Ah yes, the beauty of convenience. I was so happy when I found this pack of microwaveable korokke (croquettes) at Choto Stop (Little Tokyo, Makati).
I was sold! It means not having to make croquettes from scratch: boiling and mashing the potatoes, putting in the filling, then coating in flour, egg and panko. Actually, these korokke can be cooked in a microwave in the plastic tray they came in, or in a toaster oven (using the oven metal plate, of course). The other variant in the store is by microwave only, but it’s got more flavours. This one comes in kani flavour only.
The directions at the back say the cooking time depends on your oven’s temperature. But my trusty toaster oven did not have a temp gauge so I just estimated the cooking time: 3-4 minutes. The first time, I put the oven at 5 minutes and my korokke expanded then burst. Erk. Still tasted good, though 😀
Speed bento doesn’t get any easier: pop this in your bento box together with rice, and a container of tonkatsu sauce and you have a filling, tasty lunch.
I regret not buying more than 1 pack — I haven’t been back to Little Tokyo. But the next time I do, I’ll make sure I will stock up!
For this bento, I put the korokke as a side dish to my spaghetti (made of tomato sauce and leftover meat), plus baby corn, kani sticks, chikuwa and crab roll. The chikuwa and crab roll were bought from the “takal-takal” section of SM Makati 🙂
Click HERE to view this photo with notes (Flickr).
