setsubun & eho-maki
February 7, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else add a comment
Not a bento blog, but I wanted to do this quick post before I do another bento blog since it’s kind of a seasonal thing. (I should’ve done this a couple of days ago, but I’ve been busy playing a video game lately… )
Last week I made Setsubun Totoro bento for Setsubun to scare off evil spirits. On the night of February 3rd, we got roasted soybeans to throw and I made Eho-maki (a type of sushi roll) for dinner.
I got these roasted soybeans in a fake wooden box ("masu") for Setsubun.
It came with a small Oni mask. His hair was trees with "eco" (as in ecological) written on it, his beard was leaves, and he's got a recycling logo for his nose. Definitely not the scary oni I remember... Who would want to throw beans at such an environmentally friendly oni??
In some areas of Japan, people eat Eho-maki on the day of Setsubun for good luck. Traditional Eho-maki contains seven ingredients because seven is a lucky number. People used to put specific ingredients before, but nowadays the recipe is pretty flexible, and you can put anything in it.
I’m from Kyushu and I had never done this before. But this year I wanted to experience this bizarre tradition. Well, eating a certain food on a certain day isn’t bizarre at all, but “how” you eat Eho-maki is far from normal.
1. First you have to face a certain direction. (This is different each year. It was west-southwest this year.)
2, Hold the entire roll in your hands. (You cannot cut a roll because it’s considered “cutting luck”)
3. Begin eating it in complete silence while wishing for good luck and do not take the roll out of your mouth until you finish it. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, you have to eat it in all at once. (In some areas, they say you have to close your eyes while you eat.)
Just imagine people facing the same direction, eating an entire roll of sushi for 5~10 minutes, without talking. My friend told me that she used to do this with her family when she was little. She said that she and her sister could never do it right. The main reason was that it was just a lot of food for kids, and also once you realized how silly you look, you’d lose it and start giggling.
I tried to make the roll as skinny as possible but it was still pretty big with 7 ingredients inside.
When we began eating, it wasn’t too bad. Then for some reason, I started eating faster. My boyfriend was taking his time which was probably a wise thing to do, but I just couldn’t eat it so slow. I finished when my boyfriend still had 1/3 of his roll. Without breathing from the mouth, you can’t taste the roll that much. You just feel the texture. We felt like it made us feel fuller than we actually were… or maybe we weren’t full at all. We didn’t have any other food eating experience to compare how full we’re supposed to feel after jamming an entire roll of sushi into your mouth in one go.
I made ours with avocado, shredded egg sheet, scallion, lettuce, fake crab meat, corns and roe (cooked).
A little too much rice, perhaps? (*We didn't cut the one we ate. This was one of left over eho-maki the day after.)
Yup, definitely too much rice...
Still, I did have fun doing this. It was bizarre, but all that giggling and the image of us doing it made me happy. 
I drew a picture of us eating eho-maki on the whiteboard we have on our fridge. This was pretty much what we looked like.
Oh, and remember, oni says “Recycle!”
The oni mask was perfect for my kitty. (We didn't throw beans at her though. 
)
Bento #72: Setsubun Totoro
February 3, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...) Tags: makkurokurosuke, oni, setsubun, studio ghibli, totoro
2 comments
Today, February 3rd, is the day of Setsubun in Japan. It’s the day to drive away evil spirits, which means to throw roasted soybeans at Oni (evil creature/ogres from Japanese myths). In almost all kindergartens and schools, students make an Oni mask for Setsubun, so that kids can take the mask home, have someone wear it, and throw soybeans at them.
“Roasted soybeans are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!”. The words roughly translate to “Demons out! Luck in!” (wikipedia)”… bizarre, isn’t it?
Bento #72: Setsubun Totoro
Created and eaten on: 2/2/2010
First I put sauteed renkon (lotus root) on the bento box and lettuce at the bottom part of the bento box. Then I mixed rice with black sesame seed and using plastic wrap molded it into the shape of Totoro. I molded Totoro’s stomach with a little bit of plain rice also using plastic wrap. (see “how to make Totoro with rice”)
Look out! It's Oni Totoro!
I wanted to use edamame instead of soybeans for this bento, and I also wanted to make Totoro look like he’s eating all the edamame that were thrown at him. I dug a hole in his face, put ham for the inside of his mouth, and made his teeth with kamaboko (fish cake). Then I stuffed edamame inside his mouth.
