| BENTO BOX Nom Nom Nom! |
| Written by Vicki Lin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 22 June 2010 18:44 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
According to Wikipedia: a BENTO "...is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container." An 'oekakiben' or 'picture bento', on the other hand, is a type of bento "which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants." These, my friends, are the lunch boxes of the 21st century!
If my lunch box looked like this everyday, I think I'd be the happiest girl alive. They are so cute and so nutritious too. Plus there's portion control. Within every bento, there is a great mix of veges, carbs, proteins and often fruit as well.
If you are wanting to know how it's done, here's a beginner's example:
Some common ingredients for these bentos are: rice (white, brown and sushi), steamed broccoli, carrots, frankfurters, sweet peas, eggs (cooked in an omelette style), dried seaweed, ham, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, green beans, tempura (optional) and your choice of a main protein (chicken, fish, prawns, etc.).
So get your cookie cutters, fresh produce and cooked ingredients ready! Take a look at how the pros do it...
|
