Tuesday, May 06, 2008

May 6th Bento

mmmm....sootball onigiri!

I guess sootballs are characters from the Japanese cartoon, My Neighbor Totoro, but I've never seen it myself. I just think they make cute onigiris! I molded the rice by hand (I didn't have a big circle mold) and wrapped with nori. The eyes are havarti and nori. I filled the onigiri with lotus seed bean paste, but BF said they would have been better with a big piece of fish inside so now I know for next time.

I made beef and asparagus rolls, using the same recipe as last time, but I used shorter pieces of beef this time (about 2") to make a tighter roll. They were a bit tricky to make this small. I generally hold them together with toothpicks as they cook, so that they keep their shape. There are three pieces of asparagus for filling. I let the florette part of the asparagus stick out of the end to make a couple of prettier bites (near the top of the bento).

There are three gyoza (I steamed them today instead of frying), and some sesame fried bok choy filler at the top. On the bottom there are a couple of pieces of broccoli and some sugar snaps. I fried some plantain stars and cut some flowers out of carrot. There was a little bit of space left, and I thought the bento could use more green, so I included some cucumber slices.

For fruit there is a freaky little thing called a mangostein (I usually try to pick up anything that I haven't tried at the grocery store). It's the white bit in the bottom right. It tasted like a mango but was gooeier (is that a word?). I don't think I would repurchase. Then of course there are strawberries and blueberries, and lastly, a bite of strawberry fudge.

6 comments:

Thistlemoon said...

Beautiful! I love all the lovely little bits in there - yum!

I have never had fresh mangosteen, although the juice is yummy!

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Issy Girl said...

I think that this was wonderful!!!!!!!! LOL

Jacki said...

Thank you!! :)

Hallie Fae said...

So cute!

Anonymous said...

wait... where do you live? my understanding is you can't get mangosteen in the united states... i wish i could!

this bento is beautiful... so complicated!

Jacki said...

I live in Halifax in Canada. Mangosteen definitely doesn't grow around here, but there's a grocery store down the street from me that specializes in fruit, so they always have a couple of unusual things for sale. This week it was mangosteen :)

I'm glad you like the bento! I thought it turned out pretty cute!