Cafe Catalina

I have a backlog of my bento posts since last May, and I don’t have plans on posting about my recent ones until I’ve uploaded the old ones. But today, I am breaking that rule, just because I was so happy with how today’s bento looked (and tasted) like. ^___^

I make a bento once a week for my boyfriend to eat at work; for the rest of the week, he either eats out or his mom makes him lunch to bring to work. I also make bentos for myself almost everyday, but none as cute as the ones I make for my boyfriend. I eat very little so I don’t put in a lot of effort in my own lunches. Hehe.

Presenting, bento # 29: The chicken karaage and enoki dake bacon maki bento!

Today’s bento is made up of the following:

1. Chicken karaage
2. Enoki dake bacon maki
3. Fried potatoes – had to use them already as they were sleeping in the fridge for weeks already…
4. Naruto slices
5. Eggplant slices with spicy bagoong
6. Broccoli
7. Mixed veggies (corn, carrots and green peas)
8. Hotdog octopus – not in pic because I added that as an afterthought.
9. White steamed rice
10. Quail eggs masquerading as strawberries!! ^___^

I was a bit hesitant to use ginger in the karaage marinade, because I hate the taste of ginger. But I am glad I followed the recipe. The chicken was yummy! I guess a tad bit does change the flavor a lot.

For the enoki dake (aka golden mushrooms) bacon maki, I got the idea from Teriyaki Boy. It is my favorite on their menu, but it’s quite expensive too. I didn’t realize how easy it was! Just wrap a slice of bacon (I used Purefoods Honeycured Classic) around a small bunch of mushrooms. Make sure that very little of the mushrooms are “peeking out” of the bacon wrap. This is so they don’t turn brown while frying. Then put the rolls in a hot pan without oil and brown the bacon. It’s best to drain the rolls on paper towels before putting inside the bento box. Anyway, it was soooo yummy! I love, love, love the crispy bacon and the juicy enokidake. I’ll be making more of these pretty soon.

Now, about my quail eggs, I got the idea from my latest bento acquisition: a book on kids’ bento. That book is loaded with cuteness! The ebay seller had it at double the JPY price but I got it anyway (as well as another bento book) and I don’t regret buying it, because it was just so full of new ideas for bento. ^___^ Anyway, to make the quail eggs red, I took the pickling liquid from my fukujinzuke to soak the eggs in. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of juice, so I ended up with strangely mottled eggs. I bought those McCormick food color that come in squeeze bottles and one drop did the trick. I was actually going for red, but ended up with pink. Still, I love how the pink matches the color of my pink lunchbox! I added little sprigs of broccoli for leaves — the book used parsley but I only had broccoli. Then I sprinkled black sesame seeds (kurogoma) on the eggs. To make them stick to the eggs, I put a small amount of sweet and sour sauce as “glue”. Mayonnaise and ketchup are also good, just make sure that they are not too obvious or you will ruin your design.

As I am writing this, I am waiting for the boyfriend’s verdict — he is currently eating dinner. ^___^ OK, the bento from another angle:

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