Yet another “back-to-bento” bento
Yes, I am back to bringing lunch to work. I was sort of forced into it, because of a little incident that happened at work. But more on that later. More importantly, bento is my way of eating more healthy stuff and of course, saving money at the same time. I know it is much more convenient to grab something from a nearby fastfood restaurant, but that is never the healthiest of options. Nor the most frugal way.
So this means, there will be more bento posts, pics and creations for this year. Hopefully, I can keep this up 😉
So without further ado, I present bento #41: My okoy and veggies bento!
Here are the contents of my bento:
- okoy – main dish
- baby carrots
- blanched sweet peas
- cherry tomatoes
- curry quail eggs
- pork floss
- white rice
I’d say it turned out pretty well. The great thing is, I bought the rice and okoy from the canteen at the condo for P33 only and I only had to put a little effort into the design. Even coloring the quail eggs did not take a lot of time. I just dunked them in water with a little curry powder and let them sit there while I shower. Had I decided to simmer them longer, I would get a very bright yellow color as in the quail egg in this bento.
Just a comment about pork floss. I got mine from Rustan’s and it was a little expensive (P360 for a 250 gram bag). But I think this will be a bento staple for me now. It gives a lot of color, texture and flavor to my bento. Quite versatile and I can already think of many uses for it, aside from soil and from animal fur (as I did in this Happy Bear Obento).
To see a larger picture of the bento, plus notes, please click here (Flickr photo)
Cheap, nutritious and cute. A combo that works for me every time 🙂
If you are a Filipino who likes bento or would like to learn more, I would like to invite you to join our growing community, Japinoy.com. Please click here to visit our Bento Forum
The ‘Smells’ incident
Now, as I wrote earlier, I was sort of forced to bring food to work. Kuya Lito, the guy who delivers packed lunch to the office, is now officially banned from the building vicinity. This was after this canteen chain — let’s call them ‘Smells’ — complained to the building management that Kuya Lito was taking customers away from them.
Talk about duh. It’s not as if Kuya Lito is some bigshot catering company. I doubt that he even delivers over a hundred lunches to our office daily.
Besides, we would not patronize people like Kuya Lito if we have great food choices, right? Smells is not very cheap. Which is funny, because I ate at other Smells branches, and the one in our building charges much higher for their crappy food. Which is reason #2.
Smells’ food quality is very inconsistent. It is a hit or miss with them. More misses than hits, though. You want meat as tough as rubber? How about greasy pancit? Bland pasta? Smells has them all.
Kuya Lito’s lunches, on the other hand, are very good. He sells food that you normally eat at home: adobo, sinigang, menudo, plus favorite Pinoy breakfast fares like tapsilog. His lunches always come with a banana or yema. Kumpletos rekados. Everything for only P65.
But now, we will never have any of that anymore. The building management decided in favor of Smells and I heard from a colleague that Kuya Lito was so depressed about it. We were saddened too. But there was nothing we could do about it. Except boycott Smells! So no one buys anything at Smells. If you do, you’re branded a traitor 😀
Another colleague said our little boycott will not even make a dent on the sales of Smells — but then, we’re just holding on to our ‘principles’. Take that, Smells!
