Oden & soup bento lunches
It was rainy and cool last week in San Francisco, so I put warm soups in my son’s packed lunches to ward off the chill. I used a 560ml thermal bento set (similar sets sold here)
Contents of preschooler lunch: Kiwi fruit and oden with its broth. Oden is a Japanese simmered dish popular in the winter, with different kinds of fish cakes and vegetables. Here I’ve included fish cake stuffed with gobo (burdock root), hanpen, pink and orange-colored fish cake, and renkon lotus root. At dinner our oden also had hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, daikon radish, different kinds of fish cakes, tofu skins stuffed with mochi, and konbu seaweed tied in little knots.
Morning prep time: 5 minutes, using leftover oden. I packed the side dish container with oden when cleaning up from dinner the night before, so in the morning all I had to do was slice the kiwi and heat the oden broth in the microwave. While I did that I preheated the thermal food jar with hot tap water.
Cooking: Oden is a really easy dish to make — basically just make the broth, throw in the fish cakes and whatever vegetables you have on hand, and simmer. Voila! When I lived in Japan, I remember going into convenience stores in the winter and hand-picking out oden from a big simmering pot at the front of the store. Very much comfort food, and delicious with a small squeeze of karashi hot mustard on the side to flavor the fish cakes. Just Hungry has a nice recipe and blog post about oden here.
Packing: I used a 560ml thermal bento set that I picked up at Ichiban Kan a while back. (Note to San Francisco locals: The Ichiban Kan stores sometimes stock these thermal bento sets for $20 - $25, and Kamei has two Zojirushi-brand sets behind the counter for $33. Store info at the SF local shopping guide.) I left one side dish container out, and instead packed the small container of kiwi and a spoon/fork utensil side inside of the bag. I got a set of three small side containers that nest inside each other and a package of 12 animal picks at Daiso dollar store in Daly City for US$1.50 each. Daiso has branches internationally, although evidently some of the Japanese moms at my son’s preschool are boycotting Daiso, saying it’s run by Soka Gakkai. Hmm.
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Contents of preschooler lunch: Chicken noodle soup, steamed broccoli, apple slices, and a wrapped Babybel cheese.
Morning prep time: 6 minutes, using canned soup that Bug requested. In the morning I preheated the thermal food jar with hot tap water while I microwaved the soup, steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini steamer, and and cut the apple.
Packing: To prevent the fruit from browning, I dipped the apple slices in water with some lemon juice and Splenda to cut the sourness. A little rabbit-shaped plastic food divider keeps the steamed and cooled broccoli from rubbing up against the apple.
Verdict: Argh. Three-year-old Bug ate pretty much none of the soup, but all of the side dishes at preschool. When I asked him why, he said the soup was too hot and tasted funny. This is what happens when I take too much of a shortcut and use canned soup my son hasn’t had before… I guess when you raise children with good food, they don’t take kindly to the bad stuff!
FURTHER READING:
