This article originally appeared on http://www.justbento.com.
Practical and fun bento box tips and ideas, healthy bento recipes from Japan and the world. Brought to you by Makiko Itoh of Just Hungry.
How does the food stay crispy?
posted by LadyAmalthea on Fri, 2011-03-04 04:50
I quite like dishes like pan-fried chicken nuggets, Chicken Kijiyaki (tomorrow's bento ^^), Chicken Kara-age or the Fried Shrimp as the meaty part of my bentos... But somehow the fried foods never stays crispy after a few hours in a bento box. I always let everything cool down completely before I put it in the box or before I close the lid but still... I mean, I don't expect my chicken to be super crispy, but it would be nice if it had a little crunch instead of being a little soggy. Does anybody have a trick? Maybe I am doing something wrong?
On a different note, I love this purple powder that comes on the rice in some Japanese restaurants. I think it's the same stuff I see in the pictures of Toyama's bentos (the one in the bright blue boxes from the "Great Bento Ideas: One box, infinite bentos" article). I really like this "powder", can you please let me know what it is called or what's in it? They have different rice seasonings in the Japanese Grocery store I go to, but I don't know which one to buy.
Thanks so much,
Kerstin
New forum activity since your last visit
| Title | Author | Answers | Last Post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello from Northern Ontario | aggie_june | 6 | 16 hours 54 min ago |
| Looking for one more moderator | maki | 2 | 23 hours 54 min ago |
| The fake Japanese/Asian restaurant Hall of Shame | maki | 66 | 3 days 12 hours ago |
| Spring Bento Challenge? | Bramble | 4 | 3 days 13 hours ago |
| Mochi Chicken (A Taste of Hawaii) | SojoMojo | 6 | 1 week 4 days ago |
Recently commented articles
- Bento archive list (2) (2 comments)
- Bento archive list (3) (8 comments)
- 1 egg tamagoyaki (Japanese omelette) (76 comments)
- Bento sightseeing in Oahu, Hawai'i (11 comments)
- Where (and how) to buy bento boxes and accessories (34 comments)
- The Onigiri (Omusubi) FAQ (56 comments)
- Bento no. 55: The Almost-Empty Refrigerator Bento (11 comments)
- Bento veterans, tell the new people - why bento? (88 comments)
Active forum topics
- Hello from Northern Ontario
- Looking for one more moderator
- The fake Japanese/Asian restaurant Hall of Shame
- Spring Bento Challenge?
- Mochi Chicken (A Taste of Hawaii)
- Hagi no Tsuki - perhaps a post/recipe for them?
- Canned tuna ideas?
- Has anyone EVER seen this stuff?
- Kakigori - Japanese shaved ice
- Sake alternative
Join the Just Bento flickr pool
Join the Bento Gear flickr pool
Recent articles
Just Some Sites
- Just Hungry, Japanese food and more
- Hungry For Words: My language blog (mostly Japanese)
- Maki's personal site
Causes We Support
Subscribe to Just Bento
Subscribe by email:
Get social with me
@justbento - strictly site updates
@makiwi - Maki tweets at random
@mainichinihongo - Maki tweets in Japanese
I mean to address the fried food/crispy thing later on in a full article so please be patient ^_^ (short answer though is, no it doesn't stay crispy unless you use specific foods for the coating.) The purple powder - is it a bit sour/salty? Then it's yukari, which are the dried red shiso leaves that are a byproduct of making umeboshi. The salty sour leaves are dried and ground up into a powder. You can get yukari at any Japanese food store.
The Big Onigiri.
- Wherever you go, there you are. -
Oh, patience... My best quality ...ahem... Looking forward to the article :)
Yes, the powder is a bit sour/salty, it's kind of a delicate flavor, if I remember correctly. Plus, such a pretty color! I will definitely try the yukari... Thank you!!
I also really really want to know how to make it stay crispy - even when I follow the recipes (which I assume have the right coating...??), they're soggy by lunchtime. It makes it *so* hard to resist eating my lunch the minute it comes out of the pan in the morning. :)
Yep, I really need to get going on posting my backlog of articles!! ^_^;
Post new comment