Shoyu Butter Potato Bento

Today's bentos feature shoyu butter potato. I love potato!! Love this shoyu butter flavored one in particular, which has come out on my post many times so far though. It's much yummier than you imagine it to be. You just boil potato until tender, then season it with some of shoyu and sugar, a bit of butter. The harmony of these three goes with potato. It's nice that it's good either hot or cold.







These bentos contain a lot of carb! Negi okonomiyaki with okonomi sauce, mayo and pink ginger on it, the shoyu butter potato and shiokoji chicken saute.




Happy Hump/Thursday friends!

Chicken Chop Bento

Today I made chicken chop and scrambled egg with cheese. First I floured and sauteed slices of chicken thigh. Then added some onion slices, tomato juice, tonkatsu sauce, Worcester sauce and shiokoji, and cooked it for a few minutes.







Today's quick okazu! I chopped pulp of an umeboshi into paste. Then tossed boiled-asparagus with the umeboshi paste and a bit of shoyu. Umeboshi paste can be a nice dressing for salad. By tossing with a little umeboshi paste and shoyu, boiled vegetable will turn out a good okazu that goes with rice. Broccoli or cauliflower also works. Also you can simply add umeboshi paste to French dressing. If you have some umeboshi left alone in the fridge why not try it out?

Chicken Tender Karaage Bento

I'm not sure what I should call today's bento. It has nothing featured especially. A lazy unmotivated Monday. At least I stuck BIG photos here haha!







So today's novelty is asparagus stir-fry. I stir fried asparagus with a little butter and seasoned it with salt and tarako (salted cod roe). I think it turned out to be a good bento dish!





I mentioned earlier that I was going to do something fun in honor of my 200th post. I'm now planning on doing three things for it. One: to make a bento video. Two: to make a bento gallery on this blog that everybody can see bentos they made. Three: I'm going to do something else too, but will keep it a secret for now hehe. I hope to actualize all of them before my 300th post LOL.

Chicken Rice Bento

It's Friday today, woohoo! Who's not psyched for it? Today I made chicken rice (which contains chicken, spring onion, green peas, ketchup and tomato puree). The brown rice I cooked yesterday was a bit too firmer as I added less water accidentally than usual. But firm rice works for fried rice. While when I have gooey rice I make zousui (rice cooked in soup) using it. To tell the truth I have trouble cooking rice every now and then haha! Maybe that's because I'm still half asleep when I start to cook rice in the morning.




Happy Yummy Weekend everyone!

Shrimp Patty Bento

Today I made shrimp patties (with ketchup/mayo sauce) for bento. Finely chopped shrimp, and added some beaten egg and flour to it, then sauteed. The rest of these bentos contain Naporitan (ketchup-flavored spaghetti) and ham-wrapped curry potato salad. I just stir-fried sausage slices and leftover boiled spaghetti along with ketchup and a bit of salt. It may be weird but I like combinations of rice and noodles or pasta. And I made curry potato salad, then wrapped it in thin ham slices. It's simple to make but OISHII!

Shiokoji Karaage Bento

Today's bentos contain shiokoji karaage chicken (leftover), bacon-rolled asparagus, tamagoyaki, a mini gratin (store bought) and grapefruit. I bought purple asparagus for the first time. I amazed how it turned normal green after boiling! That was kind of a bummer because I thought it would stay purple　to the last LOL. I think the purple asparagus is a bit stringier than green one. The gratin cup is a frozen food that Yuppi loved as a preschooler. She still loves having it in her bento. By the way, if you use shiokoji as a fried-food seasoning you should watch out while frying because shiokoji get burned easily. My karaage almost got black phew! I recommend low to medium low heat.

Tarako Butter Chahan Bento

Today I made fried rice using tarako (salted cod roe), egg and butter. I like this combo. And sauteed sausages then seasoned them with ketchup, tonkatsu sauce and chili pepper. Asparagus has finally come out in grocery stores. It's the very spring flavor. I boiled it lightly and put on a little mayo.


Today's shots!! I had apple sherbet for dessert. Isn't this cup cute??

