silver chopstix

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

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

This is my first Christmas inspired onigiri and one of the easiest to make. I just took a scoop of rice and made a free form wreath shape. Then I decorated it with carrots using my vegetable cutter, some parsley leaves and tomato. You can get really creative in using different ingredients as decoration. Some ideas would be cut out ham or salami, imitation crab sticks, cheese, cucumber sticks, nori and even sesame seeds. (162)

I was a Sanrio fan as a child and still is. Sanrio is the name behind Hello Kitty, My Melody, Little Twin Stars etc. They have created more than 400 characters and one of these is Keroppi. Keroppi or Kerokerokeroppi was introduced in 1988 and was one of the popular characters in my generation. He is a frog who lives with his family on Donut pond according to the official Sanrio website. This Keroppi bento is easy to make. You only need steamed white rice, white cheddar cheese, nori and…read more

This bento proved to be more difficult that I expected. This is not my original creation by any means. I was inspired to make this from the blog littlemissbento and after watching the movie again with my girls last night. Making the hair for Elsa and Anna was the most challenging part. You have to make the egg crepe first, making sure it does not tear in the process. Then dyeing the egg to achieve the reddish brown color was trial and error. I added a bit of soy sauce…read more

Before we say goodbye to Fall, I wanted to make one last bento that is inspired by this season. Chestnuts are usually harvested during the months of September and October and are out in the market in the Fall through Winter. These are usually added to soups, salads, main course and even made into desserts. To make the chestnut rice ball, roast some sesame seeds in a pan until it turns golden brown. Set aside to cool. You then make your onigiri by using a triangle mold or a plastic…read more

This is my second Halloween themed bento for this month. I made a pumpkin and mummy onigiri. As I have mentioned before, getting the right ingredient to color your rice is the most challenging part in creating a character bento. I recently discovered “decofuri” which made this task a lot easier . Decofuri is a rice seasoning mix which adds color to your rice. The packet comes with 6 different hues: orange, blue, red, green, pink and yellow. To make the pumpkin onigiri I just added the orange decofuri to…read more