Sunday, November 30, 2008

Adventures in Bento

Bento, google it for more information is basically a Japanese style lunchbox.
I've tried it before, but last time I forgot the lunch I made and it molded. lol.

Taking (another) stab at making onigiri (rice balls):
To make proper onigiri you should use short grain rice, but all I had was long grain. So I put some in my magic bullet to grind it up a bit. I also forgot that you are supposed to boil the water THEN add the rice. I put the water and rice together then stuck it on the stove before I realized that wouldn't work so I added more water... The results were something akin to grits.
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Not wanting to be bothering with hand-molding the onigiri, I decided to use the ice tray. I waited for the rice to cool and added sugar. To get them out, I just used a butterknife.
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Seeing as how I don't have an actual bento box, I used what I had. A busted-lid gladware box. This one has a 739mL volume. With bento you pack it all together with as little space left open as possible. Using leftovers that clearly weren't designed for that, I did the best I could. The apple contains sugar for the rice and yam sticks. Also in the box are butter for the rice, graham crackers, and pigs in a blanket. The American style of packing a lunch is very different from bento.
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I took the lid off the apple and wrapped it in saran wrap to get it to fit in the box. I also spilt some sugar in the process.
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It does all fit!
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There is a site that lets you know what size bento box you would need. It uses your age and height. I'd need one with 650 to 700 mL of volume. Probably 700+ just to get typical leftover style food to actually fit. I didn't get to to make any cute designs like real bento has, but hey I got a bunch of food to fit into one box, so I call this a success. Now if I can just remember to eat it before this one molds. lol.

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