Makes fantastic leftovers, but I think I will switch to something less intense for the next few meals.  Maybe some spaghetti alle vongole if the seafood merchant is at the market today.  If not, maybe some pan-seared tofu, some garlic seaplants, and a hot bowl of steamed rice.

Blast from the past!

It has been over two years since my last bento, and so much has changed since then.  As last mentioned, I am currently pursuing a law degree.  Right now I am getting ready for school again and interviewing at law firms for next summer.  Yes, law students move quickly: we call it “taking the initiative” and “being proactive.”

Last year was kind of a blur.  Given the current job market, everyone is extraordinarily committed to schoolwork.  There has not been a lot of time for long vacations and big projects for fun,  so I have resolved to finding smaller pleasures in life.  The biggest challenge right now is finding prints I like so much that I want to hang them on my walls 24/7.  Well, off to etsy.

Another thing, of course, is cooking.  Not just making bentos, but eating in more.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

For a recipe of the cabbage and pork rolls, click here.  I quite like the pattern of the cabbage leaves.

As an attempt to improve my diet, I have begun to introduce different grains into my rice.  However, I love the fluffy texture of white rice too much to give it up altogether, so nowadays I eat a “compromise” blend of regular white rice, brown rice, and barley in a 2:2:1 ratio.  Love it.

This is one of the first Japanese recipes I learned.  The best thing about it, aside from its subtle flavor, is its flexibility.  You will notice that my measurements are very loose, partly because I am lazy, and also because the recipe is pretty liberal.  We are not trying to make macaroons here.

Ingredients and Procedure

(Makes 6 Rolls)

6 whole napa cabbage leaves
2 handfuls of ground pork
A chunk of carrot, diced
2 shiitake  mushrooms, dried or fresh, diced*
Half of a small onion, diced
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp sake
A dash of salt and pepper
3/4 cup of dashi stock

* Note: I like dried shiitake mushrooms because I find them more flavorful and fragrant.  When using dried mushrooms, give the mushrooms a quick rinse and soak it in water for at least an hour, until the mushrooms are soft.  If you want to, you can substitute part of the dashi stock with that soaking water.

In a lightly oiled frying pan, brown the diced onions until it turns fragrant.

Trim off the tough stems of the cabbage leaves.  Blanche briefly until leaves are soft.

In a bowl, season the pork with sake, salt, and pepper.  Give the pork a few squeezes with your hands; this improves the texture of the ground meat.  Add carrot, mushrooms, onion, egg, and flour.  Mix thoroughly.

Divide the pork mix in 6 equal parts.  Shape each portion into an oval burger, and roll each one up with a cabbage leaf like you would with a burrito.

Bring the dashi to a boil in a pot, and place each cabbage roll inside.  Turn to medium-low heat, cover, and let it simmer for 10 minutes until the pork is cooked.

(Ten zaru soba with assorted vegetable tempura – green beans, zucchini, carrots, and shitake mushrooms – and tamagoyaki.  Served with tsuyu dipping sauce on the side.)

August is my least favorite month of the year.  I am so glad that it has been rainy and cold in New York for the past 3 days, and I cannot wait to get into full autumn gear… Chunky knits, black ankle boots, cropped wool pants, et al.

(Zucchini and Mushroom Lasagna; Garlic Stir-fried Collard Greens)

I am summering in Atlanta, Georgia right now.  I thought I would binge myself on fried chicken, waffles, and ribs at Southern Diners.  Yet somehow, most days are eating-in and vegetarian.

Boyfriend is visiting this week; so yes, there will be diners.  I cannot wait to take him to Mary Mac’s Tearoom.  See you there.

I remember watching the Japanese film “Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit” (a rather grim story), and it said how cherry blossoms have to ability to make everyone happy.

I think this is it.

Just like happiness, I can never get enough.

And what better way to appreciate this cascade of petals than to enjoy some pink sweets and bentos? Those of us who can’t find edible cherry blossoms in local stores but have a penchant for pink things will have to find other ways to indulge ourselves. Sakura denbu is a popular choice. But I was also thinking about making these too…

Red Bean Onigiris

I saw a red bean rice recipe that is eaten for celebratory occasions in the cookbook Basic Japanese Cuisine. Bento-obsessed, my first thought was to modify it for making onigiris.

• 180mL glutinous rice (yields about 3 onigiris)
• 30mL dried red beans
• pinch of toasted sesame seeds
• pinch of salt

The onigiris derive their subtle colour from the Azuki red beans. You can easily find this type of bean at your local Asian markets, either dried or canned. Make sure you get the dried ones!

Wash and drain glutinous rice; set aside. Add red beans to a big pot of water, bring to boil, and drain. Add 300mL of water to red beans and bring to boil again. Let it simmer for 10 minutes and drain. Remember to keep the liquid: it is what makes the rice pink.

In a ricecooker, soak glutinous rice with the cooking water you just saved for 30 minutes. Stir in red beans and cook rice as usual. In general, you will need about 250mL of liquid to cook the rice. Depending on how pink you want the rice, you can adjust the ratio between the red bean water and plain water. For my onigiris, I used approximately 200mL of the red bean water and substituted the remaining 50mL with plain water.