Totoro looks always hungry.
Classic Japanese Oni have curly hair and horns, and wears tiger striped clothes. So I put broccoli on top of his head and cut carrot for his horns.
Look at his scary horns! He makes one mean Oni.
I wasn’t planning on making tiger striped clothes for him at first but he looked very naked, so at the very end I decided to make an egg sheet with seaweed for the stripes and put it on him .
Who knew Totoro looks good in tiger striped clothes?
I still had a little bit of rice left, so I made Chu-Totoro (medium Totoro) by wrapping a small rice ball with seaweed. I was going to use string beans for his ears, but I realized that there was already too much green in this bento. So I cut the left over egg sheet for his ears.
His eyes are all funky, but I'm glad that I could put him in the bento. (I tend to forget Chu-Totoro when I make Totoro bento)
As usual, I used a hard boiled quail egg to make Chibi-Totoro (mini Totoro). (see “how to make Chibi-Totoro”)
The kamaboko was very moist. =/ As you can see, seaweed quickly started absorbing the moisture.
For meat, I put four homemade frozen meatballs as makkurokurosuke on each corner. I also wrapped asparagus and carrot in the middle with bacon, pinned it with toothpicks, and cooked in a pan. Bacon shrinks and wraps around veggies tightly, so you can take the toothpicks out and it won’t fall apart.
Makkurokurosuke were bigger than usual, but still very yummy.
To fill the empty spaces I put broccoli, the rest of the asparagus, some edamame and snow peas. I felt like it needed more color, so I took out carrot flowers I had made before from the fridge (see “how to freeze carrot flowers”) and sprinkled them around the bento box.
Oni-wa soto! Fuku-wa uchi!
To finish it off I cut kamaboko for their eyes and cut seaweed for Totoro’s whiskers, nose, and eyes.
Although it took a longer than I expected (because I didn’t prepare the night before >_<), it came out pretty okay. I think the frozen carrot flowers really brighten up the bento.
This was my third bento that had Totoro with his mouth open. This one was harder to work on than the other bento because he was smaller than the other two. I don’t know why but I just love Totoro with his mouth open. =D
Oni Totoro:
- rice mixed with ground black sesame seed and salt, plain rice, seaweed, kamaboko, ham, edamame, broccoli and carrot, egg sheet
Chu-Totoro (medium Totoro):
- rice wrapped with seaweed, kamaboko, egg sheet
Chibi-Totoro (mini Totoro):
- quail egg, seaweed, kamaboko
Makkurokurosuke:
- beef meatball, seaweed, kamaboko
Vegetable flowers:
- carrot
- asparagus and carrot wrapped with bacon
Other food:
- rencon
- lettuce
- broccoli
- edamame
- asparagus
- snow peas
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
bento boxes
February 2, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else 2 comments
A couple of people have asked me in their comments about the bento box that I use, so I asked my boyfriend to snap some pictures of my bento boxes.
If you’ve seen my bento, you may have noticed that I use the same bento box all the time. It’s actually a takeout container from our favorite restaurant. When I made the first bento, I was at my boyfriend’s house, but we weren’t living together and I didn’t have my bento boxes at his house. We used to order takeout a little more often than we do now, and we had so many same containers. He’s been using the same type of container for his lunch even before we started going out.
My boyfriend's bento box on the left, My Totoro bento box (for a special occasion) on the right. *CD is for a size comparison.
The bottom part is about 7″ x 4 1/2″ (7 1/2″ x 5″ at the top) and 1 1/4″ deep. The lid is about 1/4″ high. It’s pretty big for a bento box. But he’s a grown boy with super Asian metabolism, so he can eat a LOT. I really like this bento box. It’s simple and the picture of bento looks organized in the photo album too.
I feel like some people will be disappointed that I don't use some high-tech Japanese lunch box.
His sister gave him a super cute Totoro bento box for his birthday before. Cute Japanese bento boxes are usually small. It’s great for children or someone who want to control the portions of what they eat. But it was a little too small for my boyfriend so he let me use it. This one is actually pretty deep, so you can pack more if I want. I don’t use it everyday though. It’s too cute, and I’m worried that food might stain it or something… >_<
Bento #71: Monkey Magic from Ouendan
January 29, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - video game Tags: Monkey Magic, Ouendan
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My boyfriend owns many DS games, and usually once he plays, he moves onto a new game. But there’s one game he still plays once in a while, and that’s “Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!” (”Elite Beat Agents” in the U.S.)
