Archive for May, 2007

Kimchi fried rice snack bento

Morning prep time: 2 minutes. Yesterday we went out to watch San Francisco’s huge and wacky Bay to Breakers race, and I threw together a quick snack for Bug in case we weren’t able to eat at a reasonable time. In addition to the blueberries and cherries, we had leftover kimchi fried rice that I’d made the night before with refrigerated rice leftover from a previous dinner. The fried rice also has carrots, red bell peppers, bacon, kamaboko (fish cake), shallots, green onions, egg and Korean chogochujang sauce. I keep some of the flavorful chogochujang sauce on hand in the fridge to eat with grilled veggies, Korean-style sashimi, and to quickly flavor fried rice — it’s complex and has some sweet heat to it, but it won’t blow your head off.

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Published by Biggie on May 21st, 2007 tagged bento, fish or seafood, for kids, glutenfree, lactose free, meat, recipe, rice | 9 Comments »

Ethnic Markets in the SF Bay Area

Local readers have asked where to buy some of the ingredients shown in my lunches. I’ve put together a list of my favorite markets in San Francisco as a resource (complementing my previous Bay Area shopping guide for bento gear). I haven’t listed chain stores (Mollie Stone’s, Whole Foods, Andronico’s, etc.), but instead focused on local stores, especially cheap ones with an ethnic specialty. I will edit this list as things change; please feel free to comment if you know other excellent local markets that we’d benefit from knowing about, especially in the East or South Bay. Links point to the stores’ Yelp.com listings with maps, photos, and commentary from the larger Bay Area community. I am not affiliated with any of these stores, please disclose any commercial affiliations you may have when adding a new store.

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Published by Biggie on May 18th, 2007 tagged SF Bay Area local, shopping | 17 Comments »

Pork sopes

Contents: Homemade pork sopes with refried beans, pork with chile verde, monterey jack cheese, salsa in the little sauce container and Greek yogurt in the squeeze bottle shaped like an egg (we’re out of crema). The portion to the left has a boiled egg shaped like a fish, cheese triangle, sugar snap peas, carrots and watermelon.

Prep time: 20 minutes total for three lunches (making just one lunch would probably have taken 10-12 minutes). I made the sopes with all leftovers, so the most time-consuming part was frying the thick tortillas with thick edges (store-bought in sope form) and assembly. I ran them under the broiler to melt the cheese, making them more stable for packing. You can use all kinds of toppings for sopes — they’re quite versatile. Get creative! The shaped egg was the last of a batch I made earlier this week, so that was in the fridge in a mold.

Packing: I packed this large lunch (actually dinner) for my husband in a 940ml box, and put the juicy watermelon in a tiny lidded container to contain juices that might get on the sopes and make them soggy. Basically, packing this meal was an exercise in gap-filling, using sauce containers and hard veggies.

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Published by Biggie on May 17th, 2007 tagged beans, bento, corn tortillas or masa, for kids, glutenfree, meat | 31 Comments »

Chicken two ways, mini strainer & bowl

Contents of Bug’s lunch: Butternut squash and zucchini with Korean barbeque sauce, roast chicken, blueberries, cherries, yellow rice (from Daisy Cooks! Latin American cookbook, her website is here).

Morning prep time: 5 minutes. The yellow rice was leftover from dinner last night, so when I was cleaning up I packed the rice up directly into our lunch containers for the next day. Bug & I went to Costco yesterday, so we bought our requisite roast chicken and chicken salad there — perfect for quick lunches. We’re still working through the veggies leftover from Mother’s Day (cut, but not cooked), so I threw them all into the microwave in a micrrowave steamer (a covered bowl with a little water works just fine) for a minute and a half, let it stand for a minute, then quick fried it with some store-bought Korean barbeque sauce (yakiniku sauce). This is a common speed technique in Japanese bento books — using pre-made sauces to add quick flavor to fresh veggies or protein dishes.

Packing: I packed this in a 350ml Lock & Lock container, and included a mini pick to make it easy for Bug to eat the veggies. I also included a spoon (not shown) for the rice — he ate the chicken and the berries with his hands.

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Published by Biggie on May 16th, 2007 tagged bento, equipment, for kids, lactose free, poultry, rice, tips | 13 Comments »

Leftover Remake: Pasta frittata & multi-grilling

Contents: (upper) Mini frittata made with leftover pasta (recipe/tutorial below), hard-boiled egg shaped like a car, and grapes. (lower) Leftover grilled shrimp with wasabi bread crumbs, cherry tomatoes, grilled zucchini and butternut squash, and cheese triangle.

Morning prep time: 15 minutes. The zucchini and squash were already cut and prepped from a Mother’s Day picnic; I microwaved them in a covered bowl with a splash of water first to speed up grill time (no-cost substitute for a microwave mini steamer). A friend made the shrimp on Mother’s Day, so that was leftover too. I’d made a batch of eggs before, so it was waiting in the fridge in the mold. The frittata was the most labor-intensive thing in the morning.

Packing: Lettuce can also act as an edible food divider (instead of hard-to-find plastic food dividers). I cut the tails off the shrimp for neater eating.