The pink pig returns!

Pig onigiri shaped with ice cream sandwich molds from Williams Sonoma (they also do triple duty as egg molds — see my prior post for details). My son happily ate everything in one sitting today — bento success! Not shown: plastic pick for the kiwi, and a small packet of Anpanman furikake. Packed in my small 260ml box.

Pig onigiri lunch for toddler

Onigiri lunch お弁当

Mine has a couple of onigiri (one nori paste, one spicy tuna salad with furikake), tamago, cantalope, and tomato. Not shown: pick for the melon.

Thai curry lunch お弁当

My husband said that the thermal lunch jar holds almost too much food for him, so I tried to lighten it up by packing a snack in one layer for noshing throughout the day. The curry is homemade green Thai curry with chicken, eggplant, carrots, purple beans, and Thai basil. The beans in the curry were dark purple when they were raw, but turned normal green in cooking. Interesting!

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August 23rd, 2006 | Categories: bento, curry, for kids, glutenfree, lactose free, onigiri or sushi, poultry, rice, thermal lunch jar, vegetarian | Print This Post Print This Post | Email this post Email this post | Comment now »

Spicy tuna onigiri bento x 2

Osso bucco & onigiri lunch お弁当

Star onigiri lunch for toddler お弁当


My son had a more interesting lunch, but he rejected his sausages in favor of my osso bucco (good taste!). Packed in the tiny 260ml box.

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August 22nd, 2006 | Categories: bento, for kids, lactose free, meat, onigiri or sushi, poultry, rice | Print This Post Print This Post | Email this post Email this post | 1 Comment »

Sausage animals & mini chikuwa x 3

Had fun with sausage shapes this morning. I also found mini chikuwa this weekend — each one is only about 2 inches long! Perfect finger food for my son. Packed in my tiny 260ml box:

Sausage crab & mini chikuwa lunch for toddler お弁当

 

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August 21st, 2006 | Categories: bento, eggs, fish or seafood, for kids, poultry, rice | Print This Post Print This Post | Email this post Email this post | 4 Comments »

Shells & cheese x 2

I’m taking advantage of the fact that my son actually likes liver, broccoli and carrots! Annie’s shells & cheese with add-ins, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes, and tiny Champagne grapes. The boy wound up eating the pasta in the car after running around the zoo — 5 minutes later, he was asleep. Aaaah…

Shells & cheese lunch for toddlerShells & cheese lunch

My lunch is similar, with cucumber sticks and blanched broccoli plus a container of doctored ranch dressing to dip the

veggies in.

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August 18th, 2006 | Categories: bento, for kids, meat, pasta or noodles | Print This Post Print This Post | Email this post Email this post | Comment now »

Collapsible sandwich case debut

Yesterday I tried out a new collapsible sandwich holder that I got for $8 from my local Sanrio store (yup, the cover is the Shinkansen character). I’d seen these in Japanese bento cookbooks before but had never noticed them here in San Francisco. I was initially puzzled by the ventilated sides but it turned out there’s some method behind the design madness. Here’s yesterday’s lunch packed up:

Mixed meat sandwich in collapsible sandwich holder

Here’s the case, exploded:

Collapsible sandwich holder (exploded)

Collapsed, and assembled (it’s quite deep, and the divider is movable):
Collapsible sandwich holder (folded) Collapsible sandwich holder (assembled)

When I saw this, I was excited that it would collapse flat after lunch and slip into our regular bags. When I opened it up, though, I had a number of doubts, primarily — what’s up with the holes in the sides? Wouldn’t it make the bread go stale and litter crumbs all over in transit? What side dishes would work without leaking juice? How does it stay together? I’d seen these cases in Japanese cookbooks and bento blogs before — now it was time to go back and do my homework on the details.

Our initial run showed no crumbs in my husband’s new black bag (that he unceremoniously shoves his lunches into vertically for a subway commute). Also the bread didn’t go stale — evidently the ventilated sides are to keep the bread from going soggy, especially if the filling is initially warm or moist. The books and sites I saw with these cases all included dry side dishes like a piece of fruit, a wrapped cheese, etc., so I did likewise. I wasn’t impressed with the security of the latch, so I put an elastic band around the whole thing. Next time I’ll pop the entire case inside a kinchaku (lunch carrying bag) just to be sure nothing gets out. And my husband, who generally has an allergy to “cute” or “kawaii”, has decided that the Shinkansen character on the lid makes it cool! Very surprising! (Edited to add: I’ve since tried lining these sandwich cases with a piece of plastic wrap or waxed paper to contain crumbs with good results.)

Final verdict: interesting idea — I’ll continue to use it for sandwiches (especially for bringing along a meal for a plane trip), but won’t rule out the Laptop Lunchbox or other containers for sandwiches, especially if I want to pack a moist side dish. If I see a collapsible sandwich case without holes on our trip to Japan, I’ll pick it up and give it a whirl.

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August 18th, 2006 | Categories: meat, sandwich case, sandwich or wrap | Print This Post Print This Post | Email this post Email this post | 22 Comments »

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