Tag Archives: Food

Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/24): Sakura Bento!

April 20, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Today’s name, Sakura Bento, had two reasons for it!
One, the sakura/Cheery trees were in full bloom in Shizuoka City.
Two, The Missus had decorated the rice with a salted (edible) cherry blossom!

Having steamed the rice, she placed it in the first box before sprinkling with dry red shio/perila furikake, finely chopped Japanese cucumber pickles, home-pickled sansho/Japanese pepper seeds and a cherry blossom!

A very colorful side dish with pk\lenty of home recipes!

Potato and peas in (and) their pods (cut to size after being boiled), boiled carrots a (some cut as pine trees!) and lettuce.

Zauteed chicken rolls of two kinds, one containing home-pickled myoga ginger leaves, the other young ginger roots also pickled in sweet rice vinegar.
Lettuce again and weet plum tomatoes.
The dessert consisted of apples simmered in kirsch, lemon and honey!

Plenty of colors, the Spring is definitely around the corner!

Clumsyfingers by Xethia
Adventures in Bento Making, American Bento, Beanbento, Bento No1, Bento Wo Tsukurimashou, Cooking Cute, Eula, Hapabento , Happy Bento, Jacki’s Bento Blog, Kitchen Cow, Leggo My Obento, Le Petit Journal Bento & CO (French), Lunch In A Box, My Bento Box, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, The Herbed Kitchen, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat; Bento Lunch Blog (German); Adventures In Bento; Anna The Red’s Bento Factory; Cooking Cute; Timeless Gourmet; Bento Bug; Ideal Meal; Bentosaurus; Mr. Foodie (London/UK); Ohayo Bento

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/23): Chirashi Sushi Bento!

April 6, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

Chirashi Sushi could be called “mixed sushi” or “decoration sushi” and it is very popular dish in Japanese homes as it is both very practical and tasty!

They also make for beautiful colors!
The Missus first prepared the sushi rice while she lightly boiled some shrimps.
She added chopped home-pickled myoga ginger, Japanese scrambled egg, shrimp cut in small pieces, home-pickled sansho/Japanese pepper seeds, diced avocado to the rice and mixed the lot.
She topped it with boiled shrimps and a sprig of sansho/ki no mi!

Beautiful, isn’t it?

The salad box was very healthy: boiled Shizuoka-grown Stick Junior broccoli, orange wedges and strips f red pimento. The sweet beans (very Japanese!) were my dessert!

Just love these chirashi sushi!

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Bento, 野菜, Japanese Gastronomy, Recipes, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Cuisine, 帆立貝, 弁当

Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/22): Scallops & Broad Beans Bento!

April 5, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

The Missus was back into the “square bento mode” today.
I called it a “scallop and Broad Beans Bento” because of the “rice box”!

She steamed the rice with the whole contents of a small can of small scallops and their juices poure on top of the rice.
Once they had been cooked, she mixed the rice and the scallops so as to break the latter for better inclusion. She then added boiled and peeled broad beans and mixed the lot roughly.
She topped the whole with finely cut home-pickled ginger for extra seasoning.

Now the “salad box” wasqite intricate:
From right to left:
-Suteed egg plants/aubegines with a dash of ginger jam (ginger cooked with honey only).
Sweet carrot salad with whole sesame seeds and ground sesame seeds.
Cress from Shige Chan Garden in Shizuoka City.
-Mimosa egg.
-Kiwi fruit, orange and mini tomatoes. great colors!

As usual very tasty and satisfying!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/21): Alien Face Tamagoyaki Bento!

March 31, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

I don’t know if it’s the fault of yesterday’s medical check up, but I seem to recognize “alienfaces” looking at me through the tamagoyaki!
Actually the Missus agreed when she made it this morning!

Beautiful orange-dominated colors in the “rice box” although I wish that the Missus had not forgotten sending the two detailed pictures of it.
The rice was steamed together with finely chopped carrot then mixed together once cooked and finally sprinkled with black sesame seeds.
The Missus then fried sliced zucchini to be placed under fried tuna filets topped with cheddar cheese. The finishing note was achieved with a pair of Shizuoka-grown Ameera Rubbins pearl tomatoes.

Actually you will have to look top to bottom to see the “alien faces”!

Can you see them now: two with a “nose”, the bottom one with two eyes and a very thin smiling mouth!

And now for the explanations:
Home-pickled myoga ginger and pieces of fresh ginger root from Hatada Garden in Kuno, Shizuoka City that the Missus pickled herself.
The tamagoyaki/Japanese omelette was plain with plenty of sweet boiled black beans.

As for the greens, boiled string beans in hot sesame dressing.

This bento seems light, but it wasn’t actually, what with the solid amount of rice!
Very satisfying and tasty!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/20): Medical Check Up Bento!

March 30, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

A Medical Check Up Bento? My, what are we going to invent these days! LOL
Actually, it is a very simple story: this norning I had to submit myself to my annual medical check up! I’m not interested in describing all the niggles my body is having a good time with, so I’ll go straight to what the Missus concocted for me!

