All posts by Small Tokyo Kitchen

A Japanese Tokyoite loving food, design, culture and writing

Kindergarten bento – octopus sausage (23/May/16)

25/05/2016

Menu: octopus sausage, grilled salmon, steamed broccoli, omelet with parsley (from our balcony😉), cherry tomatoes and rice 

Cherries for dessert

 
Sausage is one of the most common food for packed lunches in Japan. We put two incisions in a cross at one side of a sausage and lightly fry it, and that makes cute, octopus lookalike legs. Easy but nice trick in a bento for the little ones.

The star shaped carrot for an additional colour for an otherwise a little dull bento on a Monday morning.

Kindergarten bento – chicken spring rolls (19/May/16)

20/05/2016

Menu: chicken spring roll, wakana rice with scramble egg, boiled broad beans, steamed pumpkin, cherry tomato

Kiwi fruits for dessert

 

The evening before, I took my first ever attempt to make spring rolls. Against my wishes, I usually avoid deep frying for two reasons. One is the greasy smell (my kitchen is not separated from the living room and is located right next to the main bedroom which sliding doors are always open for spatial purposes – as per strict instructions from my architect husband). The other reason is of course the high calories; it’s always shocking how much oil is involved in making something so addictively tasty. 

But with my recipes running out for my daughter’s daily packed lunch, I couldn’t help but step into an unfamiliar yet exciting territory: the world of deep fried food. Thinking about all the possibilities opening up, it thrills me. My mom makes delicious tempura, and it’s about time that I acquire her skill. Oh never forget, potato and meat crocket…reminds me of my childhood when I used to buy a fresh and super hot one at a butcher on my way back from school and ate it as I walked home. It was great snack… I preferred that to icecream. Aji-fry (deep fried yellowtail fish), and tonkatsu (Japanese style pork schnitzel) with sweet Japanese Wooster sauce… Ah picturing them in my mind makes my mouth water. 

Hmmmm, I really need to think about the ways to tackle grease in our tiny kitchen and apartment so to speak…

Anyway back to my first spring rolls. I put chicken mince (mixed with grated ginger, soysauce, sake, mirin, and leftover egg white), sliced cabbage, cheese, and shiso leaves in the spring roll sheets and deep fried them. Came out better than I expected, and most importantly, our little big girl loved and eat them all!

  
(Took picture from a different angle…)

Kindergarten bento – “tori-don” chicken donburi (18/May/16)

19/05/2016

Menu: “tori-don” chicken donburi, steamed pumpkin & broccoli, cherry tomato, cucumber & boiled egg salad

Jelly for dessert  

A popular “niku don” variation 

“tori-don” chicken donburi recipe (the chicken part)

Ingredients:

– 150g chicken thigh (or breast or fillet), cut into bite size pieces

– 1 tea spoon of vegetable oil

– 1tbsp of sake (or white wine)

– 1 tbsp of soy sauce

– 1 1/2 tbsp of mirin (or 1 tbsp of honey)

– if you like to make it sweeter, add a sprinkle of sugar

Directions:

1. In a frying pan, pour in oil and stir fry the chicken until golden in medium heat 

2. Add sake, stir fry a bit until sake evaporates 

3. Add soysauce and mirin, stir fry further until the sauce thickens (2 min or so). in medium-low heat so that the sauce won’t get burnt

4. If desired, add sugar and mix well

That’s it! Super easy, and no need for marinating the meat in advance. Just place the chicken on top of freshly cooked rice and sprinkle some nori seaweed before serving. 

Kindergarten bento – niku jaga (16/May/16)

17/05/2016

Menu: “niku jaga” stewed potato & meat, shirasu (baby sardine) mixed with rice, omelet, cherry tomato & green bean salad

Grapes for dessert

  
Niku (meat) jaga (short for jagaimo, which is potato in Japanese). We eat this as side dish along with rice. Yes, most of the time we consider potatoes as vegetable. 
Niku jaga recipe:

Ingredients 

– Potatoes (15 small ones / 3 – 4 large ones), cut into bite size pieces

– 1 medium size carrot, cut into bite size pieces

– 1/2 medium sized onion, thinly sliced

– 150g of meat (I like either chicken thigh or pork slices), again cut into bite size pieces

