Porridge in siew mai tray

Bento No. 308



 

Bento lovers like me will never had enough of tools.  It's an addiction!! Above is a siew mai tray which I bought from Daiso.  I would never know that the tray could be used to prepare bento for my kid.  I learnt it from a very creative Mom in EZ Bento group.  Want more bento goodies, hope over to Bento Monster who is hosting a giveaway in celebration of her 500th post. I have entered the giveaway.  Have you?

 

At the bottom of the tray, my son had brown rice porridge (mixed with a little of fragrant jasmine rice) topped with pork floss.  In the middle row, there was stir-fried cabbage with baby shrimp and egg fried with baby shrimp.  The top was oranges and grapes decorated with leaf and panda foodpicks. My boy dislikes porridge.  Here, I'm trying to make it an interesting way to eat.  And it works!!  He was having fun and even asked for more porridge :D

 

The star of the ingredients today is baby shrimp?  Those that you can find in cincalok.  This was my childhood dish which my mum simply steamed it when I was little.  Speaking of nostalgia, my boy made five stones for Grandma in kindergarten in line with their learning theme - Grandparent  And Granny, in turn, bought the aeroplane chess game for him.  Coincidentally, these were Mommy and Papa's favourite childhood games.

 

 

Five Stones for Grandma

 

Playing five stones with Granny

Aeroplane chess

 

 

 

 

 

 





Pikachu kamaboko

Bento No. 307

For the first time I shopped at Medi-Ya supermarket at Liang Court, I bought  Pikachu kamaboko.  I didn't want to buy because it was too pricey.  Unfortunately, my son saw it and he 'please' so many time that I just did not want to disappoint him. What is kamaboko? To put it simply, it's Japanese processed seafood product which is akin  to Chinese fish cake.  I have extracted some information from the internet below.

Quote: Kamaboko is Japanese cured pureed white fish. They have rubbery texture and mild taste. In Japan, we slice them and eat with soy sauce with wasabi or mayonnaise. Kamaboko are often in udon soup, ramen soup, and bento box.Since kamaboko is good source of protein and calcium, and it is low fat, it is considered as a healthy food.  UnQuote

I have seen character kamaboko selling in top-end or specialised supermarket at Market Place (Tanglin Mall), Isetan supermarket (Orchard Road) and of course, Medi-Ya supermarket (Liang Court) in Singapore.

In the plate, my boy had soba, blanched carrot/spinach, gyoza and Pikachu kamaboko.  On top of which, he finished some grapes and a bowl of soup which was not pictured here.

Fox maki sushi

Bento No 306

Foxy!

Have you ever seen a panda face sushi or a flower maki sushi?  Fancy maki sushi or decorative sushi roll, whichever way you may call it. I have been procrastinating for a long long time to make something of similar for my boy's bento after I had seen beautiful ones created by Karen Wee's Bento Diary.  Last night, I found a video on how to make a fancy sushi here -http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-a-fancy-maki-sushi?sourcelink=playlist#playlist-urlname=how-to-make-a-fancy-maki-sushi.  It looks quite daunting and complicated to make such a huge sushi roll as shown in the video.  However, I marvel at the Japanese chef's sushi art.  If you own decorative tools, it will make the job a lot easier, I guess.  But I don't.  Nevertheless, I was quite encouraged and inspired by the sushi art.  And after watching the video several times and taken note of the technique of folding and handling the roll, I decided to create a simple one using tamagoyaki  and imitation crabstick (the ears) instead of just sushi rice for the entire roll. 

Honestly, I have no idea what to expect this morning.  My finished product has a pair of pointed ears (imitation crabstick) and square face (tamagoyaki).  After decorating the facial with nori, I presented it to my son and asked him "What kind of animal is this?"  He replied "A fox?" unconvincingly.  In the box, he has edamame, imitation crabstick, grapes and Japanese cucumber on top of his maki sushi.

On a separate note, my 5 years old boy is able to write all the characters in his Chinese name.  Another milestone!!  Last Sunday, we had a house visit from his form teacher, Fu Laoshi (符老师) about his progress in his school.  Overall, he is doing well.  There are two areas he need to improve i.e. his spoken language in Mandarin and fine motor skills such as cutting using scissor. 

