I'm Biggie: avid cook, speedy lunch packer, mom in San Francisco, & former expat fluent in Japanese. 
Tamago lunches
Contents: Cucumber, cherry tomatoes, homemade takoyaki (octopus balls) and sauce, dashimaki tamago (Japanese rolled egg with dashi stock), whole apricot, rice mixed with shiso furikake, and umeboshi.
Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using leftovers. This morning I cut sliced the cucumbers and tomatoes, microwaved leftover cold rice and mixed in some furikake. The takoyaki was leftover from the previous night’s dinner (recipe and full tutorial here), and the rolled egg was also leftover from the previous day (I’m putting together a tamagoyaki tutorial).
Packing: Because takoyaki is best sauced right before you eat it, I packed the takoyaki sauce in the little green sauce container, put the takoyaki in a silicone-coated oblong paper cup to contain the sauce when eating, and threw in a long pick to eat them with. All packed in my new 500ml Leaflet box from Irving Housewares in San Francisco.
Contents of Bug’s lunch: Mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries and strawberries), dashimaki tamago (Japanese rolled egg with dashi stock), cucumber slice, and onigiri made with rice mixed with salmon furikake, decorated with pre-cut nori. Bug is crazy for tamago, so the more I stuff in the happier he is…
Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using leftovers. This morning I cut sliced the cucumber, microwaved leftover cold rice, mixed in some furikake, and shaped it into round onigiri using the plastic wrap method I used to make scrambled egg purses. The dashimaki tamago (rolled egg) was leftover from the previous day (I’m putting together a full tamagoyaki tutorial).
Packing: This was a kid-friendly meal, with all finger foods. The fixed dividers in this box (350ml Lock & Lock box from this lunch set) meant I could pack delicate fruit like raspberries without worrying that they’d get crushed in transit. Reminder: fragile fruit makes a lousy gap filler unless you’re fond of fruit goo. 
Lunch in a Box is nominated for Best Food Blog in the Blogger’s Choice Awards. If you’d like to cast your vote for speedy lunch packing, click here (you can vote for multiple blogs in the same category).
READ MORE:
- Tutorial: How to make tamagoyaki
- Need for speed: A mommy’s lunch manifesto
- How to pack a bento lunch and use “gap fillers”
- Choosing the right size bento box
- Packed lunch food safety
- Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and equipment reviews
June 26th, 2007 | Categories: bento, eggs, fish or seafood, for kids, lactose free, onigiri or sushi, rice | 
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June 26th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Wow! Kudos to homemade takoyaki and tamago!! Everything looks so delish…Can’t wait for the tutorials!
June 27th, 2007 at 12:10 am
There was this hole in the wall that served Kyoto’s best takoyaki (so it said). I found tentacles with suction cups in it and lost interest in whatever culinary delight takoyaki might have brought me had I actually managed to eat any.
I love dashimaki tamago though, and tamago nigiri.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:33 am
I am amazed at what your son will eat, I know people/children 3 times his age who wouldn’t eat that lunch - I however think it looks delish! I can’t wait for the tutorials
June 28th, 2007 at 8:52 am
tentacles with suction cups do look scary don’t they??? my mother used to put a piece of cheese or anko (bean jam)in stead of octopus when we were young : )
June 28th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Nicki, ta da! The takoyaki tutorial’s up, now to sort through and write up the bazillion photos I’ve got for the tamagoyaki tutorials…
June 28th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Jessica, would you like takoyaki better if it used the non-tentacle portion? Anyway, second on the dashimaki tamago — look for the tutorial soon…
June 28th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Claripup> Yeah, Bug is unusual that way. We’ve always just given him whatever we’re eating with minor alterations (cutting up small, easing up on the spice, etc.) and he’s adapted in a stellar fashion!
June 28th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Yumi> Ooh, cheese inside of faux takoyaki sounds GREAT to me! Reminds me of some of the funky fusion okonomiyaki you can get nowadays…
June 28th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Biggie:
Probably.
I have very few hangups about food, in case I sound like I am a picky eater. Aside from what a few allergies prevents me from eaten, I’ve basically eaten whatever you can, street food in Korean (along with dog meat) and onwards. What I don’t eat, refusing to even try, is assorted cooked offal from various animals. It might be delicious but I have really given up on it. And I don’t eat or try new things for the sensational aspect either. I just like nice food.
I do have an obsession with fresh sea urchin, natto and an anko takoyaki sounds quite appealing.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Jessica> Ah, got it. Offal can be tricky — do it well and it’s great, do it badly and it’s just revolting. Fresh sea urchin (uni) is something that took me years to acquire a taste for, but I now ADORE. Once a year I re-try things that I hate to make sure I still hate them (that’s how I discovered I’d somehow come to like uni). Just this past month I discovered that I actually like natto! Up to now I had a problem with the texture (not the smell or taste), but now for some reason it doesn’t seem to bother me. I bought a three-pack of organic natto with shiso sauce this week to experiment…
July 2nd, 2007 at 6:12 pm
your tamago eggs are perfect! big and tightly wrapped. I cant wait for your tutorial I have made tamago many many times , sometimes good sometimes bad but I still think I am doing something wrong, I cant wait to see what you have to show, I am here to learn!
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
@11 from lalalady7:
Thanks lalalady! I’m in the middle of writing up the tamagoyaki tutorial now; the photos are finally done!