Red is the color July 26, 2007

Yes, this is the long-overdue update which I have been putting off for the past month or so. Hehe… I’ve been lazy, I know. Anyway, my current dilemma is that my camera has broken down and I am yet to get a replacement. This, of course, translates to a lot of made bentos and other food things which I couldn’t document. The only good part is that I somehow managed to get several last few shots of stuff before my camera completely broke down, so I’m not completely devoid of material. Yet. ^_^;;

In any case, I just wanted to post pics of my latest bento box. I found it while my boyfriend and I were browsing one of the many garage sales which surround the building that we live in. It was stuffed under a thick carpet, beside a triangular stainless steel teapot, and on top of a stack of vinyls.

It DOES look quite similar to that other red bento set that I have, except that this one has two layers and is square. This one also doesn’t have a carrier of its own, but I use a piece of purple rope to secure the layers together, and I have to admit that it’s effective and it looks great, too.

Hehe… I can’t help it. I have such a weakness for boxes of this type, and if I only had more space here at our apartment, maybe I’d even consider actively going out to get more of these things. I consider it a good buy, though, since it’s still dirt-cheap, and I do love making a lot of food that I can bring to my parents’ or a friend’s place. Plus, I can always use it as an accessory or trinket box in case I feel that I don’t want to use it for food anymore (though I highly doubt that).

One for the road! Pancit and tamagoyaki bento! May 23, 2007

Hehe… I’m off to a long-overdue vacation tomorrow morning, and I won’t be back until the evening of the 27th, so I figured that I’d make one post before I leave for the wonderful beaches of Puerto Galera. Hehehe… (I know, I’ve been mentioning it all over the place, over on my main blog. I’m really excited about the trip. )

Anyway, here’s something that’s pretty simple.

- Instant pancit canton, sprinkled with plum-flavored furikake (just for an extra kick)
- Tamagoyaki slices (it’s that brown because I added a bit more soy sauce than what most cookbooks would recommend. )
- tomato slices to sort of cancel out the saltiness of the pancit and the tamagoyaki.

Onigiri experiments May 7, 2007

(Just as a warning, please remeber that K’s bento posts are always/often horribly backlogged. So, please forgive me for the fact that the post ahead is about something that I made some time last year… T_T)

Alright, with that out of the way, here we go with the actual post!

Anyway, last year, I bought a couple of onigiri molds which I immediately decided to experiment with. Of course, the first few batches were either too loose, too wobbly or was a weird blob shape, but I think that I finally managed to get it under control after a while. I was also rather poor at that time (I still am, I think), so instead of using furikake and the like, I had to make do with whatever I had at home which were just things that can be bought at any old, plain grocery.

Anyhoo… the onigiris are:

- (the brown one) tonkatsu sauce, plus basil, and a hotdog center (my boyfriend doesn’t like umeboshi much… ^_^;;;)
- (The pink one) shredded umeboshi, some mayonnaise, a hotdog center
- (star, kuma and heart-shaped) just a tiny bit of salt, mayonnaise and cheese.

The rest of the bento box contains an extra umeboshi for me, chocolate wafer biscuits, and some sweet/sour star candy.

For the love of egg molds. Bento for 2! April 28, 2007

Alright, this next bento has no rice in it because on the day that I made this, my boyfriend and I agreed that we’ll meet in the office for lunch and he’ll take care of the rice as long as I took care of the viands. So, for that day, I made a tonkatsu sauce stir-fry with beans and mushrooms, a helping of bagnit and a pair of bunny hard-boiled eggs. The star candy was, of course, dessert.

Anyhoo, one of the things that I learned about making this bento was that the candy stars may not have been in such a good spot. I only figured this out because in the 15-minute trip to the office, the wax paper holding the candies was starting to get moist from the tiny bit of sauce in the stir-fry. If I had to let the bento sit for longer than that, and if my boyfriend and I didn’t end up eating immediately when I got to the office… well, I would have ended up with a weirdly-colored-splotched bunny egg, or worse, tonkatsu flavored candy. Bleh. O_O;;;

Anyway, lesson learned. At least the photos don’t show that I’ve botched it. XD XD

The bento lid was shut with the help of a couple of bands from my other bento boxes, and it was carried to the office in a furoshiki. ^_^;;

(Yes, I couldn’t decide on which shot was better, as they’re both kinda dark. Again.)

K’s food haunts #4: Hong Tai Yang Shabu-shabu/hotpot Restaurant April 23, 2007

Last April 20, I and some officemates decided to drop by this particular hotpot restaurant that Noreen (the girl in the striped shirt in the photos) has been recommending. We’ve been planning the trip for quite a while now, and even though some people didn’t make it, the trip pushed through, and we are now ever so thankful that it did. Why? Because Hong Tai Yang is da bomb. Lolz.

