Tag Archives: japanese

Sushi minus rice? Yeah…but falling apart…

I’m more than a bit embarrassed by this post because without rice, sushi doesn’t look as good. As for the taste, it’s normal and to me, it was fine. 🙂

A simple white fish on top of some spinach with some seaweed-soybean flakes mixed in-between. Tasted pretty good but that could be because the flakes were sweetened with rock sugar. It’s the vegetarian version for chicken / pork floss.

I think what I’ll do the next time is not to cut the sushi into small pieces when I make it again without rice but just leave it long. Then all I need to do is eat it.

Easy.

The Red Thermos Set

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The red thermos set arrived last Friday and I can tell you it’s small. Granny was shocked to see it so small and kept saying that it won’t be enough for me. Hee hee!

Well, it’s not too bad, I think. I use the top container for a small serving of salad for breakfast. Then lunch was stir-fried somen noodles with spinach, chai sim, carrots, onions, garlic and some home-made fish balls (no flour in them). Seasoned with 1 teaspoon of Lea & Perrins sauce and 1 teaspoon of Mirin sauce.

Granny said that it smelled nice so looks like my cooking is getting better. Only thing was that there were no taste to it.

: : Bento ~ Playing around with new toys : :

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I had new cutters. 🙂

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The faces were cut using the red cutter in the picture above (left). Bought them from Bentomarket.com. And yes, it’s just as expensive in Japan or US as the pricetag you see there.

One thing I realised about using those cutters is that sometimes the vegetables will crack a bit. The cooked carrots actually did crack a bit although I think it was probably due to it being too thick a slice. Need to cut it smaller. Those smilie faces will go a long way in decorating salads though. Hee hee hee!

: : Bento 4 ~ Smiley Face with Dino Eggs : :

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Making faces with food. Does that count as playing with food?

See the things I do to keep myself occupied away from playing an online game?

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I was ready to stop when one of the quail eggs I did kind of cracked a bit when I started doing the dino eggs. But didn’t look too bad so moved ahead. See the nest of dino eggs amidst the jungle foliage (broccoli) against a starry night?

OK, I’m cracked up. 🙁

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Was trying to do a checkered board but it’s harder than I thought it would be. Haha! The terrine from the other day wasn’t browned enough to give the effect. Anyway, hid it with some of the carrots where I stuff the egg yolk circles in. Waste not, want not, even if it’s itty bitty little scraps of food.

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Mackerel poached with 1/2 teaspoon of tomyam paste and water and some garlic. Then made the smiley face. The moustache was leftover chai sim in the fridge.

The fish is sitting on a bed of cucumbers. I need to beef up my intake of vegetables and I still got the feeling it wasn’t quite enough.

Haven’t quite mastered the way of the artist but I can’t do much atm since I’m going to be away soon. So can’t stock up on any food else Granny nags me for buying too much and poor her has to eat it. Hee hee!

: : Bento #3 ~ Getting slightly easier but harder too : :

3rd bento box is done but some technical problems has arisen.

-Wilthering seaweed.
-Yolk in quail’s egg has settled on the bottom. Haha!
-Wasn’t easy to cut out the shapes in the quail. Haha!
-Make sure that nori sheets are oil free!
-Use something to completely level the noodles! It’s not flat enough
-Get some cherry tomatoes or something that is red to give it the red color.
-Don’t be lazy to cut cucumbers to fill in.
-Get a smaller food container.
-DON’T USE TOO MUCH HAM!!

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Red rice noodles stir-fried with long beans, yellow capsicum and onions. Seasoned with 2 teaspoon of Mirin and 1 teaspoon of Lea & Perrin’s Worcester sauce. Surprisingly, the veggies didn’t mix too well, or the noodles were perhaps a bit too long. Anyway, separated out the veggie into a smaller corner where I covered them with some cut-out shapes of ham and carrots.

The quail eggs were interesting to cut. The danger was that too much pressure and the egg may just burst. Also, I found that the egg yolk have all sunk to the bottom because the eggs were propped upright.

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This was neat to do. I cut the stars in the egg and stuffed in some star-shaped carrots. Used the same mould so it stuck together well. Haha! The idea came from this Japanese Bento Blogger. She’s amazing.

I also wrapped around sheets of nori seaweed around the eggs since these were leftovers from the flower cutting. It left a very nice color combination. Better than I thought.

Didn’t fill up the entire container because I thought it might have been too much eggs by then.

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The stir-fried veggie is underneath. Yes, ham. Ham. HAM!!! Very very salty and fatty. 🙁

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A garden full of flowers. Tried to make the green lawn but there’s more to bento making then what I had expected. Need to find a way to make the noodles more flat. It was too uneven so the flowers weren’t completely flat. Probably better to use rice.

Ok, now all I need to do in the future is think how to avoid the usage of ham. Also, to cook fish or meat for lunchbox. Been lazy the past few weeks so it’s either egg or beans for the protein source. Else, I’ll eat only a small protein portion during dinner and put the other half into my lunchbox.