What's in the box? See whatcha got!
Sep. 21st, 2011 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaFor most of my working life, I've taken lunch rather than buying it in. I still instinctively call my lunch "bait", which mostly confuses people. I shall attempt to use the word lunch throughout this. I rarely take sandwiches; usually my approach is to pick a box, put into it random things I find in the fridge, and call it lunch. So, the question I've been pondering of late... this whole bento box plan. Other than the rather Japanese theme of the contents, what makes my lunch bento-y? Why did what I was formerly doing not add up to the same thing, modulo presentation?
I think there are, to me, two main differences. Firstly, I'm actually planning my lunch rather than scavenging random stuff from the fridge. Up until now, planning has largely been limited to remembering to buy some cherry tomatoes from the greengrocers. The planning has a few benefits: I'm likely to get a more balanced lunch, and I'm more likely to get the right amount of food. I've noticed a few times recently that I'd either overdone it, and eaten rather more than I really wanted at lunchtime, or underdone it and been hungry by 4. I can also plan in a bit of variety, rather than potentially eating the same lunch for four days on the trot (which has been known to happen).
Secondly, it makes my lunch more exciting. It contains things cooked especially, even if they're made out of leftovers. It looks appealing, and I look forward to eating it. On the "life's too short to drink bad wine" principle, perhaps life is also too short to eat boring lunches. Because it's packed into the box (rather than chucked haphazardly into a larger box) it stays reasonably pretty-looking on the way to work. Which doesn't affect how it tastes, of course, but makes lunch seem like more of an event.
Obviously, both of these things can be achieved without calling it a bento box, or cooking Japanese(ish) food. However, it's a good model to start with. I may well diversify as we go on. Possibly ending up with neatly-packed sandwiches in a small box :)
And so, on with the bento! It's a rice-free one today; to use up some mashed potato I made potato oyaki. The remaining bits are the pepper and onion confit and carrot kinpira which have already made an appearance.
You'll notice that today I'm having my lunch landscape rather than portrait.
The biggest problem this morning was tessellation: packing round things neatly and compactly into an oblong bait box isn't simple. Ideally, I'd have liked to separate the crispy potato cakes from the damp vegetables, but again with not having a box with dividers (and I was too idle to ferret around in the cupboard to see if I could find two smaller boxes). Bang on cue, Bento Lady wrote about this divider-tastic bento box today. Tempting, but I'm definitely not buying any clobber until I decide whether I'm going to keep this up (also, it's a little large and not quite the shape I'd want).
Actually, these potato cakes have been a bit problematic all round. You're meant to use meat soboro as a filling, but I'm still in leftover-mode so mine are full of finely chopped lamb mixed with mint sauce. Actually shaping the cakes, and getting the filling inside tidily, was rather harder than expected.
Then they took bloody forever to brown up in the frying pan. Today's bento box came in at 25 minutes, almost all of which was me waiting for the damn things to cook. The other components were sitting in the fridge and just needed transferring from one box to another. Admittedly, I did also wander round the flat, eat my breakfast, get some clothes ready, etc, while waiting for the cakes to do.
And then they took bloody forever to cool down again. In fact, when I left (having had a shower, got dressed, faffed about, etc) I was worried that they still weren't really cooled enough. They tasted "ok"... not fabulous, although they did grow on me a bit. And they're easy to eat, and good for using up leftovers. So the jury's still out on that one. Time-consuming to make, not brilliant, but a good concept and could possibly be bettered.
I think there are, to me, two main differences. Firstly, I'm actually planning my lunch rather than scavenging random stuff from the fridge. Up until now, planning has largely been limited to remembering to buy some cherry tomatoes from the greengrocers. The planning has a few benefits: I'm likely to get a more balanced lunch, and I'm more likely to get the right amount of food. I've noticed a few times recently that I'd either overdone it, and eaten rather more than I really wanted at lunchtime, or underdone it and been hungry by 4. I can also plan in a bit of variety, rather than potentially eating the same lunch for four days on the trot (which has been known to happen).
Secondly, it makes my lunch more exciting. It contains things cooked especially, even if they're made out of leftovers. It looks appealing, and I look forward to eating it. On the "life's too short to drink bad wine" principle, perhaps life is also too short to eat boring lunches. Because it's packed into the box (rather than chucked haphazardly into a larger box) it stays reasonably pretty-looking on the way to work. Which doesn't affect how it tastes, of course, but makes lunch seem like more of an event.
Obviously, both of these things can be achieved without calling it a bento box, or cooking Japanese(ish) food. However, it's a good model to start with. I may well diversify as we go on. Possibly ending up with neatly-packed sandwiches in a small box :)
And so, on with the bento! It's a rice-free one today; to use up some mashed potato I made potato oyaki. The remaining bits are the pepper and onion confit and carrot kinpira which have already made an appearance.
You'll notice that today I'm having my lunch landscape rather than portrait.
The biggest problem this morning was tessellation: packing round things neatly and compactly into an oblong bait box isn't simple. Ideally, I'd have liked to separate the crispy potato cakes from the damp vegetables, but again with not having a box with dividers (and I was too idle to ferret around in the cupboard to see if I could find two smaller boxes). Bang on cue, Bento Lady wrote about this divider-tastic bento box today. Tempting, but I'm definitely not buying any clobber until I decide whether I'm going to keep this up (also, it's a little large and not quite the shape I'd want).
Actually, these potato cakes have been a bit problematic all round. You're meant to use meat soboro as a filling, but I'm still in leftover-mode so mine are full of finely chopped lamb mixed with mint sauce. Actually shaping the cakes, and getting the filling inside tidily, was rather harder than expected.
Then they took bloody forever to brown up in the frying pan. Today's bento box came in at 25 minutes, almost all of which was me waiting for the damn things to cook. The other components were sitting in the fridge and just needed transferring from one box to another. Admittedly, I did also wander round the flat, eat my breakfast, get some clothes ready, etc, while waiting for the cakes to do.
And then they took bloody forever to cool down again. In fact, when I left (having had a shower, got dressed, faffed about, etc) I was worried that they still weren't really cooled enough. They tasted "ok"... not fabulous, although they did grow on me a bit. And they're easy to eat, and good for using up leftovers. So the jury's still out on that one. Time-consuming to make, not brilliant, but a good concept and could possibly be bettered.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:13 pm (UTC)I misread that as "battered", which is presumably also true. Though even more time-consuming.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:29 pm (UTC)I guess they'd definitely have to go in a separate box to have a chance of staying crisp. Hmm. Tempura. I wonder :)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-27 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 03:45 pm (UTC)<3
Then they took bloody forever to brown up in the frying pan.
I assume there's some reason I haven't thought of why you couldn't just turn the heat up?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 04:01 pm (UTC)I'm sure I do frying wrong. I'm not sure how this is possible, but regardless of hob type, pan type or oil type I seem to have two settings: "dead slow" and "stacks of smoke".
no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 04:17 pm (UTC)In the wok-case, I could believe it's something to do with the pan, but today's frying pan is practically new and very clean and shiny.
I have no idea exactly where the smoke's coming from (certainly seems to be from within the pan). Oil or potato cakes seem like the obvious suspects!
To be honest, I suspect it's magic.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 08:14 pm (UTC)We use groundnut oil for high-temp things like stir fry - doesn't taste peanutty, but obv. wouldn't be suitable for anyone with a peanut allergy!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 08:45 am (UTC)T'other half is a no-peanuts person - not the explodey kind, but may have a mild intolerance (as well as a very violent dislike), so I steer clear of groundnut oil just to be on the safe side.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 09:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-22 02:40 pm (UTC)