Steak & Hijiki Salad
Hijiki never ceases to surprise me how much it swells up to from the tiny dry strands you’d find in healthfood or south-east asian grocers. It is apparently contains a lot of fibre, and as one that desires less weight in their mid-section that is a property that appeals. Unlike the flavour of kombu I […]
Lemon Prawns
Sweet and sour sauce is an easy thing to make, all you need to do is to add a sweet component like sugar or honey to a sour base. A typical home-style one uses tomato sauce as it is both sweet and sour, in the addition of a vinegar or citrus and sugar. I don’t […]
Pork Squidlets
Ah Hugh, you and Stephanie are my first food idols – from all the simply delicious food you two make. It’s all the very no-nonsense, unfussy and simplicity that I find much more elegant and graceful than what complicated food science can produce. We were interested in trying the ‘pork squidlets’ recipe of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s: […]
Spicy Fried Rice
If asked to indulge in a traditional Filipino breakfast, I’d have to decline unless I’d just starved myself first. Most items in this one meal are fried or full of fat or carbs and I cannot ever remember anything that was close to being a vegetable in it.. apart from garlic in the garlic fried […]
Roast Beef Noriben
When I was a kid shopping with my mum I’d sometimes ask for devon for my lunch sandwiches, and we’d visit the deli section of the supermarket. The only other items in that section that I’d know before I was able to cook for myself was ‘sausages’ and ‘ham’; ignoring the other items that even […]
Lumpia Makizushi
When I look at my sushi books for ‘makizushi’ I find that some of the fillings seemed rather random. In the spirit of randomness, fusion, and perhaps insanity I decided to try rolling (pun intended) with the batch of lumpia I had made. Lunch contents: quick-pickle cucumber, pickled ginger ‘rose’, steamed broccoli, deep-fried lotus root, […]
Chicken Noriben
I read up on noriben – a basic bento that consists of layers of rice and cupboard staples, where the most basic contains nori, soy sauce and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). As leftovers can also be used, I thought that I should give it a go too. Noriben are notoriously ‘boring’ looking – as most of […]
Gyoza & Bacon
You can also call this one ‘defrosted from frozen’ as most of the side dishes were all freezer stash – the gyoza was defrosted overnight. The bacon wraps simply have greed onion inside, providing a big flavour hit to the otherwise bland rice. Lunch contents: Gyoza, bacon-wrapped spring onion, steamed broccoli, grape tomatoes with carrot […]
Edamame Lines
When you are really short on time, and you don’t have a massive lunch stash then there is not many options to make your lunch look like it was quickly thrown together willy-nilly.. Wrong! Even a simple pattern of veg can really boost the appearance of a bento. Lunch contents: rice, edamame, black sesame seeds, […]
Chilli Hamburger
Looking at some japanese bento blogs, I see that the decorative ones tend to have fairly same-y items. I guess that makes it easier to construct and focus in a good-looking ‘feature’. I do like the simplicity of some of them prior to decorating, so I figured it won’t be hard to establish a stash […]