– 1 tbsp vegetable oil 

– 1 tbsp sake (or white wine)

– dashi broth, 100 – 150ml or so

– 2 – 3 tbsp of soy sauce

– 1 tbsp of sugar (I like using beet sugar / 甜菜糖)

– 1 tbsp of mirin (or honey, but 1/2 tbsp)

Directions:

1. In a medium sized pan, pour in oil and stir-fry onion until golden

2. Add carrots and stir fry further

3. Add meat and stir fry until meat turns brown

4. Add sake, stir fry until sake evaporates (this is to give flavour as well as to get rid of the fleshy smell of the meat)

5. Add potato, stir fry quickly (just so the potatoes get mixed with other ingredients)

6. Add broth to barely cover the vegetables (in Japanese, we say “hita hita“). It’s better if the top of the veggies are poking out of the broth

7. Put the lid on (I usually use aluminum foil cut out the same size as the diameter of the pan and directly and gently place it on top of the ingredients – this is called “otoshi-buta“, fallen lid.

8. Bring it to boil, and once boiled lower the heat to low, simmer it until all the ingredients are soft (try by sticking a tooth pick in one of the carrots or potatoes)

9. Once soft, add soy sauce, sugar add mirin. 

10. Bring it to gentle boil, and turn off the heat. Leave it for 10 min or so, so that the sauce is absorbed into the ingredients

Kindergarten bento for a school picnic – salmon onigiri (13/May/16)

16/05/2016

It helps me a lot to write the menu the night before on the blackboard so I’m prepared in the morning   

Of course I prepared most of the dishes in advance the evening before, because I’m not a morning person and cannot wake up too early. The rice is cooked with the timer on the rice cooker. 

Wakana onigiri didn’t happen as I ran out of time😓

Extra nori seaweed for her, as she loves it and very healthy

Apple for dessert

 

Kindergarten bento – chicken mince variation (12/May/16)

16/05/2016

Pardon my handwriting… 

Another soboro, chicken mince variation mixed with freshly cooked rice, chopped boiled spinach and sesame

   
New bento box for our big girl’s kindergarten. Kindergarten specifically asked to prepare an aluminum bento box for some reason. I guess I will find out why in due course

 

Kimono – truth unfolded (2)

13/05/2016

In Japan today, I regrettably admit that kimono is not worn on a daily basis any more. Kimono has become one of Japan’s cultural symbols and admired by many, but unfortunately it is not included in a part of our normal routine.

Having said that, there are a few special occasions of the year when people do make an effort to put them on, and the beginning of April is one of them, for the entrance ceremony of their child/ren’s school.

Our little one started her kindergarten this April, and there was, as expected, the entrance ceremony held for the adorable little new comers. In the morning of the ceremony, a bright sunny spring day, our daughter proudly put on her brand new uniform with the matching hat and backpack, and hit the road for the new phase of her life to commence. All of a sudden she looked so grown, making it hard for us to believe she was a tiny baby only a couple of years ago.

It was a perfect excuse for me to wear my spring green kimono, with a gorgeous pastel phenix pattern obi handed down from my mum. The ceremony was to start at 10:00AM sharp, and based on my numerous practices with my kimono teacher, I timed it and decided to wake up at 6:30AM. The first thing to do is to put my make up on and my hair up before I start touching the valuable kimono (actually it’s a must, to do these preparations in advance, because we hardly ever “wash” this type of kimono/obi. It’s made of silk, and the contact with any liquid could ruin the fabric. If it gets dirty for whatever reason, we seek professional help, which of course comes with a bill). I was planning to leave our sleeping beauty in bed as long as possible in order to secure ample time to put kimono on, after grabbing a quick bite to eat for breakfast… But don’t things always turn out to be different from what you expected? As ironic as life is, only five minutes after I woke up I heard the click of our daughter’s bedroom door, only to find this cute little exciting face peeking out, already super active, and claiming determinedly, “Hungry!!!” So still in our pj’s and with my unwashed face and messy hair, we had breakfast, along with a grumpy sleepy Papa.