Teriyaki Pork Bento

OHAYO, GOOD MORNING! Why am I so unmotivated every Monday morning? I feel like making nothing when I wake up. Though I'm nearly okay once I get out of bed. At such times, domburi (rice topped with some dish) really helps! I made teriyaki pork and crab tamagoyaki this morning.



In the meantime, today we just have a gold ring solar eclipse or partial one! So everyone in Japan is psyched about it! I saw the partial solar eclipse just when I took this picture. This time in our area, we can't see the gold ring, but 18 years later, we can see another gold ring solar eclipse here. Heh 18 years later!? I have no idea what I will be doing at that time.

Porkchop Bento

This one is a bento I made the other day, which contains quick pork chop, pasta salad and a mini cheese omelet. Now fresh spring onions are in season here. They are crisp, juicy and tender, and work well for pork chop, curry, stir-fry, salad, soup and so on. I sauteed slices of pork and a spring onion, then seasoned with ketchup, Worcester sauce and shoyu. Another of my favorite foods in here is pasta salad. Which is made with boiled pasta, corn, ham and cucumber slices, seasoned with mayo, lemon juice and salt.

Happy weekend all!!

Maki-zushi Bento

Today I made makizushi (sushi rolls). I keep some sushi vinegar in the refrigerator so I can make sushi rice fast whenever I want. And this morning I made scrambled egg and sweet salty pork soboro for the makizushi. This one is easy to make. You just put makizushi ingredients in order on plastic wrap then roll it up. I recommend this way because it doesn't call for a sushi mat and you don't need to slice up your rolls. I think the hardest part of making makizushi is slicing it all up. Japanese rice is too sticky to slice neatly. It's fun to gobble down a long makizushi like a banana haha! It would be pretty by tying both ends of the plastic wrap with cute ribbons. By the way you can use plain rice as well instead of sushi rice. In that case, maybe it's supposed to be called *maki-onigiri*? *Onigiri rolls*?? Either one is OK lol. The rest of this bento are sweet sour chicken (leftover) and my last shiokoji shoyu egg. I will make ones again soon.

Om-yakisoba Bento

Today I made om-yakisoba (yakisoba omelet). The rest of these bentos contain daigakuimo (glazed sweet potato), shiokoji syoyu egg wedges, and kiyomi orange wedges for a refreshment. The shiokoji syoyu eggs I made the other day, you want to know what it feels like? It turned out slightly cheese-ish. It's because of the enzyme in shiokoji, I guess. But still so good! By the way, shall I share an idea on making yakisoba for bento? Who asks? Nobody. But I sure believe the idea is too good not to share lol! Well, yakisoba is noodles stir-fried along with meat, veggie and yakisoba sauce. Just-cooked ones are so good, but fine even cold. When I make it for bento I boil yakisoba noodles and other ingredients instead of stir-frying. Then drain them all and mix in seasonings. So you can eat ungreasy and healthier yakisoba this way. Cold greasy food is yuck. However, when I can eat yakisoba right after cooking I prefer a stir-fried one because it is a real yakisoba.

Ebi Mayo Bento

Today I made Ebi-mayo (fried shrimp with sweet mayonnaise sauce). Of course I made it by a pretty simple way.



Ebi-mayo
1) Flour cleaned shrimp, then saute in a frying pan until done.
2) Drain it on a paper towel, then season with mayonnaise, ketchup, a bit of lemon juice and salt.




Plus I made curry flavored kimpira potato this morning. And shoyu eggs last night. This time I added a little shiokoji to the soy sauce I soaked boiled eggs in. Can't wait to taste it!

Ham Egg Salad and Pork Piccata Bento

I made ham egg salad for bento yesterday. It's one of our favorite bento dishes, and soooo simple to make!



Egg salad wrapped in ham
1) Boil some eggs hard and remove the shells.
2) Put the boiled eggs and some mayonnaise in a cup or small bowl, then crush and mix with a fork or knife.
3) Wrap it with very thin ham slices.






For today's bento, I made shiokoji pork piccata, and patatas bravas (spicy tomato sauce potato). The piccata turned out so good that now it's one of my recommendations! And I think piccata and patatas bravas is a nice combination.


Shiokoji pork piccata
1) Season bite-size slices of pork with a little shiokoji or salt.
2) Dredge them in some flour then dunk in beaten egg, and then saute with a little oil in a frying pan.
3) Sprinkle them with a bit of black pepper.





