After Yesterday’s traditional Japanese bento, the Missus prepared an “open sandwich bento” more reminiscent of European/American packed lunches!

As she is away on a vacation today she did not need to prepare food for both of us.
She toatsed some bread and proceeded to rummage through the refrigerator:

Smoked salmon with capers and black olives.
Japanese-style scrambled eggs with Italian parsley from our verandah for a finishing touch.
Avocado slices.
Sweet plum tomato.
Dip sauce for the vegetables.

Smoked pepper ham and cornichons.
Lettuce.
Cucumber and celery sticks for the dipping sauce (or is this the other way round?LOL)
Honey-pickled dates for dessert.

Very healthy!

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Today’s bento was probably the most “traditional” the Missus prepared this year. It is very reminiscent of high school students can expect from their mothers.

The rice part is a double-decker. That is soy sauce will be brushed on a first layer of plain steamed rice and covered with dry seaweed. The operation is repeated to form the two-tier rice dish.

As for the garnish the Missus made small “sandwiches” with slices of zucchini intersped with a chicken paste she made with minced chicken, a lttle sake and what else before rolling them in cornstarch and frying them. Served with lettuce and fresh cress, it made for the vegetable part.

As for the “salad” part, she included mimosa-style boiled egg halves, “yama imo/taro roots” (raw) salad with two kinds of sesame seeds, pickled Japanese gourd and pickled Japanese cherry blossom, and a plum tomato for dessert.

Not as big as usual, but I have to lose weight!LOL

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Today’s bento was a simple affair or quick fix: Open Muffin Sandwiches.

The Muffins were “English” made in Japan. They had been toatsed for consistency.
As for the filling: lettuce almost everywhere, potato and green peas salad, home-made chicken ham with British chutney, French pickles, black olives, mini tomatoes, and dark cherries (imported)

Was still a bit hungry after that!

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Today’s bento was “Catch the Train Bento”!
I have to take the train to go and teach at University on Friday afternoons. Usually the Missus makes sandwiches for my trip. But she had forgotten to buy bread! Therefore I ended up with a classic trip bento!

She steamed the rice with large fresh green peas to make big musubi/rice balls.

As for the accompaniment, she improvised with was left inthe refrigerator:
Lettuce, mini tomatoes, French pickles, tamagoyaki containing finely chopped thin leeks, fried eringi mushrooms, boiled sweet peas intheir pods, and fried bacon and white asparagus rolls.

A quick fix, maybe, but a pretty satisfying bento!

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Yesterday was a National Holiday in Japan, and we took the pportunity to share dinner at Lojol‘s place. We certainly ate (and drank) a lot as usual.
As the Missus was busy today, she prepared me a healthy lunch box to help my body ease up a bit!

The main dish was very Japanese in concept: “Chirashizushi/Decoration Sushi”:
The rice had been steamed with a piece of konbu/seaweed and later mixed with dickled Japanese cucumber and daikon as well as with “Tobikko/Flying Fish roe”.
She then placed lemon juice-seasoned smoked salmon, boiled shrimps, square cut tamagoyaki, sliced black olives, Italian parsely from the verandah and home-made wasabi pickles.

As for the salad: on a bed of shredded veg, cut mini tomatoes, boiled white asparaguses, sweet peas in their pods, lettuce, lemon and shredded cheese on which I poured dressing kept in the fridge at work!

Very healthy indeed, but quite a lot in fact!

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I had a little argument with the Missus this morning when she refused to tell me what was included in one of the nigiri/rice balls.
-Secret! In any case, you should be able to find out when you eat it!
-Kudaranai!/Silly answer!, I replied.
-I’m silly! Fine, you can make your own bento next time!
-No problem!, I replied knowing fully well this was the best way to provoke her into making the next one. LOL

The main part consisted of three nigiri: one containing seaweed, the second one umeboshi/pckled Japanese plum and pickled cherry blossom, the last one takuan/pickled daikon.

The Missus had included a small pack of nori/dry seaweed.

This way, the nori would be dry and crispy when eaten. The idea is either to wrap around the nigiri, or just hold it as a “sandwich”.

As for the garnish, the Missus prepared a small salad of lightly fried pimento and goya, mini chicken patties from last night dinner, tomato, lettuce and French pickles.

