Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/55): Indian Sushi Bento

Most Indian people have to devise their food according to a somewhat harsh climate (at times. Of course people living at the foot of the Himalayas would say otherwise!). The Missus is a great fan of Indian cuisine and anything called “curry”!
Today, sushi bento day, she came up with a simple twist to call her sushi Indian-style!

Having prepared the sushi rice, she added a good measure of curry furikake to it. Furikake means “seasoning to be sprinkled” in Japanese. There a good many of them including the curry variety she used today.
Simple, ain’t it?

She deep-fried large prawns in breadcrumbs and included them in rolls she made with a bamboo sushi roll and cellophane paper. She then took the rolls out of their cellophane paper and rolled them inside lettuce before wrapping them again into cellophane paper to facilitate the cutting.

plenty of home-made pickles to provide me with the salt I will lose during the sweating-hot day: cucumber, fresh geinger, carrot and sansho/Japanese pepper.

Loads of fruit for dessert for the vitamin C and fibers: red grapefruit, nectarines and blueberries. The latter are supposed to be good for the eyes. If true, they will help mine which tend to get tired at the end of the day with all my PC work!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/53): Maze Sushi Bento

There was no bento to write about yesterday as it was a National Holiday!
Instead we spent most of the day lazying about at home as it was simply too hot outside and visited a new (for the Missus!) sushi resstaurant in the evening!
The scales were ceratinly a pleasure to look at this morning!
Therefore back to healthy food and habits!

The Missus prepare “Maze Sushi/混ぜ鮨, or “mixed sushi” in English.
-“What did you put in it?” I asked most politely.
-“At least 10 ingredients! Why don’t you try and discover them?”
Alright, alright…
Avocado, ham, cheese, black olive, tomato, sansho/Japanese pepper (pickled), …. that does make 10! I’m in for a beating tonight.

The “salad” was certainly colouful once again (and tasty, an healthy!)!
Cut Renaissance tomatoes grown in Kakegawa City (I buy them regularly at Kakegawa Station on my way back from university), cornichons, lettuce, carrot tagliatelle saled with walnuts, and semi-boiled egg topped with black olive. East meets West!

Alright, I loved it!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/52): Te-mari Sushi Bento

Tuesday’s Bentoes have become a regular feature as Sushi Bento!
Today’s bento consists of Te-mari Sushi/手丸寿司 or Hand-shaped ball sushi (not easy to translate, so read the explanation!).

The Missus could not decide which picture to choose, so it is my pleasure to show another angle!
Te-mari sushi are naturallly made with sushi rice.
The process is quite simple:
1) Make small rice balls (they can be as small/big as you wish!) either between the palms of your hands or by wrapping some rice inside cellophane paper and twisting the cellophane paper tightly around the rice to form a ball. Unwrap the balls and put them aside.
2) For each te-mari choose the”neta/topping”.
Lay a large enough piece of cellophane paper in your palm. Place the topping upside down (important as all is inverted), place the rice ball on top, close the cellophane paper around the te-mari and twist it closed tightly enough for easy unwrapping and placing inside the bento box.

The Missus prepared three types of Te-mari:
1) Smoked salmon te-mari topped with lemon and capers.
2) Raw ham topped with cress.
3) Cucumber (she sliced it thinly and took the excess humidity first with kitchen paper) topped umenoshi/Japanese pickled plum flesh and black sesame seeds.
She added home-made pickled aubergines/egg-plants and edamame.

As for the salad-dessert “dish”, the Missus included three-coloured potato salad (yellow, pink and violet) topped with black olive, sliced tomato over a bed of cress, cherries and bluberries for dessert.

Certianly made for a big and tasty bento!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/50): Korean Sushi Roll Bento

In these days of incessant weather change, one has to make sure of his/her sustainance. In winter, when they are in need of calories, the Japanese often visit the innumerable Korean restaurants in their cities.
I believe that the Korean are tempted with lighter fare such as sushi in summer (I’m only assuming!)!

That is why the Missus came up the idea last night to create a Korean sushi bento of her own for today, Tuesday sushi bento day!

That orange colour is definitively that of kimchi!
After steaming the rice and arranged it as sushi rice, the Missus mixed it with “golden” roasted sesame seeds.
Before spreading the rice on the seaweed, she brushed the inside of the nori/dry seaweed with sesame oil.
She then lined the sushi rice with 3 types of pimentoes she had cut into thin strips before frying them in sesame oil/namuru style.
On top of the vegetables she spread thin slices of pork she had fried Korean-style with spicy sauce and black roasted sesame seeds.

For a closer view of the sushi roll cross section!

The Koreans eat a lot of vegetables with their meat, so the Missus did likewise with a salad duo of freshly cut large plum tomatoes and a combo of cucumber, myoga ginger, shiso/perilla leaves, konbu/seaweed, daikon and sesame seeds.

Cherries from Yamagata Prefecture for dessert!

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Vegan Sashimi at Yasaitei (2010/06/30)

Service: Excellent and very friendly
Facilities: very clean
Prices: reasonable
Specialty: Vegan and vegetarian Cuisine, Izakaya gastronomy, local products, oden.

