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This might have been the easiest bento I ever composed for Akim. Stupid-easy, but it’s all things that Akim likes, and it’s sort of cute the way the pita fit in the box.
Stupid-easy bento. Mini-pita, a few spoonsful of hummos, some grape tomatoes, and I think there may have been some cucumber slices below the tomatoes. Pudding and fruit for breakfast or dessert. That's it.
Tags : bento
I’m sure you can tell that I don’t photograph every bento I make, nor do I even photograph only the best ones. That wouldn’t help anyone but my own ego. My goal was to make people see that bento doesn’t have to always be the best or the fanciest. It just has to be a little bit of everything — protein, starch, veggie, fruit, maybe a little treat — and there has to be some effort, not even a lot, at visual appeal.
You recognize mini-apples, eggs, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and green seedless grapes. You probably also recognize the little dipping sauce cup, and you know that there's rice under all of this that you can see. But do you recognize the little beige and golden-brown balls at the top?
The little egg-like balls at the top of the bento in the above picture are from this yellow bag. They're peanuts, wrapped in something kind of crunchy, flavored with various things -- wasabi, seaweed, sesame, and other things I can't identify. They're yummy. Akim loves them.
What, you expected something different? Come on, you know there's going to be some kind of fruit and a Jell-O pudding pack.
I finally got that green bento box carrier. Guest appearances by my stand mixer and my food processor, who are singing backup in this number.
Tags : bento
This is just a very simplistic way of illustrating the fact that just because you’re working with the same ingredients doesn’t mean you have to produce the same exact meal. By the time I’d given Akim this meal, Akim’s desk was The Place To Be around lunchtime in the office. Bento are a real tourist attraction, it seems.
Happy-face rice balls, with carrot and purple cabbage mouths and clove eyes. Blue-dyed eggs. Stir-fried cabbage and carrots.
The following day, I repeated the contents, but not the arrangement.
Rice under egg on the left; stir-fried veggies under egg on the right.
Two days worth of bento, sides (pudding and fruit), and chopsticks. I was efficient this week, preparing two meals at once.
Tags : bento
Snack bento. I can’t remember where we were going, but clearly I knew we’d need a snack while we were there.
Snack bento. Apple slices, a mini cup of peanut butter, and an individually wrapped hand cleaning 'cloth'.
Clearly, both Akim and I needed snacks that day.
Tags : bento
Grape tomatoes, green grapes, a soy sauce packet, and a rice ball that tells Akim how I feel. I believe it was an anniversary of ours that day, but I don't remember if it was first date, or when we finally jumped the broom.
Tags : bento
Nori, by the way, is dried seaweed. It’s possible to find kosher nori, but as with most things, it’s also more expensive. That’s why I don’t buy it very often.
Totoro, I'm told, is the name of the anime character I recreated here. The body is a rice ball surrounded by a sheet of nori. Nori also makes the mouth; the nose is a bit of carrot, and the eyes are slices from a fresh garlic bulb. As usual, there's also an egg, tangerine wedges, and grape tomatoes.
Tags : bento
Sometimes Akim likes a change from rice balls, raw fruit and veggies, and eggs. Voila, Italian bento.
Clockwise from upper left: Banana, grape tomatoes, tiny sauce cup of parmesan cheese, flower made of tangerine wedges, cup of marinara sauce. Lower layer: Spinach fettucini and tomato fettucini.
As ever, Mott's apple sauce and Jell-O pudding. The banana also got there without too much bruising, yay!
What can I say? It's bento #12. It's wrapped.
Tags : bento
We both needed bento this day, and so I made two different kinds, according to our tastes.
I made one bento for myself and one for Akim this day. Akim's is green. Dried fruits, green grapes, grape tomatoes, egg duck, egg chicken, and three brown rice balls with black sesame seeds.
Dried fruits, nuts, red seedless grapes, boiled egg scream with clove eyes, a container of soy sauce. Not visible: lower layer of rice.
Tags : bento
In addition to this picture, I’d also like to offer my recipe for sushi rice. See below.
X stands for the number 10, in Roman numerals. I can't remember which meal I made these rice balls for. Clockwise from upper left: Rice ball rolled in basil; rice ball with sesame seeds; rice ball with curry; rice ball with everything; rice ball with paprika.
SUSHI VINEGAR
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C sea salt
2 C water
Mix in a pot. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat to extremely low, until water has reduced by about 1/3 its total volume. Allow to cool, then pour by funnel into a spray bottle (spritzer).
SUSHI RICE
1 C sushi rice, also called sweet rice or glutenous rice (it is neither sweet nor glutenous; it’s just sticky)
1 C water
1 C water, additional
Wash rice in a strainer until the water runs clear. Rub the grains gently between the fingers. Put the rice into a bowl with 1 C water and let sit for an hour.
Drain in a strainer for 20 minutes.
Put drained rice and 1 C water into a rice maker and turn it on. If you don’t have a rice maker, put rice and 1 C water in a pot, uncovered and WITHOUT SALT, and bring to a gentle boil. Cover, reduce heat to simmer, and walk away for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat. Dump into a shallow dish or bowl. Immediately spritz with sushi vinegar, just a few spritzes, and start folding the rice over onto itself to air it and let out the steam. Keep doing that. You’ll need a total of about 10 to 20 spritzes, depending on the amount that your spritzer delivers. The rice should remain quite sticky. Play around with the ratios.
TO MAKE RICE BALLS
Make sure your rice has cooled sufficiently to handle, but no more than that. It should still be warm. Wet your hands. Scoop up some rice, and make a ball. Yes, that’s it. 
If you want fun shapes or ‘perfect’ shapes, make them with some kind of mold, or try to do it by hand.
For pretty colors, either mix colored herbs or food dyes into your rice in the cooking stage, or roll the balls in prettily colored herbs. I like paprika or beet powder for red, curry for yellow, cilantro or basil or za’atar for green, black sesame seeds for black. I haven’t found a purple that I like; I’d love to hear input.
Tags : bento
This turned out very tasty, Akim told me. I felt good about it.
Clockwise from top: Line of red seedless grapes. Orange wedges. A cherry tomato. Roll of... I can't remember what, but it was wrapped in egg. Teeny soy sauce bottle. Crinkle-cut carrot. Rice ball.
The bento box, chopsticks, and the bandana furoshiki.
Chocolate Jell-O Pudding Snack Pack, Mott's Cinnamon Applesauce.
I actually did order a cloth bag made to carry this particular bento box, but it was out of stock, and shipped a few weeks later than this.
Tags : bento
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Aug.17,2011