice.

Roasted sesame seeds ‘”yellow and black”) were added for futher seasoning.

Lightly fried lotus root slices, home-made pickles myoga ginger and wasabi plants made fro the rest of the “staple” dish.

The “salad dish” as usual was every colourful!

Shizuoka winter orange for dessert with trevise lettuce, sliced/chopped red radishes, celery (Shizuoka-grown) and plum tomatoes (Shizuoka-grown).

Boiled string beans (they were first introduced in Japan by the French over 100 years ago) and boiled shrimp salad!

Just wondering what I’m going to call tomorrow’s bento. LOL.

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The season for sakura ebi/桜海老, or Cherry Shrimps has finally started!

Sakura Ebi are exclusively caught caught in Suruga Bay off Shizuoka Prefecture and can be obtained absolutley fresh here!
The Missus was so proud of herself when she brought some back home last night: the first of the year!
Although we ate them raw, she kept some for my bento today!

She first steamed plain rice and covere it with the cherry shrimps only after the rice had been cooked. The residual heat was enough to cook them.

She then mixed them with the rice before filling the first box. She sprinkled the lot with roasted sesame seeds and added some home-made pickled wasabi stems, leaves and flowers.

The garnish once again was very colourful and provided for great balance.

Beans and broad beans salad, semi-boiled marinated egg with black sesame seeds, and fresh okra with katsuobushi/dry bonito shavings.

Sorry for the fuzzy pic!
Plenty of lettuce, white asparaguses and bacon roll (fried) and sliced plum tomatoes. Plenty of fibers and vitamins!

Shizuoka Oranges and Chilean grapes for dessert.

The season for cherry shrimps will last for only two months and again in the Fall!

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The weather has been really cracking recently to the point one just does not know what to put on in the morning before going out!
Yesterday’s cricket game started in dry heat to finish in wet cold. The sun is out again today with a vengeance but the next three days promise rain.
With what is happening in Iceland and Europe these days, I wonder what of kind year we shall have!

Anyway, we are on Monday and my bento was ready, weather or not! LOL
And it was served in those beautiful cedar tree boxes!

The Missus steamed the rice with a (pre-packed/pre-cooked) mixture of beans and hijiki/sweet seaweed that she stir-mixed later after it was cooked. It also added a slightly sweet taste to the rice. She sprinkled the rice with plenty of roasted sesame seeds.

She also added a large home-pickled (sweet rice vinegar) myoga ginger sprout (it is alctually the flower) and “chikuwa”/fried fish paste tubes stuufed with hard young cucumber.

She included plenty of colours in the garnish dish, although she said she could have added more. It was just alright by me!

She had boiled some broad beans/sora mame and made a salad of them with quickly fried prawns. The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette was of the plainn kind as other ingredients were pretty strong in taste.

She rolled pieces of chicken which had been long marinated in nori/dry seaweed sheet before shallow-frying them. She added lettuce and Italian parsley for the vitamins and very sweet Ameera Rubbins mini tomatoes (from Shizuoka Prefecture) for dessert.

Well, I don’ mind about the weather as long as I get this kind of bento! LOL

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I called this bento, “Two-Box Bento” simply because the Missus has combined that faithful bamboo leaves/fibers box with half of the new cedar wood lunch box!

The weather has made a complete turnaround from yesterday’s deluge to a balmy day with plenty of sunshine and heat. I will have to find many reasons to get out the office today!

Today’s bento was another hearty one. I love bentoes, but if I had one everyday I would be afraid to step on the scales every morning!

The “main dish” featured tuna fried with tomato sauce, boiled peas in their pods (they are caleed “snap endou” in Japanese), home-pickled myoga ginger (in sweet vinegar), mini tomatoes and home-pickled wasabi stems and leaves.

Rice consisted of three musubi/rice balls containing umeboshi/Jpanese pickle plum. One ball was was seasoned with yuzu kosho furikake/lime pepper seasoning powder and “white” roasted sesame seeds, and the other with Yukari (red shiso powder seasoning) all were wrapped in green shiso leaves and lettuce.

The salad dish consisted of the Missus’ specialties, home-pickled carrot tagliatelle with black olives parsley, spicy fried yam/nagai imo and sweet pimentoes with hujiki/sweet seaweed, and her mother beans, vegetables and konbu seaweed “ni”/simmered food.

