Sardine Corn Don + Herbal Chicken Soup

What a fancy name when all you have to do is scatter the toppings on top of the rice.

Gosh! I am SO sick of corn, but it's all the Mouse wants, plus it does come in a big packet.

So guess what's sitting on top of Takoyaki's rice as a garnish...

That's right! Just to use the packet up, haha!

BTW, that there's a new cutlery set I found during our recent vacation to Taiwan. I had actually been keeping an eye out for cutlery sets with fabric covers, given that bento culture is much more prevalent there, and boy was I pleased to find this! Of course I bought 2 sets, was there a need to ask?

Meow... Cat Onigiri Bento

I have a new toy!!

This is the cat version of the panda onigiri maker that was all the rage sometime back. A close friend went to Japan recently (hanami!) and got this for me, as well as some picks, which I have also used in today's bento. Thank you XH, you are so sweeet! *muaks*

It's surprisingly easy to use, as long as your nori is crisp. I thought I wouldn't kyaraben again untill Mouse hit school but I really couldn't resist this d:)

Roast Meat's cat bento

Takoyaki's cat bento

In the words of Takoyaki, "that's a face palm", or to put it more aptly, a paw-palm.

How To Maximise the Heat in a Food Jar

A few mummies have asked me what they should do if they want to pack hot soup and stews for their children. The solution is simple - use a food jar. They come in different sizes, so get one that you are sure your child can handle the weight and operation of.

This is a Thermos Foogo, one of two I have (the other is out with Takoyaki, haha!). I bought them fairly cheaply at Jusco in Malaysia when they were having a super sale, so the price, converted from Malaysian Ringgit, was about half that of what the major department stores in Singapore were charging. Great deal!

There are many brands of thermal food jars out there, among which the most popular and recognised-as-effective brands are Tiger, Zojirushi and Thermos. You gotta admit it, the Japanese know how to make it right since they use this so much!

Whether you purchase a "good" (read "expensive") brand or a cheaper brand that may lose heat faster, there's one important thing you MUST do to maximise the heat retention of your jar. 

Before you put your soup or stew into the jar, ALWAYS pour boiling water into the jar, cover it up and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

This allows the inner walls of the jar to heat up so they don't start cooling your hot stew or soup down as soon as it is poured in. After about 5 minutes (or as long as it takes to heat up the stew/soup itself), pour the hot water away into a mug and use it for washing stuff. Mine usually has a metallic taste after that so I don't use it for cooking or drinking.

I have tested this with Takoyaki and she said the food was still rather hot by lunchtime. 

Whaddya Know... It's Never The Last Till...

School ends. Although I realise it should actually be "The Year Ends", because I never know what may assail me to bento for fun in the holidays. Ha ha.

But here is the last for the school year at least. I loved giving him a proper box this time instead of the sandwiches I've fallen on the last couple months.

And of course he loves his bratwurst d:)

On a side note, I found some pretty Christmas-themed wax paper at Daiso to add to my ever-growing bento wax paper collection. Muahahaha!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Chicken in a Pocket

If you've been bentoing for some time, you most probably know about this cool pocket sandwich maker, a cheap but useful implement obtainable from Daiso.

I realised I could use just one slice of bread instead of two (if someday I discover I only have one slice left, haha) to make a dumpling-style pocket.

RM's chicken pocket school recess bento

All you have to do is fold that one slice over on itself (with the filling inside) and press down on the pink part as per normal.

Takoyaki's class outing bento

The little brown patties in Takoyaki's box are Quinoa patties. She doesn't like quinoa on its own but these quinoa patties taste almost like beef patties. I'll share the recipe another day.

What My New Bento Drawer Looks Like

One of the most serendipitous things about our latest move is that I am able to dedicate part of my kitchen to bento supplies. I planned ahead when I was designing my kitchen cabinets (after moving house about once every 3 years in the last 13 years I've more or less learnt what to do and what not to do) and was rewarded with at least two full drawers to house my bento supplies. 

Yes, AT LEAST two full drawers because some stuff is spilling out into nearby shelves due to my still-inefficient organisation. For now, the drawer that houses the bento boxes is neatly packed and a pleasure to behold (to me). Here it is.

Bento boxes organisation

Everything is available at a glance and can be easily pulled out, compared with my previous place where the boxes were stacked on a shelf and I had to remove the top ones to access the lower ones. And don't get me started on the boxes at the back! Those I barely touched because they were so hard to reach.

I'm thinking this drawer can still be further organised with the strategic placing of some drawer dividers but that will have to wait as I still have junk around the house to declutter and unpack. I also intend to give some of these boxes away as I doubt I will ever use them again, due to their shape or size.

The drawer above this one houses my bento tools and other supplies. It's not done yet so I haven't taken a pic but I hope to soon, after I find a couple of baskets to fit the designated space.

Viva la Bento!