Bento #71: Monkey Magic from Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
Created and eaten on: 1/25/2010
Ouendan means “cheerleaders” (usually male) and the game is a rhythm game. Each stage has a plot, and you have to “cheer up” the main character of the story by tapping the numbered spots that shows up on the screen to the beat of the music.
One of his favorite stages is the story about a plush Monkey. The monkey and his friend (a toy soldier) get accidentally thrown away by the mother of the main female character, and are on the way to a dump-site. The monkey and the toy soldier must return to their owner, so they call for Ouendan.
The monkey and the toy soldier jump off the truck, get on a train, run through the city while trying to avoid getting stomped by people. When you hit the right spots at the right time, the monkey and the toy soldier will succeed and move onto to the next obstacle. The facial expressions of the monkey and the toy soldier are over-dramatic and really funny. The song is called Monkey Magic and it’s very catchy. My boyfriend particularly likes this stage because it’s a very cute story and he looooves plushes.
After putting lettuce and sauteed renkon in the bento box, I mixed rice with ketchup and molded it into the shape of a monkey head, body and arms. Then I used plain rice for the face and the mouth part.
For his mouth, I peeled the outer side of a fake crab meat stick and trimmed it. For his teeth and eyes I sliced kamaboko (fish cake) .
For the toy soldier, I put a stick of fake crab meat for his body and a tiny rice ball for his head. I also put a piece of fake crab meat for his hat, and used small pieces for his arm. I sliced kamaboko for his mouth too. I was also going to use kamaboko for his eyes, but I could barely see the white kamaoboko on plain rice,,, so I decided to use cheese instead.
In the game, you have to hit the rhythm circle with a stylus, so for the rest of bento, I just used a lot of foods that are circles. I cooked okra and put inside chikuwa. Chikuwa is a kind of fish cake, but it’s been put around a stick and grilled, so it looks like a tube.
Then I cooked asparagus wrapped with bacon and cut it in half. But the asparagus was too small and it didn’t look too good… so I decided to cut out cheese in star shape and put it on top of some of them. I also had fake sausage (fish cake), so I cut it like flower and put it in.
I put boiled broccoli to fill some empty spaces, sprinkled some sesame seeds on it to add some color, and put some snow peas cut like grass. Originally, I wanted to put fire at the bottom of bento box like the game, but there wasn’t enough space because I made the monkey way too big. So I cut grape tomato open, and put them on the both sides on the lower corners.
I cut seaweed for the nose for the monkey, and mustache for the toy soldier to finish it off.
I wish I could’ve done some more to this one. I feel like it could’ve used some egg or something.
Of course, no one got what these characters in this obscure bento are from, though.
Little note on the song Monkey Magic…
The song Monkey Magic in the Ouendan game is a cover of the song from the TV show called “Saiyuki” in Japan. (No, not the anime one. An old live action TV series.) Recently, I found out that DVDs of Saiyuki were released in UK. (It’s dubbed and the title was changed to “Monkey!”) I loved the show as a kid, so I ordered the boxset, and we’ve been watching it whenever we can. The show is silly, but since it was made in 1978, they used really crafty technique on effects. The main character Monkey has a pole that extends and shrinks. And when it extends, they actually painted the pole on the film, and animated it. It’s pretty fun and interesting to watch.
Monkey:
- rice mixed with ketchup & plain rice
- kamaboko
- fake crab meat
- seaweed
Toy Soldier:
- rice
- kamaboko
- fake crab meat
- seaweed
Other food:
- renkon
- lettuce
- broccoli and sesame seed
- chikuwa with okra
- fake sausage
- asparagus wrapped with bacon
- cheese
- snow peas
- grape tomato
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
Bento #70: Babar
January 27, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - american Tags: Babar
4 comments
I usually sleep in on Saturday morning. When I get up, I watch “qubo.” Qubo is programming for kids. We don’t have cable TV, so there’s not much choice, but I do like a couple of shows that are on qubo on Saturday morning. This one is a favorite of ours.
