Tz’s summer holidays are coming soon! Cant wait to take a break from making his bentos with my eyes half-open everyday in the wee hours of the morning. (=∩x∩=)

Today, I used left-over kyuri (Japanese cucumber) to shape out little cactus characters. The kyuri is halved and partially hollowed out to fill in a piece of hanpen (Japanese fish cake). I cut out holes for the faces before fitting in the hanpen and used nori for eyes and mouth.

Bento

Edamame & Hotate Rice

Cook 1 cup rice in the rice cooker with light vegetable broth instead of water, add in a few pieces of dried scallops and before 8-10 minutes before the cooking cycle completes, add in edamame.

Pork yakitori

This is asian style yakitori, I made a quick spice paste with 2-3 garlic cloves, pepper, 2-3 coriander roots, sprinkle of brown sugar and sake using a pestle and motar. I used the paste to marinate the pork belly cubes overnight. Before grilling them, I added some fish sauce, mirin and sea salt to the meat. I grilled them til golden brown and used a pair of scissors to remove any charred bits.

Tomago yaki

Mix 1 egg, some vegetable stock, miring and cook over very low heat.