portobello slider bento

yummy leftovers from dinner tonight with the boyfriend at counter, a vegetarian restaurant in our neighborhood.

top portion: portobello slider with rosemary mayo on a tiny cute poppy seed bun. purple carrot skewers, cherry tomatoes, and olive skewers, and two carrot-cheese flowers. bottom portion: leftover confit fingerling potatoes, red quinoa-and-fennel salad, roasted eggplant with pom seeds and cumin, and red saurkraut. topped with a few carrot music notes and cheese stars.

doily, kids’ chopsticks, and the last gummy cherry candy.

grand sichuan bento

no surprise with this week’s crazy work schedule that last night’s dinner was takeout, again.  this time we ordered from grand sichuan - the best chinese food we’ve found so far in NYC, not having any chinese-speaking friends who are willing to show us the secrets of an otherwise pretty-touristy chinatown.

in the main tier: ma po tofu with scallion garnish, orange and yellow carrot sticks, broccoli with sesame seeds, cold sesame noodles with kumquat slices garnish, skewered broad beans, and two strawberries (i cut their tops off, put the cut ends together, and then skewered them).

in the top tier: white rice with a slice of soy-boiled egg, slices of orange grape tomato, and broad bean halves.  black sesame seed garnish.

flirty empanada bento

the boyfriend was sick all day today, so i picked up a quick dinner from ruben’s empanadas to cheer him up — breakfast for dinner always does it! he had sausage and egg, but this leftover for tomorrow’s lunch has a spinach filling.

her eyes are cheese and nori, her mouth is nori, and her hair bow is a pasta bowtie.  she’s surrounded by — clockwise from top right — purple carrot sticks, a starfruit slice, pomegranate seeds in a food cup, half of a deviled egg, snow pea pods, an orange-and-red grape tomato skewer and an olive skewer, some nashi slices and a few more pea pods.

twin flower onigiri bento

a quick bento tonight with leftovers from the fridge.  the stars of the box: twin brown rice onigiri, filled with pickled garlic (sooo yummy, breath be damned!), wrapped with strips of nori, and topped with a takuwan-carrot-purple carrot blossom each.  they’re sitting in my pretty “lace” food cups from ichiban kan.

top left corner: cherries, pom seeds, and slices of starfruit.  bottom right corner:  slices of lotus root, the last of my shimeji mushrooms, and snow peas.  center:  lettuce-wrapped spicy korean tofu.

like the doily and chopsticks?  i’m really feeling pikko’s prop styling lately…

working late (again) bento

working late again, getting two motions out the door on two different cases – yikes.

turned to my old stand-by for late nights: vietnamese or thai food, and my box from hapa bento.  this combination always lets me throw things together at the last minute and still have it come out looking nice!

top left:  bean sprouts in a food cup topped with two purple carrot flowers, with four tamagoyaki slices and two halves of a baby roma tomato.  top right:  two asian pear fans, with a food cup of pomegranate seeds, kumquats on a pick, and some cherries (with their real stems left on, for once!).  bottom right:  fried rice with mint leaves and a flower-shaped container of soy sauce for some extra salt (it was kinda bland this time).  bottom left:  sauteed black mushroom with carrot and green onion accents.

“brothers and sister” bento

the top tier of this bento got a little cluttered, as i didn’t sketch in advance.  all i knew was that i wanted to use this new onigiri mold from daiso (makes three mini face-shaped onigiri), and then i kept adding more and more random stuff from the fridge and all of a sudden it was crazy.  oh well, at least i wasn’t drunk this time, haha!

top tier has two brothers and a sister (plain brown rice, too small for filling, nori hair and sesame eyes, cheese bow on the sister’s hair) sitting on top of some spicy korean tofu that’s completely hidden, and, clockwise from top left:  yellow cauliflower with cheese and veggie pepperoni flower, carrot sticks and baby orange tomato, red tomato half, tamagoyaki slices, and two edamame skewers on top of fried veggie dumplings (ajinomoto brand), and more carrot sticks (plus one more red baby tomato half to prop up brother #2’s chin!).

simple dessert tier has:  pomegranate seeds in a heart food cup from daiso, chocolate-covered almonds in a square food cup from daiso, asian pear fan, starfruit slices, kumquat slices and a cherry.

i’m really enjoying all of my new picks and cups from my trip to the west coast — this bento is a daiso bonanza!

and the winner is…

**** FLASH FASHION ****

congrats to benzi rae on the winning entry!

above is one of benzi rae’s bentos; you can see more on her flickr page.

and benzi rae, i’ll be contacting you shortly to obtain your shipping address.  when you get your goodies, please feel free to send me a picture of how you end up using them — i’ll post it here so that everyone can see your creativity in [further] action!

bahn mi bento

tomorrow’s lunch has another bahn mi from nicky’s vietnamese (2nd street between A and B) – the spicy/sweet tofu, carrot, and pepper slices are just outrageously good.  in the sandwich tier i added a purple and yellow carrot skewer.

