Japanese curried rice is easy as...but only if you have the base, which may not be easy to get. I can get it at my local supermarket, but New Zealand actually has a lot of Asian tourists and residents, so we have odd things sometimes. But...yeah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_curry It's dead easy, if you can find the sauce mix.

I'ma keep my eyes on this thread--I know embarrassingly little about cooking Japanese food. I can make sushi but that's not Japanese food in its entirety and I feel pretty much like an asshole for not knowing more than that.

Yakitori is a pretty big deal, but the real deal would take a grill, huh? What about panko crumbs? Christ anything you put them on becomes instantly delicious.

I'm almost tempted to say okonomiyaki, but the problem with those -- they're a kind of savoury pancake -- is that I have the actual base mixture. The flour the Japanese use is quite different to Western stuff, and I don't know how to make the batter from scratch. They are fun to make and relatively easy, which is a pity.

Lady Nilamarthiel wrote:

Well, I got glutenous rice flour so I can make daifuku. HOWEVER, I have no sweet azuki bean paste [anko]. This makes me sad. Does anybody think that it would  be okay to substitute the anko with sweet mashed strawberries?

Oh honey, you don't even need to mash them. Whole strawberries in the middle of a mochi is freaking delicious.

Also, if you want I have my recipe for Niku-Jaga, a simple meat and potato dish that's really quite tasty. My host mom made it all the time while I lived in Japan.

Bento? I love bento!

I guess first off, you should figure out a good size for a box. Dividers isn't really necessary, since you can use backing cups to seperate things. (I use paper, foil and silicon. Other people have found hard plastic ones at dollar stores.) Also, in some small boxes, you can fit ALOT of food in. And for something found in America alot, I REALLY like these Fit & Fresh boxes. They sell some of them at Target. (At least at mine.) In my own opinion, one with one deep container would probably be easier to fill. The ones I use most often are about 1" and 1 1/2" deep each. They drive me crazy.
ALSO! Watertight is ALWAYS a good thing. And not all are microwavable.

If you really want a cute bento, I'd probably go to ebay, but prices might be scary. Sometimes there are good deals. (apparently, Ichiban Kan is a nice place, but I think the site is down right now. the online part is relatively new, apparently its a Japanese dollar store in San Fransisco.)

I think the most important part in making cutesy bento is variety. Only a few bites max of each thing. its kinda like, edible orderly chaos. Of course, put in whatever you want.



On Japanese food, I dunno much. (personal taste really. I end up filling mine with sauerkraut and sausage...) I have several bento magazines, but it has alot of non traditional stuff. (like, it has a salad thing, but its almost sushi? the salad is rolled inside rice and nori... It also has examples of 'ethnic bento' French fries for France? yeeah... dunno guys.) it also has alot of sandwich ideas, like making small ones out of dinner rolls and all.

You could also do garnishes if you're good with a knife. Radishes are fun to carve, you can make roses, geometric designs, mushrooms or whatever. and if you mess up, they're really small. hide it.


...also, I drew you guys a simple, cute bunny garnish from a hard boiled egg I found in a magazine.  Red Angel LOVES these. They're all bento-tastic.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/le … nyeggs.jpg