OK, just a small change in the plan, I can still manage it, I thought. So I hurriedly finished eating and excused myself in the bathroom to fix up my face and hair, and finally was about to move onto dressing up in kimono. But don’t things always go wrong at the very best timing? By the time I was done with my makeup and hair, my husband locked himself up in the shower to beauty himself up for also his big day, while placing our girl in front of her favorite TV show (Peppa Pig). Still fine, OK, she can keep herself busy with Peppa and her friends, and I can focus on the long process of wearing the kimono… When our little one watches Peppa Pig, she can easily stay in front of the telly for an hour. Exactly the time I would like to have to put everything on carefully, starting from underwear (hadajuban), undergarment (nagajuban), kimono, and finally to obi belt. Around the time I started working on the kimono bit, only a few Peppa Pig episodes later, our curious munchkin skilfully turned the TV off with the large remote in her two little hands with clumsy fingers, came up to where I was, stating she wanted to offer some help. Oh dear……. a sense of panic ran through my head. I really need to concentrate on straightening all the creases, putting the length right, tightening the strings so that the kimono wouldn’t fall apart during the ceremony, and all the other complicated steps I have to follow to tie my obi. I don’t have time to pay attention to her right now, oh no oh no oh no (started sweating under my armpits by then)… I looked back to check the clock, and the time was ticking. I asked her nicely to leave me alone and go back to her Peppa, but no, she wanted to help Mama. Really? Today of all days? I once again checked the clock with the side of my eyes. Tick tack, tick tack, tick tack… I was beginning to get more and more agitated, and to my dismay, I finally raised my voice and told her to go away… go away… to my daughter, who was willing to offer me some help… The worst thing a mother could do… And her reaction was, rightfully, a HUGE tantrum.

By the time this happened my husband came out of the shower smelling clean and fresh with a hint of his aftershave, steam coming up from his shoulders. Looking at him like that (he looked so satisfied and content), I couldn’t help but yell at him asking why he left her alone with me when I needed him to watch her the most. He said he was watching her while I was in the bathroom doing my face and hair (dah)… but sensing my urgency and devastation, he tried to calm me down and apologised for his shortcomings. Our little girl was still crying her head out, my husband looked at a loss not knowing what he could or should do in a situation like this. There was still half and hour left, and for a second I thought I could make it if I hurried up, but I decided to switch to Plan B – a plain but elegant dark blue dress (and it takes a minute to wear it). Looking at both of them like that, I finally realised how selfish I had been in that morning, focusing so much only on myself and kimono. I was so looking forward to wearing it on our little one’s special day, but at the same time I was almost ruining it.

So right on time at 9:30AM, we left our apartment in our coincidentally matching outfits (blue shorts, blue dress, blue suits) and started walking to our girl’s new kindergarten. Despite her earlier tantrum she looked delighted and enthusiastic, and was enjoying every minute of the walk to her new school with her Papa and Mama. The sun was shining, the sky was clear and blue, and our neighbours and other pedestrians greeted us, everyone with a smile. Our daughter was beaming with pride in her new slightly oversized uniform. At the kindergarten, all the proud parents were taking pictures of their child, all dressed up nicely and moderately. No kimono in sight, which made me think it might have been a good thing that I wasn’t in kimono that day, because in Japan the conformity is greatly appreciated. Not that I don’t value individuality and uniqueness, but the ceremony was, after all, for the children, not for me. It was a perfect day, if you didn’t think about what had happened earlier that morning in our household.

Kimono is beautiful. I have fallen in love with its glamour and gracefulness and am determined to learn more so that I can pass my knowledge to the next generation. However, I also learnt the downside of it, well I learnt it the hard way. Behind the scenes it requires a great deal of attention, time, effort, concentration and peace of mind. I failed on the latter two this time. You need to have a good balance of these elements; otherwise it would end up like what happened that day.  After coming home from the charming ceremony, I attempted to put the kimono on once again while letting our daughter help me. This time, I was relaxed and focused, and finished the entire process within half an hour or so. Our daughter, also a mini kimono admirer, marvelled how beautiful I looked. And this time, I asked her to offer me one extra help. Our little big girl took pictures of me, standing up high on her big girl’s step.

Photo by M. H. K.