Tag Archives: bento

Kindergarten bento – pork roll (10/Jun/16)

10/06/2016

Menu: pork roll with sliced carrots and scallion (negi), boiled potato & spinach salad, edamame, goma-shio (black sesame & salt) & yukari (seasoned Japanese shiso herb) on rice

Grapes for dessert

 

Today’s main course, pork roll, is called “niku (meat) maki (roll)” in Japanese. 

Very simple: prepare pork slices (sliced like carpaccio meat), thinly sliced carrots and scallion (negi) or any other sliced vegetable of your choice. Roll the veggies with a pork slice, and fry it in a frying pan. 
  
You can use olive oil to fry, pour white wine once the meat is golden brown for extra flavour, put the lid on, and once the meat is cooked add salt & pepper to taste. 

Alternatively, replace olive oil with vegetable oil, and white wine with sake. Once the meat is cooked add 1 tea spoon of soysauce and 2 tea spoons of mirin and toss the rolls to mix with the sauce.

Once cooked, cut the rolls in half for beautiful presentation.

Kindergarten bento – goma konbu & tarako (6/Jun/16)

07/06/2016

Menu: goma konbu (marinated kelp with sesame) on rice, tarako (salted roe of Alaskan pollock) in between two layers of rice, chicken tofu pâtés, green beans with sesame sauce, pumpkin egg salad, broccoli and cherry tomato

Japanese cherries for dessert  

2 new ingredients for our little girl’s kindergarten bento today; goma konbu (marinated kelp with sesame) and tarako (salted roe of Alaskan pollock).

goma konbu is marinated kelp (konbu) with sesame (goma) seeds, usually seasoned with soysauce based marinade. It tastes salty but sweet, kind of similar to teriyaki. I didn’t cook it, actually have never made one before, as it can be easily found in any supermarket. It is one of the most common ingredients for packed lunches in Japan, which always comes with rice. Similar to furikake, in Japan we say it is a “friendly  match” with plain, unseasoned rice. The reaction from our daughter for this attempt? Two thumbs up!

The other new ingredient I put in our daughter’s kindergarten lunch for the first time is so-called tarako, salted pinkish roe of Alaskan  pollock. The name “tarako” comes from the fish’s Japanese name, “suketou tara“, and “ko“, meaning children. It’s super fishy and salty but incredibly tasty, kind of the way Italian bottarga or caviar is. Tarako is however amazingly accessible compared to those western delicacy, and is eaten at any Japanese household on a regular basis. Its saltiness goes very well with rice, and is a popular ingredient for onigiri. For the bento I sneaked tarako in between two layers of rice, thinking it’d be too fishy if its exposed. According to our girl’s class teacher, Miss N, our daughter hurriedly closed her bento box lid when Miss N. walked past that day, but when she was asked she reluctantly admitted she couldn’t finish the rice because of the “pink thingy” in the rice. When I picked her up afterwards she very politely asked me to not put the pink thingy in the bento anymore… because it was yucky…. Hmmmm….ok… I’ll try sneaking it in some other time. It is an acquired taste, and I believe it’ll take a while for her to get used to this… 

Kindergarten bento – macaroni bolognese (31/May/16)

01/06/2016

Menu: macaroni bolognese, grated parmiggiano leggiano, boiled egg,  broccoli & green beans

Melon for dessert

It’s not common to put pasta in our packed lunches here in Japan, but I did it anyway upon our daughter’s request. 

I thought the grated cheese on the side was a great idea: our little girl can sprinkle it over the pasta at the time she eats so that the cheese remains fresh – but according to her teacher she spilled all the cheese on the table and her t-shirt, leaving a huge mess…😱

Kindergarten bento – furikake (30/May/16)

31/05/2016

Menu: furikake sprinkle on rice,  grilled cod & salmon, green bean & ham omelet, boiled broccoli and cherry tomato

American cherries & banana for dessert 

Do you know this Japanese magical sprinkle called furikake? It literally means “sprinkle” in Japanese and is made of flavored dried fish flakes, nori seaweed, dried egg flakes, etc. Usually furikake is industrially made and can be purchased at any supermarket here in Japan. We sprinkle it over freshly cooked rice when there is not much other food to eat your rice with. It’s just some fish flakes you may think, but it always works wonders with children. Our girl was no exception, who loved every bit of it with great pleasure.

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.