Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Finally getting on the bento train



I've been interested in bento since I was a teenager and discovered the Sanrio store at the Fairfield Mall. I can't say that I actually made lunch with any of my Kerokerokeroppi accessories more than a few times -- my bento box seemed far better suited to carrying my collection of mentholated cigarettes and hairclips.

When I traveled through Japan on my grand tour, I wistfully looked at all of the bento boxes, desperately wanting a Mameshiba one but not being able to justifying buying something that I'd have to carry around for the next twelve months on my back. So after settling in Cambodia last year, I vowed that eventually I'd get into bento.

Here's what I made:

Chicken kaarage, Japanese fried chicken
My dad's perfect sesame noodles (if anyone is interested I'll post the recipe)
Sunomono salad, Japanese cucumber and wakame salad
Sliced watermelon
Longans
Cherry tomato

It was a pretty successful first attempt. I think I got the balance right of carbs/protein/fruit/vegetables although I could have probably got some extra veg in there. I've never actually made fried chicken before so the experience was sort of terrifying and at the same time, pretty cool. Lots of oil going everywhere and me squealing and shrieking.

It was especially gratifying because I just left the whole mess in the kitchen for the cleaner to deal with -- which almost made up for the dengue fever when it comes to this living-in-Cambodia lark.


My tiny ridiculous kitchen.

3 comments:

  1. Can I get the inside scoop on the noodles?

    ReplyDelete
  2. red-faced ambiguous.September 2, 2011 at 4:23 PM

    Automatic portion control and no seconds! What a concept!

    ReplyDelete