Penitant Thursday - Pressed Maki

To make up to Roast Meat for the simple stuff yesterday, I tried something new. It was supposed to be pressed sushi (oshizushi), but I was too lazy to get the sushi vinegar out, so it just became pressed maki. Whatever you wanna call it.

Here's my new toy - a pressed sushi maker.

And here's the final result.

Note to self - do not use big crumbly fillings such as corn kernels. They are hard to cut without falling out of position. Both RM and Mouse had a great time picking up the dropped pieces though d:)

New Animal Onigiri Wrappers

Yesterday was Youth Day, so today is the school holiday in lieu of. Kids are home so I have one more day of rest. I decided to post about some new stuff I purchased last week.

Short of time to decorate your bento but still want it to look good? Not good at moulding onigiris with your hands but don't have a riceball mould? No problem! Just pull out a sheet of animal onigiri wrapper and pack the rice in with your paddle. Simply use the wrapper itself to mould the riceball into a flattened ball, then just fold the edges of the wrapper over, like a present, and tape the edge down with the kawaii, matching sticker included. Ta-da! Bento instantly cutesy-fied!

Animal Onigiri Wraps

Spotted at Daiso - a new design of rice ball wrapper plus a set of plastic food cups which can be used as barans as well.  Although these are all disposable, they're really easy to use. The stock at Daiso is very erratic however, so whenever I come across them, I buy a few more packs to tide me over. And now I've got rather too many packs of onigiri wraps in different designs d:)

To eat the onigiri, simply tear the tag on the animal's face straight down to reveal the yummy onigiri beneath, it's that simple! This onigiri wrapper was the only one I'd allow RM to bring to school, because he was not able to use the other type with the nori sleeve, which requires flipping the riceball or unfolding and refolding the plastic. Recently though, he has learnt how to use both types, so good for him d:)

This type of onigiri wrapper was previously featured in this post and this post.

Stainless Steel Cutters for Bento

I recently got these cute little cutters from Daiso ($2 for a set of 3), thanks to an alert from Maysatch Lin. 

These come in so useful for ham, cheese, bread, hard veggies such as carrots, and more. I have a bigger version of the one in the top right, but the carrots are not always thick enough to use it on. So these are perfect!

New Barans! (Again!)

I am totally enamoured of my bento gear. Bento boxes, picks, and barans. The first two require space to store (I need my picks to be sorted according to type), but barans, oh barans, they are thin, light, crumple-able and crushable (the silicone ones) and so easy to store! Ok, I have a box with dividers for them, but that's because I happen to have an extra box. The simplest way to store barans is to tie them up in a bundle with a silicone band, or rubber band.

I found this great find yesterday at Daiso. There are three of each colour in the pack:

So it's $2 for a dozen lovely, useful, reusable, environmentally friendly, barans! Great deal, doncha think? These are a little softer than the previous batch of barans that I bought last year, also from Daiso. I've just used them today in this bento.

There's another design that's like a semicircle, but I already have something like that. And my friend Nancy said she's got the fruit ones, so there should be one more, which was not available at Rivervale Mall.

Happy shopping!

Tamagoyaki Pans Revisited

I previously shared about my Tamagoyaki Pan from Daiso which had been serving me well once I got the hang of the temperature control. Well, I'm sorry to say that after about one and a half months of shelving it (school holidays, didn't make tamagoyaki), it RUSTED. 

Because the silicone coating is unbelieveably thin, I scraped through it in a few areas, and over time, the exposed iron underneath (I certainly do not believe it's steel) rusted. So much for a $2 pan.

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson but NO! I got another one, the same, from Daiso again... because I need a rectangular pan to make my tamagoyaki!! And I can't go back to round pans.

Thankfully, before I had the chance to let history repeat itself, I found a better one (although still not perfect, as I shall explain later) at Isetan today. And here are the two pans, side by side, for comparison.

Tamagoyaki pans of opposite quality and price

The ASD pan cost $10.90 (offer price from $29.90), which I chose over an Endo one that was $13.90. I'm cheapskate, I admit it. I've already tried it this evening, and the result is below.

Lovely Noritama made in my new pan

I certainly didn't have to fight so hard this time to get it right! My only grouse is, and it's important, that it's standard teflon-coated. However, I only make tamagoyaki for bentos about once in every two weeks, so I'm telling myself that the PFOAs are only very occasional. The only other teflon-coated cookware I have is my muffin pan, which only sees the light of day once in a blue moon.

My dream tamagoyaki pan would be ceramic-coated nonstick, but unfortunately, Japan hasn't really caught up with the nonstick ceramic technology yet (I may just be ignorant, please correct me if so). Meantime, is anyone going to Japan? Please carry back for me a copper tamagoyaki pan d:)

The tamagoyaki in the picture above has been packed into tomorrow's bentos.

New tools plus Nori Puncher Review

Found some cute rice moulds, and got two nori punchers, $2 per packet. I set the punchers to use right away.

