Big Shiny Bento

Back on track today. Finally made it to the grocery store to pick up the things that I wanted for lunch. I have been accused of just putting normal things in my lunch and calling them bento. So I figured I’d go more traditional today.

The bottom has 2 BBQ pork buns, and a cucumber salad garnished with a pickled ginger flower. The buns are frozen and take 90 seconds in the microwave to cook, or 15 minutes of steaming for the traditional method.

The top has salmon, tuna, and cucumber sushi. Its leftovers from supper. In the middle is chicken and mushroom pot stickers. I expect I will be looking for a sauce at lunch, but I just have them plain for now.

Extra points for anyone that tells me where today’s title comes from originally.

[note: My wife poached 2 of the sushi rolls last night. If I’d known I would have cooked more pot stickers cause I was hungry this afternoon after lunch. or maybe a 3rd bun next time… bun bun bun]

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There will be no bento post today! My daughter has been up sick for the last few nights and I’m really tired. So I didn’t make lunch today. I had Cambodian instead - very tasty.

But enough about me, and on to Paul! Thanks for the words Paul! Keep checking back - I will be posting nearly every weekday.

When I don’t post lunches, I’ll be posting tips, tools, bento boxes, or other bento related articles.

Send me pictures and descriptions of your lunches! I’ll post them for everyone to enjoy!

I’ve been wanting to try Tonkatsu Pork ever since I found the proper sauce at the grocery store. Thats a Japanese dish thats a breaded pork cutlet fried and sliced with this really tasty sauce.

Well, this weekend I did it and I’ve been told by my wife to do it again …soon!

The bottom is the tonkatsu pork, less a few strips that got poached.

The top is either cold cut sushi, or breadless sandwiches. Its a piece of cold meat (2 are montreal smoked meat, 1 is ham), spread with cream cheese, and topped with other garnishes. Then its rolled up and held in place by the toothpick, with green onion tree garnishes. For garnishes I used:

- smoked meat, cream cheese, green onion sheets, julienned garlic sandwhich pickles (left)
- ham, cream cheese, green pepper slivers, honey mustard (middle)
- smoked meat, cream cheese, radish julienned (north American radish) (right)
The tonkatsu was gone in a blink, and the rolls were hors d’ouvers after I remembered my wife is taking me out for lunch today.

Next time I’ll warm the cheese so it spreads easier, and chill the rolls before serving as they became a bit squishy and hard to handle.

Yup, today was supposed to be ‘eat out at a restaurant for lunch day’. But with the really cold wind, and a lack of friends free, I decided to pick up a frozen dinner for lunch from the grocery store.

At this point I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m posting a frozen dinner. Well, its bento!

President’s Choice Salmon Terryaki Bento.

Seasoned sticky rice, grilled salmon fillets in terryaki sauce, mixed vegetables and a vegetable gyoza dumpling in sauce.

Overall quite tasty, and well presented as you can see. Also the tray it came in is nice enough to wash and reuse a couple times. I almost forgot to mention that my wife grew up with strawberry milk, so when I found it on the shelf at the grocery store today I had to try it. Yum!
So if you want to try Bento, but don’t have the time to do it yourself… check this out! It even comes with its own chopsticks!
Have a good weekend everyone!

Yesterday’s lunch went really well - it was easy to make (I was slow being new to it though), and it filled me up well.

Today’s lunch has BBQ beef with rice balls & squash flowers, and a couple baby carrots on the bottom, and more rice balls with spaghetti squash flowers and pickle leaves. And we can’t forget the carrots!

The rice balls have okra cut up in them and boiled with the rice for flavour, but its very weak flavour. I did it for the green accent in the white due to today’s orange color theme.

The squash is butternut - a solid squash that you can slice and prepare like a potato but its not as juicy, and cooks faster. These flowers were really good to eat with the pickles (leaves).

At this point I think all my lunches will have carrots, but thats probably a good thing.

Yay, I got the first post!

Wait, this is my site. D’oh!

This is my first lunch made for my big shiny new lunchbox straight from Japan.

Bottom has roast chicken, and mashed potatoes with corn.

Top has baby carrots lining homemade coleslaw and is topped with 2 boiled eggs, halved.

I hope to get fancier once I’ve made a few lunches.