I made this bento last week. It contains rice topped with umeboshi (pickled plum) and cucumber, chicken katsu (Japanese style chicken schnitzel), yakisoba (fried noodles), korokke (potato croquette), tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), shibazuke (pickled cucumber), cherry tomatoes, mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce (they're inside the blue and pink mini containers).

Chicken Katsu - serves 2 

2 chicken breast/thigh fillets

1 egg

1 tbs oyster sauce

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbs all purpose flour 

Panko bread crumbs

Oil for frying

1. Mix egg, salt, pepper and oyster sauce together.
2. Coat the chicken breasts with flour.
3. Dip the coated chicken breasts in the egg mixture.
4. Coat the chicken breasts with panko bread crumbs.
5. Repeat steps 3 - 4.
6. Fry the chicken breasts until golden brown.
7. Drizzle with tonkatsu sauce and mayonnaise. Serve with rice.

My husband had this bento a few days ago. If you still remember, I told you that I made him a bento box with the same menu as mine. But he also had a piece of Korokke (Japanese croquette) and stir-fried bean sprouts which were missing in my bento.

I have to postpone my report about the things I got from Bento&Co for now as I am really short on time :(. Hopefully I'd be able to do so in the next few weeks.

 

I participated in a bento contest last July organised by Bento&Co. Due to your kind support, I won the second prize :). I got a 10,000 Yen voucher plus some bento boxes and accessories from Bento&Co. I received so many extra goodies apart from the items I chose using the 10,000 Yen from Bento&Co that I was totally flabbergasted (positively...;)) when I opened the parcels I got from them. I will report more about the wonderful goodies in my next post as I am quite short on time at the time being.

This gorgeous wooden bento box is one of the things I chose from their online store.

If you're interested to buy this, click the link over here. It costs 7,500 Yen (around €75). Indeed expensive, but worth the money as it's really flawless!! I am very happy with the box and now it belongs to one of my most favourite bento boxes :).

I filled the bento box with steamed rice topped with purple potato butterflies, chicken sukiyaki, soy-sauce egg, pan-fried mini wieners, tamagoyaki, ebi fry, pan-fried dumplings, carrot salad and cherry tomatoes.

I made my husband a bento meal with the same menu as well, but I will show the picture(s) of his bento box another time :). Well, that's it for now. Have a nice weekend, everyone!

I've got good news for all bento and Japan lovers out there...:)! CasaBento has a one-day special discount of 25% OFF on ALL of their bento boxes and accessories.

Simply enter the code SHINGAKKI upon checkout.  Offer is available for one use per customer and limited to Saturday, 1st September 2012.

Visit CasaBento today and Happy Shopping :)!

This Summer Picnic Bento is my newest bento lunch which I devoured at home just now - you can have a picnic at home too, can't you :)?

My lunch contains maki-zushi filled with ebi fry and mayo, a few slices of tamagoyaki, two pieces of Babybel cheese, a small portion of grapes,  cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, takuwan rose and some purple potato flowers.

 

Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Shrimps - serves 2

• 200 grams spaghetti, cooked to al dente
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1- 2 seeded bird's eye chilies, sliced thinly
• 3 - 4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 150 g shrimps
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Combine olive oil, garlic, onion, chili and red pepper flakes in a skillet and cook under low heat for 8 - 10 minutes. The garlic should be golden brown and not burned.
• Add salt, pepper, shrimps, chopped green onions and parsley and cook for another 1 minute.
• Toss in the cooked spaghetti and mix thoroughly that the pasta is well coated with the oil.

Heya folks, here I am again :)! I didn't make any bentos today though, as I have not been in the mood of making any bento meals in the last couple of weeks. But I've got this beautiful grilled steak with balsamic teriyaki sauce to show you instead :). The recipe is adapted from Jaden Hair's Steamy Kitchen cookbook. I am sure if you like Asian food, you would have heard or seen the hugely popular website Steamy Kitchen which specialises on modern Asian recipes. Now let's hop on to the recipe!

Grilled Seak with Balsamic Teriyaki - Serves 4

Adapted from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

500 g steak

2 Tbsp cooking oil

Balsamic Teriyaki Sauce

1.5 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 shallot, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

250 ml balsamic vinegar

2 tsp sugar

65 ml beef/chicken stock

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp mirin (sake, or red/white wine will do too)

1 Tbsp Korean red pepper flakes - optional

1. To make the sauce: heat butter to a saucepot. When the butter starts to bubble, add shallots and garlic and cook for 3 minutes.
2.  Pour the balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add the stock, sugar, soy sauce, mirin and Korean red pepper flakes. Stir and bring to a boil.
4. Let cool. Reserve 1/2 of the sauce for marinating and the remaining for serving.
5. Marinate the steak for 2 hours or overnight.
6. Grill the steak!
7. Serve with the remaining Balsamic Teriyaki sauce over the meat.

I made this bento two days ago and then directly submitted the picture to Bento&Co Contest 2012. I almost gave up to enter the contest, as I really didn't have any time  last week to make any bentos. Luckily I managed to prepare this "Rilakkuma & Kiiroitori" bento in the last hours before the contest was over. I am so happy to say that my bento got into the Top 10 list :D).

The theme of the contest is "Onigiri" or rice balls. I made three rice balls which are modeled after Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori. The rice itself is coloured with soy sauce and the yellow suits are made out of thin egg crepe. I had never liked to make thin eggsheet/ egg crepe, since my old frying pan really sucked and the eggsheets I made in the past always sticked to the pan, but since I've got a new non-stick pan a few weeks ago, making eggsheet is no longer that intimidating :).

The side dishes include oven-baked chicken nuggets, a few pieces of radish, edamame beans, carrot butterflies, two pieces of fried panko-coated prawns, tomberries, gherkins, kiwi slices, raspberries, blackberries, one takuan rose and a few pieces of ham/green bean rolls. The little white flowers are made out of goat cheese and carrot, if you are curious...

Oh, by the way, you can click the following link if you're interested to see the pictures of the Top 10 Finalists. I think everyone did a wonderful job...!

Bento&Co Contest 2012 - TOP 10

Don't forget to vote for me if you think that I deserve to win, hehe...:). My bento is the last one - number 10.

Thank you all for your kind support, it's greatly appreciated :D)!

Have a wonderful week!

I ordered a new vegetable cutter last week. I own several butterfly cutters already but this one now belongs to one of my most favourite cutters ever because it's so pretty...!! It's also quite small, perfect for bento making!

This simple bento contains delicious braised duck breast which I cooked in soy sauce/oyster sauce/cinnamon mixture for an hour before I cut it into thick slices. I also included half a scotch egg - my scotch egg is made differently to the usual scotch eggs which are covered in bread crumbs and deep fried. My version is healthier and much simpler to make as I only used soft boiled egg which I wrapped with seasoned ground meat and then pan-fried without oil in a non-stick pan.

I finished up the look by adding some carrot butterflies, cucumber leaves, tomberries (miniature tomatoes), lettuce border, parsley, a piece of radish and a piece of blackberry.

 

I've apparently got Rilakkuma fever :). Rilakkuma themed bento two days in a row...! Well, I have always wanted to make a bento lunch full with cute characters and I think this time, I have somehow achieved it, this bento is really quite adorable, isn't it :)?

I used my Sakura Appetizer box pictured above which I got from CasaBento. I have done a review on this bento box some time ago, if you want to know more about this beautiful appetizer box, check it out here.

The easiest characters to make are the little chicks made out of tamagoyaki (rolled omelet). I used the tamagoyaki triple pan below to make the chicks (I used the middle part to get a perfect rectangular-shaped tamagoyaki). I also love this pan because you can cook  three different things at the same time, which is just perfect for bento making, as you usually would like to have various types of food in your bento box. I highly recommend this pan, as this would be a real time saver!

You can buy this pan in CasaBento. The price is €32.99 and the diametre is 24 cm. It seems to be dishwasher safe too, as I have washed it in the dishwasher several times and the pan is still totally fine and intact until now.

I have also found a cute video which shows a recipe on how to make soboro lunch using this triple tamagoyaki pan. The lady has got nice and simple, mostly-Japanese recipes in her YouTube channel.

Hey guys! Today I have come up with another Rilakkuma bento and this time I even made two sleepy Rilakkumas :). I made another Rilakkuma-themed bento because I am so very happy with my new Rilakkuma bento box from Modes4u, an online store which sells kawaii products, including bento boxes and accessories. If you enjoy Japanese pop culture and adore super cute things, I highly recommend you to visit this store - it will give you a daily dose of cuteness...! I don't usually get excited so easily, but when I found this store, I kept saying OMG the whole time while browsing their site...;) - how cheesy! Modes4u has a huge selection of Rilakkuma products and other San-X and Sanrio related merchandise. I also found out about Sentimental Circus from this store. This store is based in Hong Kong but it ships worldwide. When you purchase over €60 (or US$78 / £54), you will get free shipping. Another good thing about this store is, you will always get one small free gift from them everytime you shop there :)

Here is the Rilakkuma bento box which I got from Modes4u. This is my first ever kawaii bento box, my other ones are all the elegant type ones ;), but I LOVE it because it's so cute...! If you also want to have this bento box, here is the direct link to the product. The price is €14.90, which is okay, considering that it is made in Japan. You can also find more Rilakkuma-themed bento boxes here.

This two-tier bento box comes with a pair of cute pink chopsticks and plastic lids to avoid spilling. It also comes with a brown elastic band to keep the two compartments together. This bento box is dishwasher and microwave safe.

I also got two pretty washi tapes. I made some food picks from the washi tapes to decorate my bentos, but of course you can also use these tapes for scrapbooking or other crafty things.

Now let's talk about what's inside the bento box :). The left box is filled with two Rilakkuma inarizushi, two slices of tamagoyaki filled with water spinach, two baby carrots and one little chick (modeled after Kiiroitori) made out of quail egg which I soaked in turmeric water - he's wearing a rather extraordinary-looking purple hat which actually is simply purple potato.

The box on the right contains two nigirizushi topped with gouda cheese which I cut out into two sleepy Rilakkumas. The two little chicks are made the same way as the little chick on the left and the two mini brown bears are also quail eggs which I soaked in soy sauce overnight (They look more like choco balls than quail eggs, I know ;)). The ears are made out of takuan and I attached them with toothpicks.

If you are interested to look at my other Rilakkuma-themed bentos, check out the following links below :)!

• Festive Spring Bento

• Rilakkuma Picnic Bento

• Rilakkuma Inari Sushi Bento

• Rilakkuma & Co Bento

• Tiger Rilakkuma Bento

• Koala Rilakkuma Bento

• Surprised Rilakkuma Bento  

• Rilakkuma Bento

• Dragon Rilakkuma Bento    

 

Today I made sesame noodles for lunch. If I remember it correctly, this must be my first ever vegetarian bento...! I am not vegetarian and I am not thinking to be one either, but I have to say having meatless meals from time to time can be very tasty...! 

Sesame Noodles

Serves 2

• 200 grams spaghetti, cooked until al dente
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp chili oil
• 2 Tbsp sesame paste (or peanut butter, if you don't have sesame paste)
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp chopped scallion
• sugar, to taste
• chili flakes, to taste
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish
• Toppings: cucumber slices, radish, cherry tomatoes

Mix cooked noodles with the rest of the ingredients and topped with refreshing cucumber, radish and cherry tomatoes.