These punchers are made of plastic, with a metal spring, and are much bigger than the Daiso ones. What I like best about them is - they're dismantleable (is there such a word?). In the picture below, I've taken them apart for washing, and the various nooks and crannies are waiting to dry.

Now for the actual usage. As long as the nori is crisp, the cutters punch clean and sharp about 9 out of 10 tries. (To make soggy nori crisp again, simply toast a single layer in a toaster oven for about 2-3 min.)

It should be noted that the punchouts are about 1.5 times bigger than the Daiso ones, which is especially obvious in the face punch. But that's no problem for me.

Overall, I give these punchers 5 out of 5 stars.

Some news (not of mine) and a bento sale!

This blog has been kinda quiet since my last official bento post for the year. Well, school's out so there's not much reason to bento since the kids are with me all the time (I cook, they eat, the end). And I've been busy researching on homeschooling my 2yo (very unofficially).

And I haven't been thinking or planning next year's bentos yet (haha! that would be so UNtypical of me, to plan), but I know I need to do so soon, perhaps not so much the actual food or themes, as the timing and workflow, since both Takoyaki and Roast Meat will be in the morning session. I hope to bento BEFORE they go to school on some days, instead of the night before. But this will take some preparing, something I'm loathe to do.

Some good news - Bento guru Maki is feeling better these days and has again begun updating both her bento site JustBento as well the sister site on Jap food (and other Japanese topics, as well as other cuisines), JustHungry. I know you don't know me, Maki, but I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better! Both your blogs have been sources of great inspiration (not to mention bona fide Japanese recipes that I depend so much on).

And Bento&Co, my favourite bento shopping site, is having a promotion! 20% off for orders over USD190 and free shipping to certain areas (unfortunately, sunny Singapore is not one of those places so I can only sigh).

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas, everyone~

Barans on display

Since today is a Saturday, I thought I'd share some of my favourite bento accessories - baran or dividers.

These lovely little things are most commonly found in sushi platters or trays, the little plastic grass pieces that divide up the different types of sushi. The plastic grass types are easily found in Daiso stores everywhere, and most have "antibacterial" labelled on them. Well, they're supposed to help keep your raw fish fresh. For a short time.

But many bento'ers (myself included), prefer to use silicone barans, for a few reasons.

1. They're not plastic

2. They're washable and reusable

3. They're more environmentally friendly since you don't throw them away after one use

4. They're thicker than the plastic ones, which is helpful when you want to fill up a bento box so the food doesn't move around

5. They come in lovely designs

Thanks to an alert from my friend Diane, I got my hands on the latest arrival of new silicone barans.

The one I like best (for now) is the packet in the bottom right of the pic - the silicone grass barans that look just like the plastic ones! Boy, have I been waiting for this! I grabbed the leaf ones (top right) because Takoyaki asked for them. There were also two other packets of flower barans, but we were not interested.

And here's my entire collection of barans. Most of them are from Daiso or another two-dollar shop.

I still have quite a number of reusable plastic ones, which are too cute to throw away. They're also thicker, unlike the plastic grass, which is not made to be reused. My husband has suggested that I use the plastic ones for some art and craft work with the kids (now why didn't I think of that?).

I can't wait to use my new barans!

Egg moulds

I absolutely adore these guys, because they're soooo cute! And of course they're very versatile. Other than moulding hardboiled eggs, my most common use for them is, actually, to mould bread (such as in all these posts)!

The bottom of the mould, as can be seen in the orange bunny, can be used to make cutouts from cheese and ham, and possibly a slice of bread. I haven't tried this function yet though.

The bunny, fish, bear and car moulds are all from the Yude Tama range, and are good for eggs about 55g. Any bigger and the egg white will stick out and result in a rough/broken egg (a failed example is in this post), and smaller eggs will not fill up the mould completely, which means part(s) of the shape go missing, eg. the ears of the bear or the mouth of the fish.

The star and heart moulds are from Daiso, and they're so huge, they need at least 60g eggs to fill up the space! With smaller eggs, the shapes simply do not come through well.

For a step by step photo tutorial on how to mould hardboiled eggs with these babies, hop on over to bento guru Maki's post.

Bear pocket sandwich

Here's a new tool! It's a pocket sandwich maker. It's much smaller than I expected, but it fits just nice onto a normal slice of sandwich bread.

So since I have this new tool, I must use it right? Mr Roast Meat will be having a pocket sandwich made using the super kawaii bear sando maker. It's filled with leftover roast chicken mixed with some Jap mayo (not sweet), and the features are 2 M&Ms, a dollop of Nutella for the nose and ketchup for the mouth. On the side are some salad (kosong, he doesn't want ANY dressing, weird boy), and grapes.

I hope you eat properly Mr Roast Meat!

My Bento&Co order has arrived!

From top left, clockwise: Naseba Naru bento, bear sando, yude tama egg moulds and sando stamp.

Ahhh............