Bento #70: Babar
Created and eaten on: 1/23/2010
I don’t think I have to explain Babar. Babar is a cartoon show based on a French children picture book “Babar” by Jean de Brunhoff and Laurent de Brunhoff. The animated TV series of Babar has been running since 1989. I love how the backgrounds are painted with watercolors, and how it’s traditionally animated. I turned the channel to qubo to watch Babar on Saturday morning the other day, and was shocked. It was a DIGITALLY painted version of Babar! When did this happen?? It’s not like I’ve been watching every episode of Babar, but my boyfriend and I didn’t know about the existence of a digitally animated version of Babar. The color was too bright, backgrounds looked crappy, and their eyes were… strange. Their eyes are basically just dots, but the digitally painted one looked like they were spacing out. This saddened us…
After watching Babar, my boyfriend left for his kung-fu class. He usually comes home around 4:00, and eats a late lunch, so I decided to make a simple Babar bento.
First I put sauteed renkon on the bento box as usual. I mixed rice with black sesame seed, and using plastic wrap I molded it into the shape of King Babar and Queen Celeste.
I made King Babar’s green suit by wrapping mashed potato I made the day before with cooked lettuce. I’ve used cooked lettuce on mashed potato before in my Katamari bento, Link bento and Tingle bento and the texture on lettuce looks just like green fabric on a person’s body. I made the shoulder in the same way to make it look more 3D. To create his red bow tie I cut it out of red pepper.
For Queen Celeste’s dress, I cut red pepper, wrapped it around mashed potato, and for the collar of the dress I cut cheese.
I cut a carrot into strips, wrapped it with string beans, and wrapped the whole thing with thinly sliced pork I got at a Japanese supermarket. When you cut it, it looks like flower, doesn’t it?
I had a bit of carrot left, so I made flowers with carrot and put them in the bento. (see “how to make vegetable flowers”) I didn’t want to make this bento too elaborate, so I just filled empty spaces with boiled broccoli, and snow peas.
I cut the white part of kamaboko to make their tusks, and cut out heart shapes from pink part of kamaboko with a cutter.
Finally, I cut out seaweed with a hole punch for their eyes, and cut cheese for their majestic crowns!
If your kids eat rice, Babar would be perfect for a simple kyaraben. Basically, all you need is rice, black sesame seeds, seaweed (or anything that’s slightly darker than other food) and cheese! I don’t think you even need their body for kids to recognize their beloved Babar.
When I was writing this post, I was doing a little research on Babar online, and found out that Babar is going to be animated in CG, and it’ll premiere this fall or spring of 2011… Babar in CG!? (Apparently the news is pretty old, and the article was published in March 2009.)
“The animated series will introduce King Babar as a grandfather.” Huh? CG Babar looks… strange. They have the white part in their eyes. Oh, and they’re going to have “Chiku the monkey (granddaughter of King Babar’s old friend Zephir).” =/
This whole “the new series will take place after the main character and side characters grew up, got married and had kids” reminded me of Dragon Ball Z. (I’m not a fan of Dragon Ball Z, but I love the original Dragon Ball. It’s so much different from Dragon Ball Z. The original Dragon Ball is about adventures, not about aliens with spiky hair with power levels “over 9000.”)
I think we’ll stick to the traditional Babar.
Not for my boyfriend, but I also like “Willa’s Wildlife” and “Jane and the Dragon” on qubo. I like Willa’s Wildlife because of its art style and it’s got so many animals. I usually prefer 2D cartoons but I’ll make an exception for “Jane and the Dragon.” To be honest, the first time I watched the show, it looked a bit creepy to me. But I love fantasy stories, so it didn’t take that long for me to be a fan of this show. I’m not so crazy about “this episode’s lesson” at the end of each episode though. I feel that grown-ups sometime underestimate how smart kids are. ;D
King Babar:
- rice, black sesame seed, kamaboko, cheese, seaweed
- mashed potato, lettuce, red pepper
Queen Celeste:
- rice, black sesame seed, kamaboko, cheese, seaweed
- mashed potato, red pepper
Other food:
- string beans, carrot wrapped with thinly sliced pork
- carrot
- renkon
- lettuce
- broccoli with sesame seed
- snow peas
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
stuffed stuff: Noby Noby Boy
January 25, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in stuffed stuff Tags: katamari damacy, Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy
2 comments
As I posted before, I won Penny Arcade’s Katamari Forever contest. After I gave my address to Jeff at Penny Arcade, I couldn’t wait to see the awesome Noby Noby Boy scarf.
I received my package on December 28th. I can’t explain how excited I was. I hurriedly opened the box and I carefully opened the bubble wrapped scarf. The first I thought “Oh my god it looks even more awesome than I could ever imagine!!” I looked for the head… but I couldn’t find one.
