Archive for March, 2007

Speed Bento Tip: cycle through freezer items quickly

Today’s 5-minute speed lunches used up the last of the older frozen bento stash: spaghetti cups, onigiri rice balls, and mini hamburgers made from meatloaf mix. It’s important to cycle through your frozen items on a regular basis, using things up before they lose flavor and vitamins or, God forbid, develop freezer burn, which renders them worthy only of the garbage can. My general rule of thumb is to use up frozen bento items in 3 weeks if possible, 4 weeks at max.

BTW, I’ve decided to call my two-year-old son “Bug” online, so Bug’s lunch below also added:

leftover green beans and pecans with orange essence and maple syrup (recipe from Cook’s Illustrated)
cherry tomatoes (to fill the gaps in the box and stabilize the meal for transport)
ketchup in a tiny paper cup with film cover I’m trying out. As long as the sauce is viscous (mayo, ketchup, tartar sauce) and you don’t treat the bento roughly in transit, it stays put. Interesting.
the bear food divider is just for fun as it’s not actually dividing up any food — just peeking out from behind the rice

My lunch adds a tiny apple, cheese cubes and the last of the blueberries. This also took 5 minutes to pack, so 10 minutes total for the two lunches.

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Published by Biggie on March 9th, 2007 tagged bento, for kids, freezing, meat, onigiri or sushi, pasta or noodles, rice, tips | 10 Comments »

Speed Bento: scrambled egg purses

It took about 10 minutes to make this and my son’s speed bento together as the only thing I actually cooked this morning was the scrambled egg purse (recipe and tutorial below). Packed in my 470ml Afternoon Tea box.

mini burgers that I previously made and froze when making meatloaf for dinner (microwaved before packing), plus ketchup for dipping
scrambled egg purse with green onions
blueberries (to plug the gaps in the bento — so there’s no empty space)
leftover pasta from last night’s dinner (tarako spaghetti with onions and orange bell peppers — all out of kaiware for garnish)
yaki onigiri (grilled rice ball) that I previously made and froze (microwaved before packing)

A lot of Japanese bento cookbooks show little “purses” made out of mashed kabocha, potatoes, rice, etc. The technique is extremely simple, and can add an interesting design to an otherwise unstructured dish. Here I’ve done a basic egg scramble, and used plastic wrap to give it shape before being packed in my lunch.

To make three scrambled egg purses, I chopped a green onion and added it to three eggs — scrambled as usual in a nonstick frying pan (without any additional liquids such as milk, cream, etc.). When the eggs were cooked and still warm, I put one third of them on a piece of plastic wrap, gathered up the ends, squeezed out the air and twisted up the plastic wrap as in the photo above.

I let it sit and cool for a few minutes while I prepared the rest of the bento, giving it a chance to firm up as a ball. The egg ball was still moist when I removed it from the plastic wrap, so I patted it dry with paper towels before putting it in my bento (this kept any egg condensation from getting on other items in the lunch). This worked a lot better than packing it still in the plastic wrap (like I did in my son’s bento below) as it was too moist when unwrapped — it was easier to eat when dry and already unwrapped and ready to dig into.

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Published by Biggie on March 8th, 2007 tagged bento, eggs, for kids, lactose free, meat, onigiri or sushi, pasta or noodles, recipe, tips, tutorial or how to | 40 Comments »

Guide to choosing the right size bento box

So you ordered a bento box online, it arrives and you’re shocked at how tiny it is. People try to tell you to just eat less, but you have a sneaking suspicion that you may have accidentally bought a bento box sized for a 2-year-old instead of an adult. Here’s how to tell: check the box’s total capacity against the gender/age/height guidelines in the table below (I translated them from a popular Japanese website that’s been getting a lot of media exposure in Japan — they’re based on official Japanese nutritional guidelines).

In Japan, bento box size is described not by its dimensions (inches or centimeters), but instead by its volume or capacity (in milliliters — ml). Why? Because a rule of thumb in Japan is that when you pack a bento box normally (A: 3 parts grain dishes, 1 part protein dishes, 2 parts vegetable dishes; B: without candy, junk food or fatty food; and C: without empty space), calories correspond directly to capacity. So a 600ml box should hold a 600-calorie meal.

Capacity (å®¹é‡) is usually written on the bento box package and also often on the bottom of the bento box in raised plastic. If you’re not sure of your box’s capacity, you can measure it yourself by filling the box with water, pouring the water into a liquid measuring cup and checking the milliliters (ml) or ccs there. Most, if not all, Japanese eBay sellers should be able to tell you the size of a box in ml if asked. (Edited to add: 240ml = 1 cup American)

Here’s a quick height conversion chart in case you don’t know your height in centimeters.