The dessert was a mixture of fresh Shizuoka orange, Chilean grapes and Chinese lychee.

Plenty for a long day!

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After a very hot Sunday (I mean in April) when we got sunburnt playing (and winning!) cricket, this morning’s cold rain called for another hearty traditional Japanese bento!
The Missus being on holiday today cooked for the two of us, which is always a plus! LOL

The pictures I took this morning were too fuzzy because of the prevalent darkness and I had to take new pictures at the office!
The Missus used that beautiful Aomori Prefecture cedar wood box again!

The rice had been left to soak overnight with water to which she had added musshrooms cooked beforehand and their juices (konbu seaweed was also included).
Having steamed it, she mixed the whole (the mushrooms were left on top of the rice while being steamed) and added boiled broad beans for colour, texture and fibers!

The “side dish” was quite elaborate and the Missus had some difficulties fitting everything in!

She shallow deep-fried two types of chicken sasami/chicken “tenderloins”, one with “white” sesame seeds, the other with black ones. She also fitted in some (boiled) green asparaguses and lettuce.

Tamagoyaki! Plain one, this ime!

Extra vegetables included fried red sweet pimentoes and violet sweet potatoes/beni imo!

For dessert she gave me sliced green kiwi fruit and a new type of lemon/orange recently grown in our prefecture.

It is a very small type of orange or lemon (I will have to check the name) remiscent of a Meyer lemon, but deep yellw. The skin is quite thin and very fragrant (the latter wil go into the bath!) and the flesh very sweet and juicy!

It was certainly gratifying and bigger than it looked!

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Today’s bento had to be served into the more practical round tupperware boxes. By “practical” I mean easier to clean as today’s lunch box contained curry and tumeric-coloured rice which would very probably stain the cedar wood boxes. Since the wood is somewhat fragile, one cannot wash it too harshly, hence the plastic boxes!

“Dry Curry” is a Japanese expression. There is nothing dry about the curry! It just means that the curry does come in the usual “soup” or “sauce” fashion. The present curry is more of a keema style with minced porkand beef slowly simmered in all kinds of spices, masala and curry paste until most of the water has evaporated. The Missus cooked it with beans and chick peas for more “bite”.

It is very much reminiscent of the “curry savoury” I saw served so many times in English hotels I worked in during my university years. The difference is that the rice is steamed with tumeric.
The English would slice the boiled egg whereas the Missus prefers (I do, too) to cut/chop it finely and place it in a “valley” made in the middle of the rice. She added the finishing touch with sliced black olives and chopped leaves.

A big salad was added for the Vitamins and fibers: boiled brocoli, hand-torn lettuces, sliced plum tomato, broken walnut and cheese.

And for dessert, ornage from Shizuoka and garapes from Chile!

A very hearty bento I ate with a spoon and fork this time!

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After a great Sunday spent playing cricket (and losing a final, tears….), it was a bit of a “cold shower” this morning when we woke up with the rain battering the windows. Well, it’s Spring after all, and we need all that water for the great vegetables grown in this particular region of Japan!

This time the Missus chose the sturdier (and cheaper) cedar wood bento box and tried to include some colours to cheer me up!

She made a bed of plain steamed rice in the larger box and topped it with thin slices of chicken fired in teriyaki style sauce seasoned with roasted sesame nuts. In the middle she placed marinated soft-boiled eggs of her own fashion and her other specialty: yam/yama imo, hijiki/sweet seaweed, and lightly fried pimento Japanese salad. That for the stamina and vitamins!

For a better view of the eggs and and salad. The pic is a bit fuzzy as it was really dark this morning.

The chicken and the eggs, which prompted the Missus in calling this bento an “oyakodon”, Parent/chicken and Child/egg bento!

And then a dish of salad and dessert for more vitamins and fibers!

Fried shimeji mushrooms, boiled rapeseed/Na no Hana salad with sesame dressing and seeds, home-pickled sweet myoga ginger and boiled Okinawan baby corn!

Shizuoka Plum tomatoes and Chilean grapes for dessert!

The weather forecast is good for tomorrow. Whta’s in store for me then?