Anyhoo, they have this special where they drop the price of the hotpot buffet from 490 pesos to 360 from 11:30 am to 2pm. We got there a bit too early, so we literally had to camp out in front of the restaurant for about an hour, waiting for it to open. Thankfully, Noreen, a Chinese citizen, spoke with the Chinese manager/owner and we were allowed to wait inside the restaurant, and away from the direct heat of the noon, Philippine sun.

So, because of that, we ended up being seated at a prime table (a.k.a., right beside the buffet table), plus we were allowed to start eating at 11am instead of 11:30. So yeah, we had a head start, and we ate heartily since we were, you know… STARVING. Oh, and we ate DOUBLY heartily because Enrico (guy in the gray shirt) paid for our drinks and half of our food since he wanted to celebrate his upcoming college graduation.

As we ate, we were completely overwhelmed with the sheer amount of food available. There were so many types of fish, shellfish and meat available, that I couldn’t make up my mind. We didn’t even bother to ask for rice since we were all intent on gorging ourselves with the items from the buffet (though I was intent on stuffing myself with all the yummy shrimp I could eat).

Anyway, enough with the talk. You have to see it to believe it.

Learning new things everyday: Tanuki Udon, etc! April 16, 2007

I’ve been randomly surfing for the past half hour, and I came upon this particular article which discussed certain types of udon. Now, I do know that there are lots of udon types and udon dishes out there, but what piqued my interest the most was the one known as Tanuki Udon. Hehe… and yes, I like the sound of it for obvious reasons, and wouldn’t it be cool if the owner of Tanuki no Bento actually learns how to make Tanuki Udon? Haha!! Anyway, moving on…

Besides being a sort-of-namesake for me, descriptions of the dish also make it sound like it’s pretty easy to make. According to Japan Travel Guide:

The Tanuki Udon mainly consists of deep-fried and sliced fish sausages known as Naruto. These deep fried Narutos are then placed on the boiled Udon with slivers of leek for added color and flavor. Vegetables can also be sliced and placed atop the Udon for a more healthy variety.

 

K’s first attempt at making mashed potatoes… April 15, 2007

Well, here we go. I’m finally getting around to posting old bento pics that I’ve taken so were we go!

As the title suggests, the star of this bento is actually the sorry-looking mashed potatoes. Hehehe… I’ve actually tried making mashed potatoes before, but the VERY first attempt ended up being potato SOUP because I placed too much milk in the whole thing. ^^;;; I’m also loathe with the idea of buying those mix-in-hot-water types of instant mashed potatoes at the grocery so I insist on making my own, stubborn oaf that I am.

Anyway, the bento is composed of tamagoyaki, hotdogs, yet another of K’s vegetable-with-cinammon stirfrys, and then, mashed potatoes with cheese. No gravy. Just quickmelt cheese.

The container below shows servings for two people. My boyfriend and I ate from the same bento that day since I got to join him for lunch. ^_^

Reference material! January 11, 2007

I want these, but they’re expensive… T_T 

I particularly want the sushi book because it’s got all these sushi combinations and recipes which I’ve never heard of, like Cream Cheese sushi. HOW CAN I NOT WANT IT??????????

Back from the dead! January 9, 2007

Hehe… back. Moving house and work in general has pretty much kept me from doing a whole bunch of stuff, including making bentos. In any case, I do still have a bunch of unposted photos from previous cooking sessions, so here there are I guess until we manage to buy a new ref and I can start stocking food and cooking again. ^_^

It’s just a plain one:
- salted rice and tomatoes
- tofu and vegetable stir-fry with oyster sauce and cinnamon (the dash of cinnamon powder did the trick)
- flower marshmallows and cheese cubes for dessert

All good for three, as usual. ^^

On tonkatsu sauce, and a curry story January 9, 2007

I just wanted to feature two of my favorite things which can be found in a Japanese grocery. And yes, what you’re seeing in the photo is a box of Golden Curry and a bottle of Bulldog tonkatsu sauce.

Now, both those things are special to me if only because during the times when I was still too shy whenever I entered a J-grocery (well… I was always afraid that I’ll look like another trying-hard baka-gaijin-otaku to the Japanese folks who frequented the same grocery), those were the first two things which I dared to try out. I was afraid because I thought I looked like a baka-gaijin-otaku, because these things are a lot more expensive than the usual stuff I pick up from the grocery, and because I was afraid that I’d waste my hard-earned money on something that tasted awful.

Anyway, I ended up buying it, taking it home, and then ultimately loving the darn things.

Now, my kitchen doesn’t seem to be complete without tonkatsu sauce around (although it doesn’t necessarily have to be the Bulldog brand), in much the same way that it isn’t complete if I had no salt handy. I use it on a lot of things. Besides using it for dip for fried things and some veggies, I’ve discovered that it also makes a tasty substitute for Oyster sauce in some dishes. I’ve also used it as dressing once, and I’ve even used it on pasta and I’ve also made plenty of tonkatsu-flavored onigiri.

The curry, however is a different story.