Teddy Bear

Bento No. 305

This box looks rather empty.  It's meant to be eaten at home and I have not much ingredient left in the fridge since it was the end of the week.  My boy loves egg fried rice in any form. However, this time I added lup cheong (aka Chinese sausage) and seasoned it with Thai fish sauce and some soya sauce for a twist (on top of the usual mixed vegetables; frozen peas, carrots and corns).  A new rice dish!  And his first lup cheong fried rice too!!  On the sides, he got some Japanese cucumbers and dragonfruits.  Plus a teddy bear made of orange cheese with a green pepper outfit and heart shape ham.  Nori for the facial and paws.  To my surprise, my son actually finished everything including the green pepper.  Haha, he thought it was green jelly initially.  Luckily, he did not throw out after a bite ;) 

Have you planned anything for your children over this coming June school holidays?  We did!  First week, we will travel to down under, Darwin Australia.  We probably go museums hopping on second week.  And we signed up an one-week Chinese Theatre camp on the third week for my boy.  Forth week, we will visit Grandma and his cousin (a routine we did in every school holidays :))

Have a nice weekend ahead!

Zoom Zoom Race Car

Bento No. 304

 

It was difficult to plan what to create for my boy's bento on a daily basis.  Because he always had a change of heart at the spur of moment.  This morning he requested for race car which was entirely different from what he told me last night. Hence, I used carrot (orange) and spinach (green) toast  spread with butter and sandwiched with cheese and honey baked ham for the body.  Japanese cucumbers for the wheels.  Nori and cheese for the car lucky number 21 as well as for the eyes.  Decorated with honey baked ham stars, a red flag and a tiger foodpick as the driver.  Some red and green coral lettuces as the background. 

Zoom, zoom, crossing the finishing line.......



Penguins, Paper Plate Jabiru

Bento No. 303

I reckon this was not the cutest penguins but the fastest bento I ever made!! I cut out the shape of penguin from the seaweed and paste it on the fishballs.  Mouth and feet were orange cheese which I pressed out from a straw.  Toasted spaghetti for its eyes.  Final touches - decorated each with sunhat and a cap foodpicks!   That's my boy's lunch today; soba, blanched baby spinach/carrots, corn kernels and half of banana (which was not in the picture). 

We did a paper plate Jabiru craft on Monday since my son has fully recovered from his stomach flu.  And he is eating well and back to his usual chirpy self.  Why Jabiru?  We are planning to visit Darwin Australia during the June holiday.  Papa has mentioned that we are going for bird watching in the Kakadu National Park. Among which, he will be able to spot geese, jabiru..etc   The highlight of the trip would be camping there.  And my son is really excited about it because it will be his first 'camping' trip abroad. 

Materials for paper plate Jabiru :-

Some black colour paper (beak, head, neck, feathers)
Paper plate (body)
A pair of chopstick (legs)
Red crepe paper (legs)
Straws (feets)
Gold ink pen (to draw the eyes and patterns on beak)






Jabiru

Mother's Day, cheese sandwich with assorted shapes



3D paper Sunshine Tulip

I have the best Mother's day this year.  I was gifted with an hour of Swedish Body massage at Amore by our dear Papa and son.  It was my happiest moment in my life to know that father and son together planned a surprise for me on Mother's day.  The original idea was to buy a pair of earrings for me and it must be 'gold' in colour insisted by my boy.  However, Daddy suggested a body massage instead.  I love it all whichever it would be.  To celebrate the occasion, we went to the floral show - Tulipmania at Flower Dome, Gardens by Bay which has since started 29 April 2013 and would be ending 20 May 2013.  I love tulips for the vibrate colours and it was a 'must go' for me, of course!!  But it was tad too crowded in the Flower Dome for us to leisurely immerse myself in the blooms.  Nonetheless, we still enjoy it and even did a 3D paper yellow sunshine tulip above.  There, we also witnessed a Dutch street organ on display and in action.  It was an eye-opener for me who has never been to Holland :P

Tulipmania at Flower Dome, Gardens by the Bay

Dutch street organ

On a separate note, my son was actually nursing his stomach flu since last Thursday with onset of vomit, diarrhea and stomach ache. He saw our family doctor and was given Collimix (for wind tension), Dimenate (to stop vomit) and Lacteol Fact (the good bacteria).  On the third day (which was also the Mother's day), his condition has improved.  There was no signs vomiting and diarrhea except with intermittent stomach pain  And he was feeling quite bored at home on Sunday.  That was why we brought him to Gardens by the Bay to relax.  But the stomach ache came suddenly during the trip and gone later.  My poor boy :((  Later that evening, we had Japanese dinner at Yayoiken restaurant at Liang Court basement and strolled MEIDI-YA supermarket where we bought some crackers home.  It's a long time since we last visited Liang Court. We ordered udon soup for my boy as it was best to have bland food still he recovers.  The last few days, I have been following the B.R.A.T diet - Banana, rice, applesauce and toast.  (I did not make applesauce.) It was a real torture for a kid who loves food!  On the 5th day, I am so glad that he has fully recovered. I continue to provide small meals for him.  He had toast for breakfast, quinoa/oatmeal and banana in mid-morning and I packed some cheese sandwich for him to bring to school for his lunch. 


Bento No. 302