Tag Archives: ham

Kindergarten bento – Frozen (Tuesday, 25/Sep/18)

25/09/2018

For the past long weekend, we took a short trip to Hong Kong to attend one of our best friend’s’ 50th birthday party. It was a ravishing, spectacular soirée, with more than a hundred people attending to celebrate her special day. All the guests were dressed in their beautiful chic attire including our daughter, with live music and endless flow of champagne and chatter. I wonder when I had a holiday this much fun last, and that made me feel heavy and hesitant for going back to reality.

As cruel as it can be, it was time to go home to my normal humble life. Our flight back to Tokyo got delayed by an hour, which means arriving home even later than what we thought was already late for a school night. And this means no stop over at a grocery store to replenish our empty fridge.

In the car back from the airport, I quickly assessed in my head what was left in our fridge/freezer for our daughter’s bento the next morning. I remembered about the pesto sauce in the freezer I had made a couple of weeks ago, as well as the frozen steamed carrot slices, blueberries and apple mousse. I also remembered the eggs & ham in the fridge hadn’t gone expired yet. And the outcome was a not so bad pasta bento for our little girl.

Kindergarten bento – Sandwiches (Thursday 20/Sep/18)

20/09/2018

As requested by my daughter, I made sandwiches for her bento today.

Coming home, she told me that she had diligently followed my instruction by starting off with savory cheese sandwich, moving on to ham & cucumber, then to peanut butter & jam, and finally finishing it off with Nutella.

She also followed my instruction not to tell anyone she had Nutella in her bento, as sweets are not allowed for the bento time at school. I want to show her that sometimes the rules can be broken and live life a little, so she can learn how to be lenient and flexible in otherwise quite a disciplined environment. So every once in a while, I enjoy sharing this small piece of delicious secret with my little cheeky girl.

Kindergarten bento – How many ingredients comparison (29/May, 30/May, 31/May, 1/Jun,4/Jun, 5/Jun)

20/06/2018

29/May – 11 ingredients

Simmered cod, rice, edamame, egg with corns, spinach in sesame sauce, cucumber, carrot, apple, banana

30/May – 11 ingredients

Fried chicken (with corn flower), green beans, broccoli, cherry tomato, goma konbu (sesame & kelp), rice, furikake sprinkle (counted as one), apple, strawberry

31/May – 12 ingredients

Bread (count as one), ham, cucumber, scrambled egg, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, peanut butter, blueberry jam, green beans, apple mousse, mashed potato, cinnamon

1/Jun – 10 ingredients

Chicken soboro, chopped komstsuna, rice, sesame, tomato omelet, broccoli, cucumber with bonito flakes, watermelon

4/Jun – 11 ingredients

Nikudon (pork slices, sliced cabbage, rice), broccoli, cherry tomato, tofu omelet (tofu, egg, ao-nori (seaweed) powder), cherry tomato, apple, banana

5/Jun – 11 ingredients

Tortillas (counted as one), ham, cucumber, cheese, Dutch appelstroop, strawberry jam, banana with Nutella (secret, as it’s not allowed at her school), boiled egg, broccoli, watermelon

Wow, I am quite consistent, with mostly 11 ingredients used every day.

Kindergarten bento – Sandwich a la Maman (15/Nov/17)

20/11/2017

When I lived in the Italian city of Milan 13 years ago, I shared an apartment with two amazing, beautiful ladies, one from France, and the other one from Sweden. We all attended the same master’s course in a graduate school in Milan, studying fashion & design management. Despite our shortcomings and different backgrounds, we got along very well, and after a while we became almost inseparable.

One day, the three of us took a short trip to Paris to visit the French flatmate V’s family. Three young & crazy women traveling together with a limited budget… Any of you who’s taken a European low cost carrier would understand that their airport terminals are always located in a secluded area outside the city, which requires a long bus ride and a lot of walking/running before/after catching your flight. It was no exception for our Paris trip, and it felt as if we were always on the move in some type of transportation whether it’s a bus or airport shuttle or tram or whatever, but after what felt like a 10 hour journey, we finally managed to arrive V’s home-sweet-home in the Left Bank of beautiful Paris.