The rice was a straight affair: steamed, that is all. But the soft-boiled and marinated egg is a creation of the Missus. The red cucumber pickles are Kyoto-style but the leaf ginger (stick ginger) pickles are peurely local and made by a Shizuoka grower (the Missus is preparing her own with the batch I brought back from the same grower!).

The Missus must have been worried about the results of my medical check up as the pictures were definitely on the dark side. LOL

The vegetables consisted of three kinds of stir-fried pimentoes, some lettuce and deep-fried kabocha.

The Missus’ deep-fried/karaage chicken, deep-fried kabocha (interetsing taste”!) and bolide sweet black beans ( my dessert?).

Very healthy and tasty. The doctor will worry not seeing me as much as he would like to!

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笑い, Food Humor, Japan, Shizuoka, vegetables

Food Humor: Pervert Daikon or Three-legged Wonder?

March 29, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Whereas big supermarkets in larger towns such as Tokyo and what else who are “serious” about their products and their displays, local shops do not hesitate to show and sell the tricks of nature!

Actually, and this very seriously, people living in rural Japan are in fact quite happy to discover such natural wonders as they are considered as symbols of fertility (just look around in Japanese countryside, and you are bound to discover all kinds of seriously venerated tricks of nature!).

This particular daikon was displayed by (Farmers Market) Japan Bazaar in Shimada City!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/19): European-style Sushi Bento!

March 23, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

When I asked this morning how I should call todays’s bento, she replied “European-style Bento”!
Now, what could be a European-style bento?

To me it looked like a “chirashizushi/Decoration sushi”!
Aright, the boiled shrimps do look foreign…
Anywa th Missus, after steaming and preparing the sushi rice mixed it with par;ey, capers, broken boiled egg and walnuts.

The sliced stuffed olives do add a Spanish note…
At least it was tasty and colorful (and well-balanced)!

The salad-dessert dish included “petit-vert”/ a Brussels sprouts and cabbage hybrid. Very tasty and crispy! Carrot salad as always, boiled black beans (sweet) and Shizuoka Ameera Rubbins Pearl Tomatoes. The latter two were sweet enough to make for the dessert!

Alright, it is European and delicious at that! LOL

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/18): Chahan Bento!

March 22, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

The Missus was left with plenty of rice from last night dinner, so she prepared “Chahan”

Chahan/チャハン means “Fried Rice” as is understood in Chinese gastronomy.
The Japanese are very fond of this rice dish and prepare it in an infinite number of manners and styles.
The Missus simply fried last night night7s rice with a little oil, minced Japanese cucumber picles and shredded “kanidama/surimi”
Simple ni\ough with nice colors again and healthy. She added some Kyoto-style pickled cucumbers for extra taste.

The side dish was very Japanese in concept with an eye for balance, both in health and design.

Chikuwa/fish paste tubes filled with shiso leaf and sweet umeboshi/Japanese pickled plum. Chikuwa are popular in many manners, including oden.
“Snap Endou” or green peas in their pods. They are called “mange tou” (“eat all”) in French. Just boiled they are sweet and tender.

The “tamagoyaki”/Japanese omelette contained sakura ebi/cherry shrimps only found in our Prefecture. A great morsel! The plum tomatoes were sweet and could be considered the dessert part. Finally the Missus included her carrot tagliatelle salad.

Very satisfying!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/17): Healthy Pasta Salad Bento!

March 19, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

All these gastonomic reports for my official work at Agrigraph Japan is not always helping my health and the Missus has to think about my waistline from time to time!

Thinking of heath and balance the Missus prepared her favorite pasta/spaghetti (she is an addict!) and once the had cooled down seaoned them wit some dressing of her own.
She added smoked salmon, capers and kawairedaikon/daikon sprouts and some lemon.
Simple and colorful!

The salad dish too was simple, colorful and healthy:
On a bed of carrot salad a semi-hard boiled egg, liced plum tomatoes, cucumber and penty of cress. I added sesame dressing I keep handy at work.

Dessert? No need, really! LOL
Very, very healthy! Alright, and tasty, too!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’11/16): Square Dance Bento

March 18, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

When I saw those two rectangular boxes aligned together i couldn’t help thinking of a square dance as I have never heard of a rectangular dance! LOL

The rice dish was simple enough in concept as the Missus steamed it with mixed beans, chopped carrots, corn and hijiki/sweet seaweed and mixed the whole together once cooked. It made for some interesting color combination and satisfying eating!

Although the side dish looks a bot complicated it was pretty straightforward, too!
Boiled broccoli, boiled eggs and boiled spinach inside a double layer of inari/fried tofu pouches, boiled white cauliflower, plum tomato, boiled kabotcha and home-pickled cabbage (in amazu/sweet vinegar).

Some Shizuoka-grown Benihoppe/Red Cheeks strawberries for dessert added the finishing touch to a very healthy (and tasty) bento!