Patatas bravas
1) Boil or fry bite-size potato pieces in salted water until tender then drain.
2) Season it with some tomato puree, tomato ketchup, a bit of oregano and basil and chili pepper.

This is also a good potato dish I like. It's tasty even cold, but if you eat at home, fresh-fried crispy potato with the spicy tomato sauce is the bomb!!

Salmon Chirashi Bento

Today's bentos contain chirashi-zushi. Chirashi zushi means scattered or mixed sushi (usually topped with some ingredients). This time I used salted salmon, cucumber and thin omelet. By the way, when some word is prefixed to the word *sushi* it should be changed into *zushi*. For example, inari-zushi, kaiten-zushi, maki-zushi, and so on. So neither *inari-sushi* nor *maki-sushi* is correct in Japan. But no worries, it doesn't really matter. I seasoned steaming rice with sushi vinegar and a little lemon juice, then mixed the ingredients in it.







I pickled celery with my brown rice shiokoji yesterday. Oh yum! It turned out a good refreshment in the bento. The brown rice I mixed in the shiokoji is totally melted by the enzyme in it. The white tiny flecks are center cores of the rice malt grains.

Shiokoji Chicken Bento

This morning was a real rush. Not that I slept in but had a lot of stuff to do. Managed to prepare bentos. Shiokoji helped me whip up chicken saute. And I made an okonomi omelet using leftover chopped cabbage and green onion that I used for making takoyaki last night. I put on okonomi sauce and katsuobushi (bonito flakes) on the omelet so it turned out an okonomi omelet. The things I cooked this morning were only two. Hubby has a business trip today so I sent him a bento in a disposable container.





Good thing I had bought a kiyomi orange. It helped fill the space! Of course orange is Yuppi's favorite bento dessert. She feels kind of bummed when she doesn't get it.



Since I've been saying *Shiokoji shiokoji*, you might be curious about that. I mentioned shiokoji the other day too. Here is the finished stuff.

Although I keep using it a lot, I still have plenty left. Can you guess why? I multiplied it with brown rice and salt, which is going well so far. Isn't it cool? I think I may be something... clever!? Just joking! As far as I know, nobody has done this yet. Since somebody asked me how to make shiokoji I'm going to post it when I have time. Stay tuned!

Omuraisu Bento and Gundam

I made omrice (omuraisu). I stir-fried chopped chicken thigh and onion, and seasoned with tomato puree, ketchup, salt and black pepper. Then stirred in hot rice, then wrapped it in a thin omelet. You may need a bit of the hang to put omrice neatly into a bento box. Look, this one is wrinkled haha!



This bento bako just looks like the one above, but not the same one. It's also one of the boxes I got in Sapporo. I fell in love with it at a glance because the size was perfect for girls like Yuppi, and the lid! So cute! It's hard to see on this picture though.



My Sapporo trip photos continue. Gundam festa happened to be held at Sapporo Factory when we went there. I'm not a big fan but I like these photos. Hope you also enjoy them.







Sapporo Factory is a huge complex composed of a shopping mall, hotel and restaurants, built on the site of an old brewery that opened back in 1876. This brick building is part of the brewery. By the way, the hotel we stayed in is also part of Sapporo Factory. More photos here.

Chicken Patty Bento and Hotel Clubby Sapporo

Today's bento dishes are quick chicken tsukune (patties), marinated shrimp, cut fried egg, and salted sockeye salmon on rice. I marinated leftover fried shrimp in a sauce of shoyu, sugar, ketchup and vinegar last night. And I finely chopped chicken tender and green onion with a knife, then seasoned and made into mini patties, then pan-fried. Added a bit of shiokoji into the patty, which worked well! Yes! I've been on a shiokoji kick since I made it.





Here is one of the bento boxes I bought in Sapporo. We are so happy to have the Kutusita nyanko box!! I love Kutusita nyanko!



I'd like to share some photos of my favorite hotel in Sapporo which we stayed in this time. I like the way the hotel feels... Classy and comfortable.



















This is part of their breakfast buffet. Needless to say this plate is not all I had then haha!