When rice is done, let it cool a bit and shape it into onigiris. Add a dash of salt and sesame seeds. Enjoy with your favourite bento treats, under sakura blossoms.

Maybe it is just a lame justification, but I am glad that I had let this sit in my head for such a long time (I had first thought about writing this back in July 2007). Looking back at previous drafts, I don’t think I had thought about these ideas thoroughly enough.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Last post, we discussed the significance of fragmentation in food arrangement. A quick glance through bento communities would show the great care that many devote to fashioning discrete parts, often with tools such as cookie cutters and egg moulds. Just as important, however, is keeping an eye on the overall organization. This post will focus on one primary aspect of maintaining the relationships between fragments. Like before, I hope that this post will serve as a catalyst for more discussion on the aesthetics and nature of bentos.

Contrast

Not only the most ubiquitous, contrast is also the easiest theme to achieve. It can manifest itself in colour, taste, texture, or form. The following discussion will concentrate on colour and form.

If you flip through a conventional bento book, you will often find a list of recipes organized by their principle colours. For instance, a section on red might have dishes with tomatoes, red peppers, or radishes as the main ingredient. Efforts to escape monotony in colour adds not only to the visual experience but also to the nutritional value of the bento. I can’t pinpoint the reasons for that off the top of my head, but I am sure that you too would have read about that already. At the very least, it ensures that you are consuming a nice variety of foods (junk food and food colouring being the exceptions).

Having lots of colours in our bento is one thing, but we also have to think about their arrangement. One general rule to keep in mind is contrast: bright vs. dark, warm vs. cool, pale vs. saturated. Things placed adjacent to each other because they are different, and not because they are similar.  This is a mode of organization that departs from its usual meaning and lets the individual elements to stand out.  In other words, their distinctiveness originates from this relational context.  As Roland Barthes once wrote on sukiyaki (although I also think it would be interesting to apply it for understanding the bento):

… everything is the ornament of another ornament: first of all because on the table, on the tray, food is never anything but a collection of fragments, none of which appears privileged by an order of ingestion; to eat is not to respect a menu (an itinerary of dishes), but to select, with a light touch of the chopsticks, sometimes one colour, sometimes another, depending on a kind of inspiration… (1)

Of course, contrast can also extend beyond colour and even food itself.  It can take into consideration the shapes, and the relationship between the container and the contents. Round foods can be placed on an angled vessel, light on dark, translucent on opaque, and so forth. One simple example would be white rice in a bento box with a dark interior…

Bibliography

1.  Barthes, Roland.  Empire of Signs. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.

<< Fragmentation :: Asymmetry >>

Next / Previous

Happy New Year.

Next / Previous

poladroid x homemade cinnaroll

Oh readers, how I have missed thee. How was your autumn?

Hopefully, when I get my new camera (the old one broke down back in September), I will be able to resume my blogging adventures. I feel rusty, bento-wise.

Next / Previous

After a rough day from before, Justin and I woke up to a breakfast of salmon tartar, hot coffee, and…

… Orange poppy seed cake.  I never noticed until then, but there are very few things as pleasurable as having a huge wedge of cake with a cup of good coffee.

The place was Nordic Bakery, a small Scandinavian cafe tucked away in a quiet block off the bustling streets of Piccadilly Circus. Featured on the “cool” periodicals like Wallpaper and Monocle, it is praised not only for its menu but also for its design.

I really enjoyed its cappuccino: so silky, aromatic, and rich.  One thing I noticed is that the general quality of cappuccinos served at your average cafe is considerably higher in Europe than what I find in North America.  In the past, I never liked cappuccinos, because they tasted watered down (and the poor quality made them overpriced).

(Marimekko bags on the wall)

But I guess I like the cafe’s interior design and ambiance even more.  Don’t know what it is exactly, but there exists this strange bug in my system that goes crazy every time I encounter Scandinavian or Scandinavian-inspired designs.  Maybe it is because of the clarity and ease with which beauty is found.   The lines and their intersections appear so straightforward and simple that I can’t help thinking to myself: “Why yes!  It must have been like this, and it should have been like this.  All along.”

We spent an afternoon at Tate Modern, one of the most anticipated stops on our list.

Lots of art, magnificent spaces, sunny weather, quaint surroundings, and a view by the river.  What’s not to love?  Like the V&A, this is another place that I would love to drop by randomly in times of dolce far niente.

I also sent my mum a quick hello via the awesome webcam service outside the museum shop.  Simply record your message, enter the recipient’s email, click submit, and voilà!  You got yourself and your faraway loved ones a sweet souvenir.  Despite my incessant prodding, Justin adamantly refused to appear on camera for his family and friends.  What a cold-hearted party-pooper.

“And Justin is taking pictures of staircases.  He doesn’t want to say hi.”

After a quick supper of baked seafood rice, we went to see the St. Paul’s Cathedral city salute parade.  Not sure of its precise purpose, but I reckon the event was for honouring the British military.  Unfortunately, my height prevented me from fully appreciating the parade.  Physical compactness, apparently, is not always a desirable trait in our modern age.

(original image from The Daily Mail)

<< Day Five :: Day Seven >>

Names & Addresses

Nordic Bakery
14A Golden Square
London, W1F 9JG

Tate Modern
Bankside
London, SE1 9TG

Next / Previous