Archive for September, 2007

Seafood soup lunches

In an effort to get through my photo backlog before Bug’s first day of preschool on Monday, here are some remains of a lovely Peruvian meal from Fina Estampa restaurant in San Francisco. The standout was aguadito de mariscos, a shellfish soup with cilantro sauce, rice and white wine. I packed my soup in a little thermal bento set, which is handy in that the lid of the thermos lifts off instead of screwing off, so it’s easy for little hands to open. Although similar sets sell here and here for about US$40 (ouch), you can duplicate this setup on the cheap by using a thermal food jar and separate bento box packed in an insulated lunch bag to take both hot and cold foods at the same time.

Contents of my lunch: Aguadito de mariscos (shellfish soup with cilantro sauce, rice and white wine), pink beans with sofrito, smoked ham, mustard sauce and fresh pineapple. The mustard sauce recipe is from Cookâ€™s Illustratedâ€™s The New Best Recipe, and the beans with sofrito is from Daisy Cooks! (The Cook’s recipe link works if you subscribe to their online edition).

Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using all leftovers.

Packing: I preheated the food jar with hot tap water while heating the soup in the microwave. Packedin a 560ml insulated bento set (240ml rice jar and 160ml side dishes).

Contents of Bug’s lunch: Yellow rice with Peruvian beef and vegetables, wrapped cheese triangle, and fresh pineapple.

Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using all leftovers.

Packing: I cut the beef and vegetables small for easy preschooler eating, then mixed it in with the rice and microwaved briefly to restore the texture of the refrigerated rice. A little plastic food divider (bought at Daiso in Daly City, US$1.50 for a good-size assorted pack). Packed in a 270ml one-tier Thomas the Tank Engine box with the hard plastic sub-containers removed to fit all the rice.

Contents of my husband’s lunch: The same as mine, with TastyBite-brand Jaipur vegetable curry (from a ready-to-eat pouch).

Packing: Instead of using a separate sauce container, I decided to take advantage of the secure built-in dividers in the Lock & Lock container and spoon the mustard sauce in right next to the ham. It worked out fine; the viscous sauce didn’t jump compartments, and it gave each bite of ham good flavor. Packed in a 300ml thermal food jar and one 350ml tier of a Lock & Lock lunch set.

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Published by Biggie on September 29th, 2007 tagged beans, bento, fish or seafood, food jar, for kids, meat, rice, soup or stew | 2 Comments »

Shopping: New Daiso stores, lead-free gear

1. Daiso

Daiso, a Japanese dollar store with branches internationally, has two new stores in the SF Bay Area: Mountain View and Union City in the East Bay (EDIT: They’re running behind schedule on the Mountain View branch and will open it early October — SORRY!). Daiso sells cheap bento and household goods, and the Union City branch is supposed to be even larger than the Daly City or San Jose branches! Shout out to readers Jennifer and freecia for pointing this out!

Daiso Union City
El Mercado, 1785 Decoto Rd. (next to Marina Foods, betw. Alvarado Niles Rd & Meyers Dr)
Union City, CA 94587 (510) 477-9441
17,760 sq. ft., opened Aug. 8, 2007

Daiso Mountain View
550 Showers Ave. #1, Mountain View, CA, 94040 (near El Camino and San Antonio)
(EDIT: was scheduled to open Sept. 24, 2007, but delayed until early October 2007)

Daiso has a selection of cheap bento boxes, accessories, antibacterial bento sheets and food cups, freezer containers, cooking equipment, metal bento boxes, mini microwave steamers, stovetop fish/veggie grills, home products, dishes, hobby gear, children’s toys and books in Japanese, etc.

2. Reusable Bags & FAQ on lead and plastic concerns

I found a 20% off coupon for Reusable Bags; use code f70838 (case sensitive) and check out their selection of lead-free lunch gear, lunch kits, lunchboxes, reusable bottles and the lead-free Laptop Lunchbox (they ship internationally). Their FAQ on health and safety issues is helpful in learning the latest about lead and plastic concerns. (Disclaimer: The Reusable Bags links here are affiliate links; using them to get to the site when making a purchase helps support Lunch in a Box.) (Aug. 2008 Update: The f70838 code for 20% off at Reusable Bags is valid and updated, and you can also add code FREEACME (case sensitive) in the order comments section for a free Acme reusable bag on orders over US$25 (ACME Bags Workhorse Style 1501, Black Mesh).

3. Bento stores in San Diego

Sugoi Bento has put together a list of bento stores in the San Diego area, including a new Daiso over in the Marukai Marketplace.

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Published by Biggie on September 28th, 2007 tagged SF Bay Area local, shopping | 30 Comments »

Disposable lunches for airplane

I packed a couple of bento lunches in disposable containers for my in-laws’ airplane flight home after their visit. They’re a little busier than our normal lunches, but I’m pleased with the diabetic version for my father-in-law because of the limited food options for diabetics on airplanes. They tell me that they were the envy of the other passengers and flight crew. I usually appreciate the reusability of proper bento boxes, but this is the rare case when a disposable box was a better option — when the boxes won’t be coming home to me at all.

Contents of my mother-in-law’s lunch: Ham & cheese sandwich with mustard sauce on low-carb bread, TastyBite Jaipur vegetable curry, red bell pepper strips and poppy seed dressing, Swiss and Cheddar cheese slices, pink beans with sofrito, blueberries and pineapple, wrapped cheese triangle, and corn chips.

Prep time: 0 minutes the morning of, 15 minutes the night before (mostly spent staring at our assorted leftovers, trying to figure out what could go where and fill the gaps). The beans and pineapple were leftovers, as was the ready-made curry from a shelf-stable pouch.

