Posted in discojing.com

Carte Postale de France

Bento Concept &  KaraChiwie have finished this world tour, but another one will start soon.
January’s stop was Morocco and February’s is France.

Besides the movie Ratatouille, France brings to mind desserts and picnics. For this bento I made a sort of Cordon Bleu-style chicken and packed it in a sandwich box. The inside of the chicken is filled with a little mustard, ham and provolone cheese. The bottom part is filled with chocolates I received from my sister for an early Valentine’s day present, a slice of a homemade roll cake I made (more on that later), two Nilla wafers, and the last of the pickled vegetables from New Years. This was too much food and sadly, I didn’t have enough room for all the chocolates.

I have bento from between last month’s world stop and this month’s, but I haven’t had time to post them! As it is, I’m always late for the Tour du Monde!

Carte Postale du Maroc

Bento Concept &  KaraChiwie are still traveling around the world with bento.
December was Brazil and January is Morocco. When thinking about Morocco, the first things I think about are preserved lemons, mounds of spices, and tagine. While many of spices are sold in stores around me, and some gourmet shops even sell tagines, I chose to make couscous, the main grain of Morocco. The couscous is lemon and spinach, with some lemon slices on top. Chicken is the most common protein in Morocco, but I chose to pair it with some leftover fish I had. To emulate the tagine’s traditional triangle shape, I split the couscous into triangles. One is the couscous and the other triangle is tomato rice.

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! (I’m a week late in saying this of course…)
How did you celebrate your New Year?

My family celebrates the Chinese New Year (on February 14th this year), but we celebrate it on New Years day since that’s when the family is together and available. On this day, my Grandma cooks a delicious feast. The side dishes vary every year, but we always have Roast Duck, Pork, and Stuffing (made with liver). It’s my favorite time of the year because I love all these foods! This year we also had vegetables (carrot, jicama, cauliflower, broccoli) with chicken, pickled cabbage, and rice. I arrived to dinner late, so there may have been other things that got eaten up! Dessert was green tea ice cream and some coconut cream pie.

I made sure to get first dibs on all the yummy leftovers. I especially like the pickled vegetables my Grandma made. She spent the whole year of 2009 pickling them for New Years! My first bento of 2010 was basically a recreation of this New Year’s spread. More on that later~

Last Bento of 2009

The last two months of 2009 saw a sharp decrease in bento-making. This was due to many meetings and get-togethers at work where food was provided (or I was traveling and it was easier to purchase lunch) and lack of time and food. My boyfriend and I moved to a new apartment in the middle of December and it took us a while to get back onto our feet and into a routine where I feel comfortable with my new commute to make bento.

November and December also saw some weird schedules in terms of trips, holidays, vacation, and snow days. Some of the bento I made were listed in separate posts because they were part of Washoku Warriors or Tour du Monde. Oh, and I was also quite lazy and took my boyfriend up on his offer when he volunteered to make me sandwiches for lunch.

Nov 5th – Leftover hamburger; blueberry jell-o; macaroni and cheese; glazed carrots.

Nov 20th – Onigiri filled with spicy bean sprouts; okara cookies from Kyotofu in New York

Dec 7th – Leftovers from Thanksgiving and other dinners: spaghetti with turkey meatballs; miso glazed roasted sweet potatoes; brown sugar acorn squash and sweet potato; peppermint “bark”