Which bento do you prefer? Japanese bento with rice, or Italian bento with pasta?
29/May
Pork shabu-shabu salad, Nori seaweed omelet, Stir-fried potato & spinach, Cherry tomato, Rice with furikake sprinkle. Banana & grapes for dessert
30/May
Macaroni with broccoli & tuna, Steamed pumpkin tossed with chicken soboro, Cherry tomato. Apple mousse & banana for dessert
Unlike my “tenuki” bento the other day, I put some more effort in my daily bento making in the following days, using mostly freshly prepared ingredients.
The downside of this was an extremely short breakfast for me for both mornings, gulping coffee and toast standing up still in my pyjamas, while my husband & daughter were having their breakfast calmly and gracefully at the dining table, fully dressed and all…
25/May/17
Menu: Boiled chicken fillet flakes tossed with sautéed spinach, Steamed pumpkin, Broccoli omelet, Sliced cucumber salad, Rice with steamed carrot. Grapes for dessert
26/May/17
Menu: Simmered sword fish, Stirfried potato, spinach & bacon, Boiled okra, Cucumber sticks, Cherry tomatoes. Apple mousse & banana for dessert
The literal meaning of Japanese word “tenuki” is pulling your hands out (te = hand, nuki = pulling out). It means being lazy or cutting corners. A great expression for my daughter’s bento today.
There are times when you just don’t feel like doing anything. It was one of those days for me, and I fixed up this bento in haste with only the leftovers in the fridge and some stocked up food in the freezer.
Menu: Roasted sweet potato with chicken soboro, Steamed broccoli, Baba hamu kyuri, Jako (dried baby sardine) & wakame sprinkle mixed in rice
Grapes & banana for dessert
My daughter did not complain 🙂
Today’s lunch was farfalle pasta with the pork & radicchio ragu which was the leftover from the dinner the evening before. I improvised the recipe using the generous amount of pork slices we received from our dear friends, a lovely family who live next door with whom we became friends through our daughter’s school. They apparently received a huge amount of pork as gift (quite common in Japan to send food as gift), and they kindly shared some with us.
Apart from the pork, there was some leftover radicchio I used for salad the previous day and some cherry tomatoes in the fridge. The three ingredients reminded me of this simple yet highly tasty radicchio risotto I once ate in a small Italian city of Marostica, possibly more than ten years ago. It was the first time for me to eat cooked radicchio – it was delicious with some bitterness and hint of buttery & nutty flavour. And I remember the colours – this dark shades of red sauce on my plate, contrasting beautifully with the white of grated parmiggiano, and opaque steam coming out of the freshly cooked risotto… a divine dish.
The taste came out quite differently for my sauce however, because I used a lot more pork than I can remember from the risotto I had eaten years ago. That’s why I served it with pasta rather than rice, since I thought the meaty flavoring was a bit too heavy for risotto. Nevertheless it turned around to be great ragu, and moreover I enjoyed trying to replicate the dish I had tasted years ago on my own, this time for my dearest family.
My daughter loves fish, and I love that she does. But every time she eats her bento with fish, she comes home with fishy smelling uniform. I wish fish doesn’t smell so much, but I guess that’s not quite possible…
Menu: Grilled Spanish mackerel in saikyo-miso, Leftover salad (cucumber, daikon radish & radicchio), Plain omelet, Boiled asparagus, Goma-konbu on rice
Apple & strawberries for dessert
Today our daughter’s school holds an “Open Day” where parents are invited to the classroom to observe how their children spend their time. It’s only for an hour, but this is followed by an unavoidable PTA meeting over lunch. It is a public school, so no fancy restaurant nor catering for this type of event (with occasional exception), and we are asked to bring our own lunch and eat it along with other parents on tiny kids’ tables and chairs in a meeting room.
So this morning, I packed bento for 2.
Menu: Tori-don (stir-fried chicken on rice), Coleslaw salad, Spinach & tofu omelet, Steamed broad beans, Cherry tomato
Orange & banana for dessert
For our little munchkin 
Mine
For my daughter’s dinner the evening before, I cooked macaroni in tomato sauce with sea bream. She loves pasta, so I cooked bigger portion which she couldn’t finish.
Making the most of it, I fixed macaroni salad with the leftover macaroni. Usually in Japan, macaroni salad is made with mayonnaise, but since non of us really like mayonnaise in our household I just seasoned it with olive oil, salt & pepper. Healthier anyways.
When I packed bento this morning, I noticed there may be too much carbohydrates in the container. It’s quite common in this country to eat multiple carbos in the same meal (Japanese are carbo lovers), and my daughter most likely will develop her culinary preference in that direction. Whether it’s a good thing or not, the bento box came home empty.
Menu: Macaroni salad, Grilled salmon & wakame seaweed sprinkle mixed in rice, Boiled egg, Boiled green beans
Apple bunnies for dessert
Menu: Kajiki sword fish nimono, Boiled green beans, Sliced cucumber salad, Cherry tomato, Rice with scrambled egg on top
After having a super busy weekend participating in a “kimono” presentation show with my daughter this past Sunday, I was looking forward to going back to our normal routine and having a good, fresh kickstart of a week. But the life usually doesn’t turn around the way you plan – our daughter woke up super grumpy, presumably because of fatigue and hunger, and it so happens that it’s very gloomy outside with thick layers of grey crowds this morning.
We’ll never mind, I’ll treat myself another cup of coffee before starting to work today.
Have a good week!
Every morning I tried to come up with a bento that is different both in appearance and taste from the previous day, in order for our ever growing girl to enjoy a variety as well as a daily small surprise of opening this treasure-box like bento container. Despite my effort however, the bentos yesterday and today look quite alike, which I noticed after looking at their pictures.
Grilled fish bento on 11/May/17
Chicken soboro bento on 12/May/17)
Tastewise they are different, but because of the combination of four colours (brown, bright orange yellow, bright red and bright green) they both look pretty much the same… Next time I’ll omit the bright red and see what happens.
There was a school picnic at our daughter’s kindergarten with their mummies, daddies and/or caretakers. We went to the Yoyogi Park, right next to the beautiful Meiji Shrine in the heart of central Tokyo.
I usually make Onigiri rice balls for this type of occasion, but this time made some sandwiches for a change.
One with egg salad, another with the Dutch Appelstroop (Apple syrup) with Dutch Gouda cheese, and one with strawberry jam.
SMALL TOKYO KITCHEN 