Aw how cute his... butt looks... (It does look cute, though. ) *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
That’s right, they sent me the tail end of the scarf by mistake. I was just… very sad, thinking “I knew it! I thought it was too good to be true. Maybe I didn’t deserve it…” in my head and I had pretty much given up.
Katamari prince: "Did you see the head?" (Those little plush dolls were sewn onto the scarf by the way) *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
I sent an email to Jeff at Penny Arcade. He wrote me back right away, explaining that he had given the addresses to Bandai Namco, and they were the ones who shipped the stuff. He was very understanding, apologetic, and sympathized with my situation. He contacted Bandai Namco (and probably the person who won the second prize) and made an arrangement. Bandai Namco would send me and the other person a pre-paid FeDEX label, so I could ship the scarf back and get the head end of the scarf.
The scarf was knitted beautifully. It was hard to say "good-bye." *I didn't make this scarf! Scroll down for my Noby Noby Boy plush.*
I was pleasantly surprised that the other person had agreed to do this. The honesty of this Katamari fan made me really happy. (Well, I haven’t received the head end but… I’m optimistic!) When I got a pre-paid label, I realized that it was going to be directly shipped to the second prize winner. So I decided to make a little thank you gift for her.
Noby Noby Boy saying "Thank you!" to the second prize winner.
Stuffed stuff: Noby Noby Boy
Created and stuffed on: January 2010
That’s right. I made a Noby Noby Boy plush! I wanted to ship it out as soon as possible so I couldn’t spend too much time on this. The strips of felt were glued together, and sewn on one side to make a tube. I made his head, butt, hands and legs and then sewed them onto the body.
It ended up a lot longer than I originally planned... but that's Noby Noby Boy. =D
Fuzzy soft pink butt.
I didn't copy the color pattern. I actually spent a couple of hours planning the order of the colors.
"Look at me stretch!"
"I'll stretch enough to connect the entire solar system in 820 years!"
I put him in the package along with the tail end of Noby Noby Boy scarf and dropped it off. (I asked my boyfriend to snap some pictures of the scarf before I packed it up.)
The little mishap aside, the rest of the prizes are absolutely stunning. I got a Katamari Forever game for PS3, OST of Katamari Damacy, Katamari Damacy themed Japanese hand towel, and signed and framed Katamari Damacy print.
It's Kamataristical!!
I didn’t think that the art piece would come framed so I was surprised when I opened it. It was so gorgeous that I was absolutely speechless! The part around the art was covered with a fabric and goes very well with Japanese style Katamari art. I’ve never owned such a beautiful piece of art like this before. This so is going to be my family treasure.
I hope I’ll get my scarf soon. I’ll post when I get it. If you don’t see an update on this… well, I guess I’m just out of Noby Noby Boy scarf. ^^; If that happens I guess I’ll make it by myself! I can’t knit, so I’ll use fleece or something.
I’d like to thank Jeff at Penny Arcade for replying me back almost immediately every time I emailed him. Jeff, if you happen to read this, you are really awesome!!
For more pictures of this plush, visit stuffed stuff: Noby Noby Boy Plushset!
Check out more stuffed stuff set set on my flickr page.
Bento #69: Nekobus #3
January 19, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...) Tags: makkurokurosuke, nekobus, studio ghibli, totoro
6 comments
Hooray! I finally made the first kyaraben of this year!
I wanted to make it a lot sooner, but I just couldn’t come up with an idea. I thought of making a different/easier bento but I really wanted the first kyaraben to be “new year themed.” I was worried about not finishing it on time since I was so out of touch, so I made it on our day-off.
Bento #69: Neko bus #3
Created and eaten on: 1/18/2010
After I sauteed renkon (lotus root) and put it in the bento box, I started making kadomatsu. In Japan, they display a kadomatsu for new year. “A kadomatsu (”gate pine”) is a traditional Japanese decoration of the New Year placed in pairs in front of homes supposedly to welcome ancestral spirits or kami of the harvest.” (from wikipedia) It looks like three pieces of bamboo stuck on a big pot with some pine. I cut string beans like bamboo and used chikuwa, a tube-like fish cake, to wrap around it as the bottom part of kadomatsu. Chikuwa was a bit small for three string beans, so I cut the back of chikuwa for three string beans to fit. I used the pink part of kamaboko and wrapped around chikuwa.
Looks kind of like bamboo, doesn't it?