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Food Humor: Not tonight, Darling!

March 13, 2011 dragonlife 4 Comments

My good friend, Bernard Heberle, who has been elected the best patissier in Shizuoka Prefecture in 2011 seems to have some time on his hands despite the mountain of work. An amateur of food humor, he regularly sends me photos featuring some pretty/nasty art on food.
I thought it would be a shame not to feature them from time to time to add a light note/seasoning to this blog!

Promised! This is the last banana picture I publish…

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熱海市, 観光, Tourism

Atami, The Hot Spring City of Yore 3

March 12, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Atami resort harbor/marina.

Strolling in Atami City, that is in the downtown area by the sea can be interesting indeed if you know where to look!

Don’t look up but down for directions!

Difficult to get lost!

There 7 hot springs (including the one in fornt of the JR station), but I couldn’t find them all…

3rd one. Don’t put your hand inside!

4th one. The temperature was alright!

The 5th one. A little beauty!
I couldn’t find the last two. Pity, when you realize they have been used for hundreds of years!

The other major Atami attraction is the Baien Koen/梅園公園/plum tree Park!
It was created more than 120 years ago and subsequently doanted to the city!
let’ have a stroll!

I forgot to chck how many kinds. I can assure you you need a few visits to exhaust theme all!

Now, this is Japan!

Take your time and enjoy the sights!

Flower trees everywhere. You should come on bright sunny day!

A man-made waterfall! Great in summer!

A view from “inside” the waterfall!

Plum tree blooms…

Interesting tree…

Beautiful color!

Can you see the daffodils?
Spring is near and we shall to think and come back again in the summer!

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熱海市, 観光, 農業, Japanese Gastronomy, Shizuoka, Tourism

Atami, The Hot Spring City of Yore 2

March 11, 2011 dragonlife 10 Comments

Botarga/Mullet Roe/Karasumi/カラスミ!

The shopping streets in Atami City are quite old-fashioned. You almost seem to slipped back 30 years when you stroll along them browsing old-fashioned shops of every kind.

Once out of Atami JR station you will find two parallel streets going down sharply on the right. There you will find the epitome of land and sea products of the region.
Will you follow me?

Atami is located at the northern tip of Izu Peninsula, which means an access to an incredible number of fish. Can you believe that Shizuoka produces 50% of all dried and semi-dried fish in Japan?
And of a great quality!

These dried fish are shirasu/白子/sardine whiting. Rare of that size (and not cheap!)!

The himono/干物/dried fish on the left are not cheap either: globefish/fugu/河豚!

One Japanese confectionery typical of Atami is Onsen Manju!

Onsen manju/温泉万寿/means hot spring steamed sweetmeat cake. Many shops are competing with each other!

A great array of fresh fish paste cakes you eat either as they are, or as oden! Very tasty!

A giant Japanese brochette! The sugn says to be carful and not to push the dispaly with your hands (appe\arently some did with a disastrous result!)!

One great thing about Japan is that most (Japanese-style) restaurants display their cuisine as plastic models in their shop windows! At least you have a good idea of what is available!

More seafood left out to dry to become tasty himono! Traceabilty garanteed!

More, including rare tuna himono (bottom right)!

Now, the beautiful kinmedai/金目鯛 (Top righ) is expensive (but not by Tokyo standrds!)!

Izu Peninsula and Atami City are also famous for all kinds of citruses!

Golden oranges/貴金柑　(front) are beautiful and expensive!
They tend to come up with a new variety every year in that region!

Now, if you want to eat sushi, you will know that the seafood is fresh!

Although this is a sushi chain of the cheaper kind, they have the merit to explain clearly the varieties and the prices (very reasonable!)!

Now, what are these?

Karasumi/カラスミ/Botarga, or mullet roe! You can find anything more traceable. This is a truly expensive gastronomic marvel, even in Shizuoka!

A last long look at the shops and then we’ll go to another toursit attraction!

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Atami, The Hot Spring City from Yore 1

March 10, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Atami must be the most famous hot springs city in Shizuoka Prefecture and in Japan! And one of the oldest to boot.
It has always been a favorite destination for Tokyoites in particular.
Shizuoka people do visit the city but in amrkedly smaller numbers.
The main reason for this state of affairs is that Atami is at the eastern extremity of the Prefecture.

The welcoming hot spring just outside the JR Railway Station.

The City counts 7 different hot springs more or less connected to Mount Fuji.
be careful not to touch the water! It is truluyscalding hot!

But you can take a foot bath at areasonable temperature.
Bear in mind that at 16:00 the bath will be emptied!

If you don’t believe, take a plunge! You won’t come back alive! It does look hellish, after all!

The city is celebrated for its plum tree flowers especially in February (and March if you are lucky!)!

One main attraction is the MOA Museum. You had better take a day bus ticket to keep expenses low as the city is half along the coast, half perched on top of steep cliffs. Walking is just a bit too tough. Buis is best!