February 2011

All the content on this site by month.

The healing power of an umeboshi onigiri

An essay from a new Japanese book really strikes a chord...

Keep reading The healing power of an umeboshi onigiri →

Bored with ham? Get ideas from a decorative ham salad contest in Japan

Who knew that you could get so creative with humble ham slices?

Keep reading Bored with ham? Get ideas from a decorative ham salad contest in Japan →

How to cook rice in a frying pan article over on Just Hungry

I know that not everyone who follows JustBento follows my other food site, JustHungry. I put my 'foundation' type Japanese recipes over there more often than not, while I have especially bento-friendly recipes here on JustBento. Today though, there's a recipe and how-to for making Japanese style rice (the method should be adaptable to other types of rice) in a frying pan. I know that the subject of whether or not a rice cooker is needed for bento-making comes up quite a lot in the forums, so if you're looking for an alternative to getting a rice cooker, or just another backup rice-making method, give the good old frying pan a try!

How to cook perfect rice in a frying pan

Keep reading How to cook rice in a frying pan article over on Just Hungry →

Really frugal ramen soup eggs

Yet another way to jazz up hard boiled eggs! This is really really easy and really frugal, dare I say cheap....

Keep reading Really frugal ramen soup eggs →

Great Bento Idea: Udon noodles with meat sauce and a 2-for-1 flower

After a brief hiatus due to my crazy schedule, the Great Bento Ideas series highlighting bentos from the bento blogging community is back!

Keep reading Great Bento Idea: Udon noodles with meat sauce and a 2-for-1 flower →

Bento no. 80: Deconstructed banh mi sandwich bento

Bento contents:

1 small regular or bánh mi baguette (150cal)
1 1/2 cups All-season shredded vegetable pickle salad (30 cal)
1/2 cup, approx. 2 oz / 60 g Rafute rillettes (320 cal)
a few Instant radish pickles (10 cal)
Parsley for garnish

Total calories (approx): 510 cal (how calories are calculated)

Time needed: 5-10 minutes in the morning from pre-made components

Type: Sort-of-Vietnamese (Asian), bread based

Keep reading Bento no. 80: Deconstructed banh mi sandwich bento →

All-season shredded vegetable pickle-salad, plus migrating birds!

A very simple 'instant' pickle-relish-salad made with always available vegetables, plus an equally easy decorative cutting technique.

Keep reading All-season shredded vegetable pickle-salad, plus migrating birds! →

The Just Bento Cookbook giveaway and recipes on Serious Eats

The Just Bento Cookbook is featured as this week's Cook The Book over on Serious Eats! You can check out some recipes from the book, starting with these Tofu Nuggets with Edamame, which are even vegan! (Meat eaters do not fear, they are really tasty if I do say so myself.) The recipe has been field-tested by Caroline of SE, so read her comments to see what she thought about them. Plus, they're giving away 5 copies of the book! I am proud to be counted as a Friend of SE (I visited their World HQ in New York a couple of weeks ago), and it's an honor to be featured there. Go over there and check it out - and if you haven't gotten a copy of the book yet, you may get lucky, so go over there and give it a go!

Keep reading The Just Bento Cookbook giveaway and recipes on Serious Eats →

A note about the Salade Niçoise Bento

You would think that I would have spotted this earlier, but no....the book has gone to 4 printings already and I just spotted it last night ><. Fortunately it's not a really critical error, unlike the one in the Muffin recipe (which was corrected in time for the 2nd printing, hooray!) but if you are watching your calories, it is something worth watching out for.

So, here it is...

Keep reading A note about the Salade Niçoise Bento →

Back from the book tour!

I have been back from my US mini-book tour for a week now. I'm still rather jetlagged, but I'm really happy to have met so many wonderful people! I only got to visit New York and Seattle, and wish I could have done more, but considering that this was my First Book Tour Ever, and that before I embarked on it I was frankly scared to death, I think it went really well.

(Incidentally, the book has been out of stock for ages on Amazon, but is now back in stock again! Go go go before it sells out again! ^__^;)

So, here are just a few photos

Keep reading Back from the book tour! →

You are here