As for the salad I got Japanese-style mimosa eggs on a bed of greens and Shizuoka “Beni Hoppe/red cheeks” strawberies for dessert.

Don’t to have another argument! LOL

My good friend Elin nicely asked me to include some pictures of flowers as it is Spring in Japan:

That flowering tree is an “Ippei” originating from Brazil!

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This morning The Missus said that I ate too much rice for my comfort, meaning it was fattening me!
Therefore she declared that I was going to have sandwich Bento today!
Actually, I’m pretty sure that bread contains more calories than rice!

The sandwich was double-decker with three slices of bread.

Fairly simple in concept (and probably healthier!), it was laid with a very thin omelette on the first deck, then cheese (toasted), ham (seasoned with mustard) and lettuce for the second deck.

The Salad dish was pretty voluminous:
Bed of cress.
Plum tomatoes.
French pickled cucumbers and onions,.
Lettuce.
Black olives
Potato salad.
Oranges and strawberries for dessert.

Quite big in the end! LOL

My good friend Elin nicely asked me to include some pictures of flowers as it is Spring in Japan:

That flowering tree is a Dogwood Tree or Hanamizukira in Japanese!

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Saturday is definitely not a “bento day”, but with the storm announced for the whole day by the weather forecast, we decided it would be more practical for both of us instead of having to travel inside stuffy slow buses!

The Missus kept things simple:
She already had ready to fry thin pork slices in the fridge.
She placed them on a bed of teamed rice first overlaid with finely chopped greens. She had seasoned the pork with bbq sauce and sprinl\kled them with white sesame. She added “takuan”/yellow pickled daikon and home-made wasabi flowers and stem pickles.

The side dish was fairly simple, too:
Plenty of “kawaire daikon” for vitamin C, mini tomatoes, simmered black beans and tamagoyaki.

Plenty enough!

My good friend Elin nicely asked me to include some pictures of flowers as it is Spring in Japan:

Last Cherry blossoms in Shizuoka City!

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Wednesday is usually not a “bento day”, but since I will be very busy this afternoon conducting a video interview of a local sake brewery, I simply will have no time to go back home for lunch.

The Missus this time came up with her own “classic”, pasta salad bento:
Boiled, drained and cooled spaghetti to which she added some dressing before laying them inside the box. She then sprinkled them with a little grated parmegiano cheese.
She added smoked salmon, pink pepper, Italian parsley from our verandah, boiled slice, Sliced plum tomato, boiled broccoli, Some cut cucumber, French flageolet green beans, French pickles, small herbes and lettuce. As for dessert, oranges from her family’s garden.

My good friend Elin nicely asked me to include some pictures of flowers as it is Spring in Japan:

Cherry Blossoms in Shizuoka City.

Plum Trees in Atami City.

Shizuoka is also famous for its oranges!
This picture was taken from Miho, Shimizu Ku, Shizuoak City, a place which is considered as “one of the best three Mount Fuji Viewspots in Japan”!

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For today’s lunch box, the Missus decided to make it very “traditional”!

Even the lunch box was tradional lacquerware!

The three-coloured style bento is a classic here:
The green colour is achieved with boiled flat ingenmame/green string beans cut at a slant and small enough to form a “bed of green”.
The yellow part is iri-tamago, a form of sweet Japanese scrambled eggs.
As for the brown part, it is made up of tori-soboro. Minced chicken was first seasoned, including black sesame seeds, and then fried as to form small “clumps” and then laid on top of the rice, which had been steamed with a seasoning (the Missus wouldn’t tell me what!)

As for the salad, the Missus made a bed of mixed herbs and added cut cucumber, Ameera Rubbins mini tomatoes, corn, boiled broccoli, boiled shrimps and French pickled cucumbers and mini onions.

I might ask for that again soon!

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The Missus has this peculiar habit of teasing me (very) early in the morning by asking me:
-How would you like your rice for your bento today?
-Well,…
-You should have answered at once, since you know I was going to cook rice since last night!
-???…

Then, as I was finishing my coffee:
-How big do you want it?
-Just the usual!
-All right,…

I should have known better, because she did come with a big one!

She steamed the rice with shredded carrots and served it with black sesame seeds and some home-made sweet ginger pickles.