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Now, you may ask why I gave this “subtitle” to Today’s bento!
“Hail” for bento? Unless it is an ice-cream bento…

Actually we had a good 10 minutes of hail in Shizuoka City yesterday afternoon, and this only in our city! On the other hand some people were blocked for the night in the vicinity of Mount Fuji.
If I recall properly, itis only the third time I witness such an event in 34 years of lif in this town. No wonder the TV crews were out in force downtown!

Now cherry blossoms are easier to understand.
Japan, like many other countries in the Northern Hemisphere has gone through a very unseasonably cold winter. At long last cherry blossoms are litterally exploding into full bloom around us.
The above picture was taken along the moat of Sumpu Castle.
On the other hand I don’t know if these flowers will last until the Shizuoka Festival starting on the 1st of April as the next two days will see more rain…

For today’s bento the Missus used the other cedar wood box she bought from Akita Prefecture. Contrary to yesterday, this box is made of sturdy lacquered cedar wood. The two tiers can be used a single box with the second tier becomeing the lid. A “belt” is also provided for securing it.
It is also cheaper, but still expensive at a little less than 50 US$, but it is very resilient.

First the rice or staple “dish”.

The Missus steamed plain rice with a piece of konbu/seaweed.
Having filled the box with it, she sprinkled the middle first with “katsuo soboro/鰹そぼろ/”, that is coked bonito “powder” (not dry) and then with Japanese-style (chopped) cucumber pickle for a colourful contrast.

She added two types of pickles: home-made sweet (sweet vinegar) carrot pickles and pickled daikon slices I got from a friend who travelled to Niigata Prefecture on the other side of Japan. The latter is very crunchy and tasty.

And then for the garnish “dish”.

The meat is Japanese-style char siu/kakuni pork she cooked in a jiffy in a pressure cooker, and the egg is another specialty of hers, half-boiled and sprinkled with roasted/black sesame seeds.

The opposite extremity was filled with boiled peas in their pods and home-made sweet pickled myoga ginger.

The middle is occupied with what justifies the third element of the title: imo.
She simmered yellow and violet satsuma imo/sweet potatoes together with a dash of honey (she wouldn’t tell me more…).
Cetainly makes for great colours and taste.
Sorry for the slightly fuzzy pictures (the Missus is giving me hell for that, but that gives her an incentive to take her own ics!LOL).

For dessert, Shizuoka-grown Benihoppe/Red Cheeks strawberries!

Do I need to tell you I’m looking forward to next week?

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The Missus at long last received the two cedar wood bento boxes she had ordered from Akita Prefecture in the far north of Japan!
The one she used today cost a whopping 90 US$ although she managed to buy it through the Internet for a little less than 60 US $.

The reason for such a cost is that all boxes are manually fabricated with the best cedar wood cut into very thin sheets to be later shaped with molds and then affixed to each other in painstaking process. Such boxes are washable, although they need some care then. The fact is that the cedar wood will add extra flavour to the food!

The box comes into two tiers with a lid, a small inner mobile partition and its own lacquered cedar wood chopsticks. A “belt” is also provided to secure the box before the Missus wraps it in napkin.
Traditional multi-tiered bento boxes used to be secured with bamboo twine or tightly wrapped into a large piece of cloth.

The boxes seem to be of small small size at first look but they contain more than one might think thanks to their depth.

Not only the box, but the meal too as very traditionla today!
The rice was plain rice steamed with konbu/seaweed and later mixed with home-sweet vinegar pickled myoga ginger and sprinkled with roasted yellow and black sesame seeds.

The Missus fried the salted salmon she bought at the local supermarket in a teriyaki sauce of her own. Shee added some home-pickled wasabi stems for extra punch.

The garnish box was filled to the brim!

The vegetables are separated with a small cedar wood partition:
on the right is mixture of yama imo/yam, red and green pimentoes and carrot strips fried together in spicy sauce with hijiki/sweet seaweed;
on the left salad of rapeseed flowers with their stwms and leaves seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing and sprinkled with ground roasted sesame seeds.
Note that the salads are placed inside paper cups to avoid too much direct contact with the wood.

As for dessert, The Missus included freshly fried plain tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette.
Tamgoyaki is readily available in supermarkets amd are tasty enough, but contains large amounts of sugar and preservatives. The Missus never touches them.
On the other hand the sweet beans were bought at the supermarket, although the Missus from time to time uses beans cooked by her mother.

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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

Please check the new postings at:
sake, shochu and sushi; Happy Little Bento

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