Age (Women)	Avg. height (in cm)	Calories per meal (kCal)	Bento Box Size (in ml)
3-5	85-110	450	400
6-8	116-128	500-550	500
9-11	134-147	600-650	600
12-14	155	770	700
15-17	157	735	700
18-20’s	158	685	600
30’s	157	670	600
40’s	157	670	600
50’s	152	650	600
60’s	152	650	600
70’s	147	520	500
80’s	147	520	500

* Source: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yellowstudio/c/0000000352/

Age (Men)	Avg. height (in cm)	Calories per meal (kcal)	Bento Box Size (in ml)
3-5	85-110	450	400
6-8	117-128	500-550	500
9-11	133-145	600-650	600
12-14	160	885	900
15-17	170	920	900
18-20’s	171	885	900
30’s	170	885	900
40’s	170	885	900
50’s	165	800	800
60’s	165	800	800
70’s	160	620	600
80’s	160	620	600

* Source: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yellowstudio/c/0000000352/

Step 2: Adjust for your level of physical activity and height *

Physical activity:
Level 1: Low (spend most of your time sitting or quiet)
Level 2: Moderate
Level 3: High (lots of exercise, sports, etc.)

Adjust the size of the bento box for your height and physical activity:

Add 100ml to your bento box size for:

Taller than average height
High physical activity (Level 3)

Subtract 100ml from your bento box size for:

Shorter than average height
Low physical activity (Level 1)

* Source: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yellowstudio/c/0000000352/

I’m not sure how much to adjust if, for example, you’re both taller than average and have high physical activity (add 100ml or 200ml?), but it’s something to start with. If you’re dieting, you might want to choose a smaller box, but these are the general Japanese guidelines for packing dense food (i.e. rice or pasta, veggies and a protein). Bulky foods like sandwiches or salads would require larger boxes than the chart above.

The Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top defines the following food groups:

Category	Cooking Category	(Ideal Japanese Bento Makeup)
Grain dishes	Dishes that mainly include rice, bread, noodles and pasta (carbohydrate sources)	3 parts
Vegetable dishes	Dishes that mainly include vegetables, potatoes, beans (excl. soy beans), mushrooms and seaweeds (various vitamins, minerals and fiber sources)	2 parts
Fish and Meat dishes	Dishes mainly include meat, fish, eggs, soy beans and soybean products (protein sources)	1 part
Milk	Milk, yogurt and cheese (calcium sources)	(occasional)
Fruits	Fruits and fruit-like vegetables (Vitamin C and potassium sources)	(occasional)

Source: What is Shokuiku (Food Education)?

BTW, if you get excited about the bento boxes at the Yellow Studio website linked from the charts above, be aware that they won’t ship outside Japan. (UPDATE: You can use one of the shipping services on this page to receive orders from companies that won’t ship internationally, though.)

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Published by Biggie on March 7th, 2007 tagged equipment, parenthacks, tips, tutorial or how to | 134 Comments »

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.

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Published by Biggie on March 6th, 2007 tagged Laptop Lunchbox, bento, for kids, meat, onigiri or sushi, rice, salad | 4 Comments »

Leftover Remake: faux latkes with tuna

I finally got rid of the last of the leftover purple potato salad!!! Score. Today I’ve got a second way to get rid of leftover potato salad: turn them into little fake latkes with tuna and pan fry them. Giving your leftovers a makeover is a popular tip in Japanese bento cookbooks — it maximizes your payoff for the time you’ve already sunk into making dinner, but relieves the monotony of eating the same darn thing again.

Today’s lunch took five minutes to throw together, using leftovers and frozen homemade food. My son has a previously frozen faux latke (recipe below), a tiny apple, homemade baba ghanouj from dinner, and leftover shells and cheese (with sauteed zucchini/courgettes, cherry tomatoes, ham and kaiware garnish — heated in the microwave with a teaspoon of milk for texture).

Faux Latkes with Tuna (Tuna Potato Cake?)

1/3 cup leftover potato salad
1/4 cup canned tuna fish (drained)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (or other vinegar)
1 Tb cornstarch (or potato starch)
2 tsp chopped parsley (or other herb such as cilantro, green onions, etc.)

Mix everything together in a small bowl, chopping any chunks of potato that are too large. Divide the mixture into three parts, and shape each third into a small disc in the palm of your hand.

Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, and lightly coat with vegetable oil. Pan fry until golden brown on both sides. I saw a Japanese variation of this recipe, using soy sauce for the balsamic vinegar, and aonori for the parsley (the two patties in the rear of the photo below are the Japanese version, the one in the front is the Western). Serve with a dipping sauce if desired (my two-year-old gives a big thumbs up to tartar sauce or tonkatsu sauce).

After frying, these can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen to have a fast protein/starch item on hand for lunches. When ready to eat, just pop in the microwave (or let them defrost naturally in the lunch or refrigerator). You can also make these with leftover potatoes, although you’ll want to add additional flavoring (salt/pepper, a splash of vinegar and olive oil or mayo — maybe your favorite salad dressing).