Packing: Everything is disposable except the sauce container with salad dressing for the bell pepper. To keep the bread from getting soggy, I first toasted the bread and used cheese as a moisture barrier next to the bread so that the mustard sauce didn’t come into contact with it. The curry went into a disposable lidded condiment container. I rubber-banded the containers (3 for about $1 at Ichiban Kan in San Francisco), wrapped the two lunches together in a spare dish towel, then tucked two plastic forks into the flap on the top. I used the traditional bento box wrap shown on this illustrated how-to wrapping chart (Otsukai Tsutsumi). This kept the flimsy containers contained compactly so they could be thrown into carry-on luggage, and the dishcloth could be used as either a placemat or napkin.

Contents of my father-in-law’s lunch: This is the diabetic version of my mother-in-law’s, but with ham and mustard sauce solo (not in a sandwich), a salad with low-carb ranch dressing (by Eating Right), and Bengali smothered cabbage with mustard oil.

Packing: I used cheese slices as an edible divider to keep the ham away from the corn chips, and put the moist cabbage and mustard sauce in disposable lidded condiment containers. I now realize I wasn’t thinking enough about the restriction on liquids and gels when I packed this; my in-laws were probably lucky they didn’t have problems with the mustard sauce in airport security.

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Published by Biggie on September 26th, 2007 tagged beans, bento, curry, glutenfree, meat, salad, sandwich or wrap | 39 Comments »

Bento box song

There seems to be a technical problem today over at Flickr affecting photo uploads, so instead of my bento photo backlog, I bring you a little children’s song in Japanese about bento boxes and counting that I learned in my son’s playgroup. It’s more of a little chant with hand motions alluding to the wordplay of food words that sound similar to numbers in Japanese. So children learn about counting and lunchbox food at the same time! I haven’t been able to locate video of the song on YouTube, please comment with a link if you know of one! (UPDATE: Here’s a quick little video I made showing the bento box song with hand motions.)

Obento-bako (Bento Box Song)

(Japanese version here)

Kore kurai no, obento bako ni (trace a rectangular bento box with both index fingers)

Onigiri, onigiri choitto tsumete (shape a rice ball in hands)

Kizami shouga ni, goma furikakete (right hand makes cutting then sprinkling motions)

Ninjin san (put up two fingers, then three fingers)

Sanshou san*, shiitake san, gobo san (put up 3 fingers, then 3 again, then 4, 3, 5, 3)

Ana no aita renkon san (make a hole with index finger and thumb, move hand left and right)

Suji no touta fuuki (run right hand up left arm from hand up to shoulder, then blow on your right hand’s fingers as if blowing a kiss)

*instead of “sansho” peppers, you also hear “sakuranbo” cherries

Translation:

In a bento box about this size

Put in a few rice balls

Minced ginger, sprinkle with sesame seeds, 3 carrots

3 peppers, 3 shiitake mushrooms, 3 burdock roots

3 lotus roots with holes in them,

and butter burs with the strings running through them

*instead of “sansho” peppers, you also hear “sakuranbo” cherries

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Published by Biggie on September 25th, 2007 tagged for kids | 30 Comments »

Cheater’s tamagoyaki lunches

I finally broke out a picnic bento set and got practice making diabetic-friendly food with these lunches. I packed for four this past Tuesday as my in-laws were here visiting, and they joined us for Japanese playgroup. Also, I can’t say that I’m much of an Emeril Lagasse TV fan, but his creamed spinach recipe is excellent and my preschooler devours it like there’s no tomorrow — it’s up there with tamales and tofu in Bug’s list of favorite foods. The thickener proportions are off, though; it’s too thick as written. I use the normal roux proportion of equal parts butter and flour, and so changed the recipe to 4Tb of flour, 1.5 cups milk or more, plus Tabasco and Cajun spice to taste. I’ve mixed leftover creamed spinach with egg the following day and made it into spinach scrambled egg purses.

Contents of my lunch: Slices of cheater’s dashimaki tamago omelette (made in a round frying pan without creating layers: full tutorial here), fresh pineapple, blueberries, raspberry, steamed Chinese green onion bun, and Cajun creamed spinach. My mother-in-law’s lunch is identical to this one, so no separate photo.

Morning prep time: 17 minutes, mostly to make the 8-egg tamagoyaki for all four lunches. The tamagoyaki rests for 10 minutes on the counter, though, so during this inactive cook time I was able to pack the rest of the lunch using leftover creamed spinach, pre-cut pineapple from breakfast, and pre-packaged green onion buns that I briefly heated in my microwave mini steamer.

Packing: I packed all three adult lunches in a multi-person picnic set from Lock & Lock in an insulated case. I used the set’s removable food cups to pack the creamed spinach, and silicone baking cups for the fruit and Chinese bun. (Confession: the bun didn’t actually require a baking cup, I just liked the shot of color it gave.) I then stuffed frozen ice packs (cut from a flexible ice blanket) into the sides and top to keep everything cool for best packed lunch food safety. Each large square container is 870ml (click photos for larger views).

My father-in-law’s lunch: This is the diabetic version of my lunch, with leftover salad and a tiny container of low-carb, low-fat ranch dressing replacing the steamed bun. The salad dressing is by Eating Right (distributed by Lucerne Foods, I picked it up at Safeway), and I can’t tell much difference between it and regular ranch dressing.

Preschooler’s lunch: Packed in one 350ml tier of a Lock & Lock lunch set, Bug’s lunch is the same as ours, with a little plastic Anpanman food divider keeping the egg from touching the fruit. Everything got wolfed down except the steamed bun, which was sub-par as it hardened up after steaming/packing. They were much better right out of the steamer.

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