She has just bought a new large tamagoyaki fry pan, so I know she will cook my favourite bento item for some time. A couple of Shizuoka-grown mini-tomatoes were added.

Then she came up with deep-fried renkon/lotus roots, Chicken sasami/breast fillets deep-fried with shiso/perilla leaves dry seaweed.. Some lettuce and lemon finished the lot.

As for the salad (-eat it before the rice!, she ordered):
On lettuce leaves, cucumber, boiled brocoli, Japanese processed cheese, walnuts and strawberries!

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Today Missus was still recovering from a bad fit of viral flu and it was her day-off from work. Moreover I was having a busy day. We agreed that a lunch box was on order, the more for it that it would become part of the Missus’ lunc, too!

I hadn’t been eating much for the last three day, so she made quite a big bento!

The “main dish” consisted of some of my favourites: Deep-fried garlic chicken (thigh parts off the bone) and tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette with boild brocoli, lettuce and home-stewed sweet blak beans.

The steamed rice had been mixed with “hijiki/sweet seawedd” after cooking and sprinkled with plenty of white sesame seeds. The Missus added some pickled ginger as well.

As for the salad, on a bed of chopped veg, canned beans, mini tomatoes, fresh cress and boiled pois gourmands/green peas in their pod.

It did take me some time to eat it all, but who am I to complain! LOL

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Today’s bento was “small” and could become a good suggestion for a small appetite!
The reason? The last few days I overate and overdrank myself and had been physically and mentally (that happens) very busy. When I woke up 5:30 the body just screamed a loud and painful “NO!”. This is a very rare occurrence and I will spare you form the details!

Only two (fairly big) nigiri/rice balls of freshly steamed rice and shopped fresh ginger covered with white sesame seeds.
Very tasty, actually!

The very simple salad consisted of my comfort food, tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette, Mini tomatoes, pois gourmands/wholly edible green peas, cress and pepper ham on a bed of chopped veg.

Large enough, I can guarantee you!

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Yesterday’s bento was a simple sandwich pack as I wa too busy to eat a proper bento in tranquility.
Today’s lunch was definitely of the traditional kind:

I’ll talk about the rice later.
The meat are thin slices of pork oven-cooked in sauce and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. The sauce was typical Japanese soy based and spicy.
The “greens” you can see in the left bottom corner are actually wasabi pickles.
I bought some fresh wasabi leaves and flowers last night and the Missus pickled them immediately. They have a nice hot spicy taste, but not as strong as the root. Scooped little by little with rice,they are simply succulent.
The vegetables were cooked in the oven (3 minutes): renkon (lotus roots, which are just in season), shiitake, three color pimentoes.
The salad is a potato-pepper ham-cucumber-capers combination with a lettuce leaf.

The rice was “shooga maze gohan”/rice steamed with shredded fresh ginger (which are just appearing on the markets!) and later mixed with white sesame seeds. I must admit it is particulary delicious, and I often request it in season!

The extra salad consisted of smoked salmon on a bed of shredded veg and some fresh cress.

No dessert… oh well, the Missus has started that habit of fondling my love handles!

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Today saw a rare occurence in that the Missus prepared a double bento for me!
Let me explain: As I have to submit to a camera scan of my stomach (you know, those long thin things they force through your gullet!) I’m not allowed to eat anything after 9:00 p.m.
As I usually have dinner at around 9:30 due to late work hours, the Missus included a small “6:00 p.m. dinner” (I can’t really call it a lunch box! LOL).

Lunch was served in that interesting box with a bamboo lid I have described before:
Three different “o-nigiri/rice balls”, one with an umeboshi/pickled Japanese plums, another one with Japanese cucumber (both wrapped in fresh shiso/perilla leaves) and the third one with fried “shirasu/Sardine whitebait”.

Two kinds of deep-fried chicken fillets cuts were provided with some lettuce. One kind was fried with white sesame seeds, the other with bits of shiso/perilla leaves.
The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette came in a cylindrical shape instead of the usual rectangular one. This done is done by “rolling” it into a sushi roll bamboo sheet just after it has been cooked and kept pressed inside until it has completely cooled down.

As for dinner I was provided with potato and ham salad to which the Missus added plum tomatoes, cut processed cheese, walnuts, sweet peas in their pod and more lettuce!

I’ll be hungry tonight!

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