The trip was a blast, and we got to spend some quality, heartwarming time with V’s parents. Her mum, Maman, was a great cook, although she never admitted she was, and always told us she was cooking nothing special. Maman always gave us a shy, humble smile at our compliments and excused herself back to her small kitchen.

After spending a few wonderful days in Paris, it was time for us to go back to Milan. Of course, we had to take the same route back, involving a metro ride to the bus stop and a long bus ride to the distant airport. As is always the case when traveling with V, we were running late to catch our bus and hence our airplane, too.

Knowing her daughter very well, V’s sweet Maman prepared sandwiches for the three of us to eat in the bus, because she knew we wouldn’t have time to stop for a proper meal. She made one sandwich with freshly baked baguette from a bakery near by with the leftover pot-au-feu meat from the evening before. The other one was this simple sandwich made with a Pan Viennoise (long soft milk bread) with butter and boiled pink ham. Both of them were so simple but exceptionally tasty. It was the first time for me to eat Pan Viennoise as sandwich, and I can still remember the perfect combination of the milky butter and the salty tasty ham… Mmm, it was absolutely divine.

Now fast-forward to the present time in Tokyo in 2017, I randomly spotted Pan Viennoise sold on the shelf at a nice French bakery in our neighborhood. The next morning I made a sandwich using the Pan Viennoise I bought, of course with boiled ham & butter, just like what Maman made for us 13 years ago, for my little girl’s kindergarten bento. I prepared the sandwich, thinking of V’s dear Maman with a sweet smile as well as my precious memories of my time in Europe.

Menu: Pan Viennoise sandwich (boiled ham & butter/cheese & appelstroop/peanut butter & apricot jam/strawberry jam & butter), Plain omelet, Boiled green beans, Cherry tomato

Banana for dessert

Kindergarten bento – Field trip (6/Oct/17)

06/10/2017


Today I made sandwiches for our daughter, to bring to the school trip to the zoo. 

Unfortunately, the field trip has been postponed due to the forecasted rain… Well, I’ll just have to replicate something similar next week.

The problem is that I’ll have to wake up earlier than usual, maybe by 20 minutes, again next week. I’m not a morning person, so that 20 minutes is a huge difference… And of course it didn’t rain today. They could’ve gone to the zoo!

Anyway… hope our little big girl enjoyed her bento today.

Kindergarten bento – Tortilla rolls (27/Sep/17)

27/09/2017

Following my disastrous sandwich attempt last week, I made tortilla rolls this morning. This time, it was a big success!

I lightly heated the tortillas in the frying pan, but it seems I may have overdone it. The tortillas got a bit hard and didn’t roll smoothly. Next time im sure I’ll do better.

Menu: Tortilla rolls (with cheese & appelstroop, ham & cucumber, and strawberry jam & butter), Mashed pumpkin with chicken soboro, Steamed broccoli, Cherry tomato

Kyoho grapes & banana for dessert

Summer holiday bento – Baba ham kyuri (31/Aug/16)

31/08/2016

Today is the last day of summer holiday at our daughter’s kindergarten  (in Japanese schools, summer holiday usually starts at the end of July and ends at the end of August). I promised her to take her to the jidokan, public play room, in our neighborhood, and she requested to eat our packed lunches there. So here it is, our summer holiday bento.

Menu: Edamame rice, Tomato omelet, Baba ham kyuri 

Japanese pear for dessert

Baba hamu kyuri is just sliced ham (hamu) and cucumber (kyuri), sandwiched as shown in the picture. No seasoning at all. My mum (my daughter’s grandmother and she calls her ‘Baba’) used to make this as kids’ appetizer for my and my sister’s birthday parties. She used blocks of ham and cucumber rather than slices, and put them together with a toothpick, making them a nice, bite sized appetizer. I know it’s nothing special, but it still brings my sweet childhood memory to my mind, and wanted to share it with my little girl. I told this story to her once, and ever since then she started calling it ‘Baba hamu kyuri.”