My love for duck liver pate is mainly due to my dad. He was the one who introduced me to this delicacy. My dad being an executive would receive yearly Christmas gift baskets from Manila Peninsula and the Mandarin Oriental and it would include a ceramic pot of duck liver pate. In the beginning I was put off with the smell but after some coaxing I was able to get pass it and was hooked. As a teen I remember eating this with some crusty farmer’s or sourdough bread for…read more
Egg salad is probably one of the easiest thing you can make. It’s just hard boiled egg mixed in with some mayo. This combination might get a little bit tiring after a while so I made a jazzed up or upgraded version of it. To make, roughly chop 3 hard boiled eggs and place in a bowl. To this add 1/4 cup diced persian cucumber and 1 tbsp. finely chopped dill. Place 3-4 tbsp of Japanese mayo, this is my preference but you can definitely use your favorite brand. Season…read more
This recipe has been updated 1st February 2018 Tuna sandwich can be a hit or miss thing. The secret to making a great tuna sandwich is getting good quality tuna. I usually use canned albacore tuna, until I discovered this Korean brand at my favorite Asian store. It’s called Dongwon canned tuna. There are several varieties available and it was daunting at first to pick the right one, but after reading the labels and the ingredient list I chose the light standard. This tuna has a very pleasant and mild…read more
Because it’s Halloween eve, it’s just fitting to create a bento with this theme in mind. I ran out of decofuri seasoning to color my rice green, so I used mashed peas instead. I boiled about a quarter cup of peas until really soft and mashed it real well. I then added this to about 1/2 cup of cooked white rice (make sure its warmed up a bit) and mixed it until well combined. I shaped the face of frankenstein using a plastic wrap. Then cut up some nori to…read more
Pokemon Go took the world by storm the past summer. Since it’s release two months ago, it has been downloaded 500 M times according to its developer Niantic. I was never really a pokemon fan until I played this game out of curiosity. You would have been living under a rock if you didn’t know how much everyone is talking about this game. That being said, it’s just fitting that I create a bento with a Pokemon Go theme. To make, I used yellow decofuri to color my rice to…read more
I really wanted to use dried Sakura Ebi for this recipe but it’s very hard to find it here in our area. I found this instead at a Japanese grocery store in New York city. I am not sure if it’s the same since there is no English translation in the package. If you were following my blog, you would see that I already have made several kinds of onigiri. This one is may not appeal to everyone specially if you are not used to eating dried shrimp. This dried…read more
This is my second recipe for onigirazu. It is a type of onigiri that looks like a rice sandwich. It’s very quick and easy to prepare. For step by step instruction refer to my previous post. You can use whatever filling you like, tuna, ham, chicken, avocado etc. For this recipe, start by making a sunny side up egg. Be sure to cook it over hard but if you prefer your eggs runny make it over easy. Then slice up some spam and cook it until crisped and brown and…read more
I wanted to make something savory out of my avocados and I found out that you can actually deep fry them. Looking through several recipes proved it’s easy enough to prepare. First, peel and cut your avocado into wedges. Then prepare your breading, place your seasoned flour (I just added some salt and pepper), beaten egg and panko into three separate containers. Dredge your avocado into the flour making sure you shake off excess, then dip into the egg and last coat it with panko. Repeat until all your avocado…read more
One of the ways to encourage kids to eat and try out new things is making their food attractive Creating a bento is one way to do it, specially when they are at school. You can also do this at home by creating cute shapes of animals, flowers or things that they love out of fruits, cheese, vegetables, rice etc. and choosing colorful varieties of it. As the saying goes “you eat with your eyes first”. You can serve this seal curry rice for either lunch or dinner. The recipe…read more
Daruma dolls are considered to be an important part of New Year celebrations in Japan. It is believed to be a symbol of good luck and fortune. During their first visit to the shrine that year, people would buy daruma dolls, have them blessed and return their old dolls for ceremonial burning. To start my bento series for the year I decided to make a Daruma bento. Daruma dolls are usually made out of paper mache. It comes in only one shape but in various sizes. It is traditionally red…read more