in the fruit and veggie tier:  star fruit, pomegranate seeds, shimeji mushrooms, kumquat and grape tomato skewer, cherries with leaf picks, pea pods, and another purple and yellow carrot skewer.

this bento is using some of my new accessories from daiso:  the green square silicone cup is part of this set; the orange oval cup is part of this one, and the heart picks come in a pack of 20 similar to this one.

i’ve received tons of great contest entries so far — keep ‘em coming, and i’ll be announcing a winner on tuesday morning!

glad to be back and bentoing… hope everyone had a lovely holiday!

bento giveaway!!!

hi bento friends, i’ve missed you all!

as some of you know, the west coast is bento shopping heaven. at the end of my trip up the pacific coast highway yesterday, i visited daiso (in daly city) and ichiban kan (in san francisco’s japantown). i was so overjoyed at the abundance of goodies there that i thought i should do a giveaway of some of the extra loot i hauled. (really, i sort of lost my mind in the stores and filled my cart with way more than i needed – can you blame me?!?!)

a few bits of information before the rules: everything is new and in the package, except for the one squirrel cutter, which is still new and unused, but which i took out of a package of 3 animal cutters i bought at daiso (because i already have a metal squirrel cutter). i will pay for shipping to the lucky winner. the prize package consists of: two 20ml plastic bottles for sauce or dressing, 48 small round food cups, 14 larger oval “baby zoo” food cups, a set of small cutters and one large squirrel cutter, 12 assorted food picks (including the popular umbrella handles and balloon strings), 15 “pretty” (jewels, hearts and bows) food picks, bunny and bear egg molds, a 480ml “natural lunch time” single tier box with matching chopsticks in a case and a striped lube sheep bag, and 24 cute animal-print baran.

now the rules!! a friend of mine is running a contest for fashion photography, and needs a NAME for the contest. if you’ve seen reality shows like shear genius (hair cutting) or project runway, you’ve got the idea — we need a catchy and clever name that references what the contest is about.

you can post your suggestion in the comments, only once per day. your last suggestion must be in by midnight (eastern US time) monday night, nov. 30th, at which point i’ll pick the name i like best, pass it along to my friend, and reward the person who suggested it with the loot!

alrighty then… i know you guys are all super-creative and will have great ideas, so put on your thinking caps and let’s do this. best of luck and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

kreativ blogger award

lia over at my bentolicious, a super cute bento blog i visit frequently, has graciously nominated me for a KREATIV BLOGGER award!!

the rules are that i get to post seven interesting factoids, and then nominate seven other bloggers.  in my seven things, i’m going to try to include a few things about me you might not have guessed about someone who decorates her soy chicken nuggets with little bear faces!  so, away we go –
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(1) my dad and i (i’m totally a daddy’s girl) are re-building a 1974 honda cb450 — it’s a small-ish motorcycle, and we’ve already re-built the engine and most of the exhaust system.  i got my motorcycle license last fall in anticipation of finishing this thing and getting my “zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” on, but it’s a loooooong project and parts are hard to find!

(2) i love getting tattoos!  i have at least seven of them, and i often get them when i travel, as a sort of souvenir of the trip.  (my largest tattoo is a huge piece i got from renowned tattooist john long in shanghai — it’s some peonies, which i’m told is china’s national flower.)

(3) i am a high orange belt in the korean martial art hapkido. it’s very difficult to find time to train in my busy work schedule, but my friend tommie tries to keep me motivated to hit the dojang.

(4) this year my boyfriend got me really into two sports i would never have otherwise been excited about — baseball (our team is the san francisco giants) and formula 1 racing (i root for mercedes mcclaren because, well, lewis hamilton is not bad on the eyes!).

(5) i am a virgo, and while i don’t necessarily subscribe completely to the idea of horoscopes or anything, i can tell you that i exhibit all the classic attributes of virgos — most of all, i am a huge perfectionist, and am extremely detail-oriented.

(6) this one will not be a surprise to those of you who have been reading the ingredients in my bentos — i LOVE anything pickled.  for years when anyone asked me my favorite food i would say pickled ginger (usually the response was “that’s not a food, it’s a condiment”), but in the past few years i have expanded to takuwan, all kinds of kimchi, etc.  if it’s pickled, i will eat it!

(7) for years and years, i was a vegetarian.  at the end of  college, i started to eat fish, and in the past few years, i have occasionally even eaten chicken and beef.  (i can’t eat pork or shellfish products, because they are not kosher.)  i recently began reading the book eating animals by jonathan safran foer, and it is inspiring me to reconsider my dietary choices yet again.

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well, that’s me…  any surprises?  this is such a fun way for us to learn a little bit about each other besides what we put in our bentos!

picking seven other blogs to nominate is tough, but after some thinking, here is my list:

(1) jenn at bentobird

(2) ceinwyn at bento bliss

(3) lucky sundae

(4) lil’chan at lily’s kleiner bentoservice

(5) judy’s notebook

(6) MandLmom at pigs don’t fly

(7) my mealbox

can’t wait to see what these bento friends say about themselves!

ok, now i’m really off to california… happy bentoing for the next week, and see you when i return!