Back into Bento

[varenikje]

That sounds good!

Corn thins... I don't think I have heard of that. I will have a look around my nearest health food store, next time I go. It is about an hour away, but is the closest thing to a health food store around here. I do eat bread, but usually toasted, and toasted bread doesn't act nice when you use it to make sandwiches. It is kind of...chewy. So, I butter it and put on jam to eat with breakfast.

Speaking of which, I think I will go to bed. It is getting past my bedtime.

[Pangolin]

The Corn Thins sound good - apparently there's one store here in Columbus that carries them. They do seem to have distributors all over the US, so Varenijke ought to be able to get ahold of some to try.

If you are GFCF and looking for potato-chip like things, Munchos are pretty good. We actually crushed them up and used them for "breading" on chicken a couple weeks ago, and it came out great. The Munchos are a bit addictive though!

As for the "capsicum" (bell pepper) in the bento - those are a staple for us too. I either eat them raw, or dip them in sweet and sour sauce. They show up in my dinners and bento at least three or four days a week!

[moonshae]

Corn thins are good, but are just rice cakes made of corn instead. Amazing they're not common in the US. Isn't corn the major crop grown??

Bento #9 was a beautiful stir fry of tofu puffs, veges and oyster sauce with some rice.
Bento #10 is a mish mash of leftovers. In the bottom layer yesterdays stirfry, a line of rice, then some sorboro. Top tier has capsicum and steamed broccoli.

May not have a bento tomorrow, due to some staff training at work. We'll see if I'm in a cooking mood tonight after class or not! But I'm betting on not.

[varenikje]

Wow! I am impressed! Your bentos sound great! I had potato-leek soup for supper tonight, which I did think was quite good, but I don't have a bento box to take a soup out (although I have seen some very cute bento boxes intended for soup - just haven't purchased one). Besides, I ate supper at home tonight.

What are tofu puffs?

[moonshae]

I'm not sure how to describe them better. I _think_ they're actually deep fried (but I try not to think about that). I found them in the fridge of my asian grocer. They are sort of puffy, and browned on the outside. Each cube is about 2cm around and I cut them in half so I can squish them into my box better. Sorry the packet wasn't in English except for the calorie count stuff so I can't even give you a brand name.

[varenikje]

You know, those sound exactly like what I use to make one type of sushi. You cook and season the rice and then I add diced vegetables of various kinds (green beans, carrots, pickled ginger, takuan, etc). I actually cook the tofu puffs, as you call them, in a soy sauce and sugar mixture and then I cut them open and push the rice inside. These tofu puffs are hollow, so you can fill them with the rice and diced vegetable mixture. They also come canned, in which case, you do not have to cook them at all. This conversation is making me hungry.

[moonshae]

No, these aren't the ones that you use to make inari. They're more like... um... sponges?

No bento today. Staff bonding day with lunch provided.

[gfbentomom]

moonshae,

Your tofu puffs sound like oden no mono. One of a variety of tofu and/or fish paste based dumpling type things that are simmered in a soy flavored broth. A hot-pot dish.

[varenikje]

Hmm... this sounds like something I haven't had before then. But it does sound good! And a hot-pot dish is probably going to be right up my alley here in not too very long, it being September and all. Oden no mono. I will have to watch for that next time I am in Denver.

[moonshae]

If they are then I'm using them very non traditionally!!