I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
Moroccan lamb lunch
No tips today, just fast lunches. I put mine in a Laptop Lunchbox to accommodate the bulky leftover salad; it’s good for big appetites and packing bulky foods like sandwiches or salad. Mine is all leftovers and took less than ten minutes to pack: homemade Moroccan grilled lamb (with a containter of lemon mint sauce, and a container of ground cumin and kosher salt for dipping), homemade baba ghanouj with olive oil and Aleppo pepper, a salad (with green onions, feta, walnuts, blueberries and artichoke hearts) and homemade sesame ponzu salad dressing. The lamb recipe came from Steve Raichlen’s Barbeque Bible — very tasty! I cut it into bite-size pieces when packing so it’d be easier to eat on the go — I find it awkward to cut things once they’re packed in the little boxes. I covered the dressing with its lid, and used Glad Press & Seal to cover the baba ghanouj container for transport.
A Japanese market next to where we have kids’ Japanese playgroup (in San Francisco’s Japantown) started selling these US$4 children’s bentos on Tuesdays (playgroup day) because a group of us bring/buy bentos to eat in the plaza afterwards. The two-year-old crowd definitely approves of all the finger food! I think the pink of the kamaboko next to the yellow of the egg really adds to the visual appeal.It’s got fruit (strawberry, two green grapes, an orange slice), the requisite “petit” onigiri rice balls, and a nice savory section with kamaboko, tamagoyaki (sweet egg: step-by-step tutorial here), fried shrimp, edamame shumai, and teriyaki chicken.
READ MORE:
- Tutorial: How to make dashimaki tamago (tamagoyaki)
- Lamb & hummus wraps
- Moroccan lamb in yakisoba fried noodle lunches
- Food safety for packed lunches
- How to pack a bento lunch and use “gap fillers”
- Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews
March 6th, 2007 | Categories: Laptop Lunchbox, bento, for kids, meat, onigiri or sushi, rice, salad | 
Print This Post
| 
Email this post
March 6th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
I’ve been poking around in some of the various personal and community bento blogs, but haven’t seen anything like recommendations for brands/varieties of soy sauce, mirin, etc. Might you have any suggestions? I’ve never been much for soy sauce before, so I don’t know if Kikkoman is right out or not.
Thanks for sharing all your photos and information!
March 7th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
I’ll look around and see what I can find. You’re looking for recs. for Japanese pantry items that are widely available? Where are you (which country? metropolitan area or not?)? On soy sauce, Kikkoman & San-J, etc. are fine, but avoid La Choy like the plague.
Nice icon, BTW — Alton Brown rocks!
March 7th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I’m in Miami, home of not-Asian.
I’ve got some Chinese groceries widely scattered, but the bulk of Japanese-ness in the area is the Morikami Museum up in West Palm Beach County… unless somebody’s hiding things from me. ^_^
(On the flip side, if you know anybody wants Latino items hard to find in their area, we could do trades!)
Thank you for the icon compliment - I made it, and I share! Alton’s been looking really good with the scruffy look showing up on Iron Chef lately.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I wish our Japanese markets in L.A. sold kid’s bentos. Very nice color!
My daughter would love all these items. It’s inspiring me for tomorrow’s bento. –julie