The summer has come to Shizuoka with a vengeance after an unseasonably cool period. One has problems making and devising food and meals for such a period. It is when you have to think of a higher fluid/water and vitamin intake to complement your “usual” diet/eating prctices.

This is when fresh vegetables are vital!
Luckily enough, Shizuoka Prefecture is the most blessed region in Japan when it comes to varieties and quality.

Just go arond the innumerable small markets in town and suburbs and you will rediscover the riot of colours at Yasaitei, which almost exclusively serve local produce!

Do not forget that mushrooms can play a vital role in your diet!

One knows very quickly where all these beauties come from: Green asparaguses from Hokkaido!

I had a long day both indoors and outdoors yesterday, and I was literally dehydrated when I entered my favourite izakaya.
The fresh colours of yuba/tofu sheets served with grated Shizuoka wasabi and thinly shredded leek were a balm on my eyes and body.
With a glass of Doman rice shochu from Tenjigura-Hamamatsu Brewery, I could patiently wait for my vegetable sashimi order!

Just a little soy sauce with it, nothing else!

A side view of the picture at the top of this posting.

A slanted view to show the mizu nasu/water egg plant, a Japanese variety that is best eaten raw, cruchy celery, crunchy (and so juicy) daikon on shiso, perilla leaf atop chopped onions, crunchy and juicy (again) cucumber and small radish!
The dressing/dip consisted as usual of fine salt, miso paste and sesame oil!

I finish my quick snack/meal with a corn cream and fresh carrot combination. Does not qualify as vegan, but certainly does as vegetarian!

YASAITEI
Shizuoka City, Aoi Ku, Tokiwa-Cho, 1-6-2 Green Heights Wamon 1-C
Tel.: 054-2543277
Business hours: 17:30~22:00
Closed on Sundays
Reservations highly recommended
Seating: 6 at counter + 20 at tables
Set Courses: 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 yen
HOMEPAGE (Japanese)

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/48): Sushi Millefeuille Bento

I finally managed to have the Missus take all photos of her bentos according to my preferences and hope that BG will stop commenting on my general clumsiness and ignorance!LOL
It takes time even for dragons like me to tame btter-worse halves calling themselves rabbits (BG, spare me from the next question!)

As Tuesday is “Sushi bento day”, the Missus came up with the concept of sushi millefeuille, that is a multi-layer sushi.
She lined a terrine with cellophane paper before placing the ingredients in the following order (inverted!): sliced avocado dipped in lemon juice, sushi rice, cucumber strips, smoked salmon and rice again!

The same unwrapped.
Now, if you do not wish to press the sushi too hard like the Missus, keep it wrapped in the cellophane paper when you cut it to avoid unpleasant (crumbling away) surprises.

And you might have to wrap them again before cutting them a second time across!

Then she wrapped each sushi in lettuce for better handling and easier insertion into the bento box. That particular box is very practical for big bento rice balls or sushi!

For a closer cross section view of the sushi!

Mini tomatoes and the Missus’ mother’s home-made cucumber pickles for the finishing touch!

The Salad dish consisted of mixed boiled beans, hijiki/sweet seaweed, fresh celery, red trevise and lettuce.
No dessert? Oh well, the tomatoes are very sweet!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/46): Keep On Rollin’ Bento

Picture by the Missus!

When I took a sneaky peak in the kitchen this morning, I couldn’t help commenting to the Missus:
-Keep them rollin’!
-Do you mind?
-Sorry, sorry, Rabbit!
I made myself scarce and took my shower (the safest palce away from the real Dragon!).

My pic… Oh well… (ever heard of Fleetwood Mac?)…

She kept things very simple, healthy and light as you can see. Which suited me fine, as I ate a lot yesterday!

I’m trying hard not to make mistakes when describing the Missus’ bentoes as she will check later, and I can assure I’ll be in for some flak for the tiniest error! LOL
Anyway, she made two types of rolls.

One included home-pickled cuumber strips and surumi (the latter bought at the supermarket).

The other one contained processed cheese and o-kaka.
O-kaka is a mixture of dry bonito shavings, sugar, miso, soy sauce and ground sesame seeds you can easily buy.

The pickles included myoga ginger (home-made), Fresh ginger root (home-made) and yellow takuan/pickled daikon (bought).

As for the salad I was offered sweet tomato (“sweet enough for your dessert) and a soft-boiled egg on a bed of fresh coriander!

Very healthy again!

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Today’s Lunch Box/Bento (’10/44): Avocado Sushi Roll Bento

The weather is perfect for sushi!
It has been raining non-stop, at times at typhoon level, for the last 24 hours and more rain is on the cards for the next two weeks!

The Missus seems to have got the mesage as yesterday’s university train bento consisted of large sushi roll (report prohibited! LOL). On top of that, I was invited to a sushi restaurant last night (report coming soon). And to finish it, I had musubi/rice balls for breakfast and now avocado rolls!

The rolls were hastily inserted inside that old box of mine made of bamboo fibers lined with a large dry bamboo leaf.

The Missus steamed some fresh sushi rice this morning although instead of adding the usual rice vinegar to the rice, she seasoned it with with a little soy sauce before rolling it around avocado.

Home-made marinated salad for the fibers and some Chilean grapes for dessert.
Simple, tasty and satisfying!

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