Pine and plums are also believed to bring good luck and often used on new year’s cards. So I carved a carrot in the shape of plum and boiled it together with asparagus. Then I wrapped them with thinly sliced pork and cooked it. (Three green round shapes side-ways with the middle one sticking out a little bit higher than the other two symbolizes the classic shape of pine.)
Actually, carving carrot wasn't that hard.
For the Nekobus, I mixed rice with ketchup and molded the rice using plastic wrap, put cheese on its stomach, and placed it on lettuce.
Now that I look at this Nekobus, he is very simplified.
I made Totoro using rice with ground black sesame seed and a bit of salt with salmon flakes inside, and molded him with plastic wrap. (see “how to make Totoro with rice”)I made chibi-Totoro with a quail egg, kamaboko and black sesame seeds. (see “how to make chibi-Totoro”)
Oh good ol' Totoro. I've missed you~.
I had frozen meatballs I had made previously, so I put them in the bento, sliced kamaboko and cut out makkurokurosuke’s eyes with a round plastic cap.
Makkurokurosuke are more curious this year.
After everything was in place, I put broccoli, snowpeas and asparagus to fill some spaces between the food. I cut seaweed and cheese for Neko Bus’ eyes and mouth. Lastly I also cut out seaweed for Makkurokurosuke’s eyes and Totoro’s face.
Nekobus says "Happy New Year!"
If I had a little more time, I would’ve definitely made it with Neko bus’ mouth open… This new year’s bento made me realize that I’m soooo out of touch, and I need to keep making bento and practice more! Yes, that’s definitely one of my new year’s resolutions!
Well, happy new year (again) everyone!
Neko bus:
- rice mixed with ketchup, cheese, carrot, kamaboko, seaweed
Totoro:
- rice mixed with ground black sesame seed with salmon flakes inside, kamaboko, seaweed
Chibi-Totoro:
- quail egg, kamaboko, black sesame seed
Makkurokurosuke:
- meatballs, kamaboko, seaweed
Kadomatsu:
- string beans, chikuwa, kamaboko
Pine:
- asparagus wrapped with thinly sliced pork
Plum:
- plum wrapped with thinly sliced pork
Other food:
- renkon
- snowpeas
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
non-bento #21: kagami-”onigiri” Totoro
January 7, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...), bento blog - non bento Tags: rice ball, studio ghibli, totoro
3 comments
For those who have missed my previous post… Kagami-mochi is a decoration for the New Year in Japan. It’s made with 2~3 round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, you break it and eat it on the second Saturday or Sunday of January. I wanted to make some easy non-bento food on January 1st. It was really nothing special but I thought I’d just post some more pictures of this anyway.
Non-bento #21: Kagami-”onigiri” Totoro
Created and eaten on: 1/1/2010
W hen we’re home on weekend or on a vacation my boyfriend and I usually make rice balls with cod roe inside for brunch, so I decided to make Totoro rice balls. But when I was preparing the rice balls, the kagami-mochi in the kitchen gave me this idea.
First I made a big rice ball with cod roe inside for Totoro. I usually mix rice with ground black sesame seeds to make gray colored rice, but this time I tried sprinkling ground black sesame seed on top of rice. I cut and held a piece of paper over his stomach for the white part of his belly. It came out too spotty and dark though. I think I prefer mixing rice and black sesame seed. I cut seaweed for his eyes, nose and whiskers.
I wanted to make them look sleeping, but black sesame seed was so dark that you can't really see Totoro's eyes. T_T
For the chu-Totoro, I made a smaller rice ball with cod roe inside. Just like Totoro, I cut and held a piece of paper on over his stomach for the white part of his belly, and sprinkled seaweed powder. I cut seaweed for his eyes, nose, whiskers, the pattern on his stomach, and his ears with dried kelp.
The best way to spend a new year. Sleeping in!
I boiled a quail egg and made the chibi-Totoro, and made eyes with kamaboko (fish cake) and sesame seed. (see “how to make chibi-Totoro”)
I think chibi-Totoro is too excited to sleep in with all that snow ouside.
2010 has already started! Hopefully, I can get back to bento-ing after a loooong hiatus!
Totoro:
- rice with cod roe inside, black sesame seed, seaweed
Chu-Totoro:
- rice with cod roe inside, black sesame seed, seaweed, dried kelp
Chibi-Totoro:
- quail egg, kamaboko, black sesame seed
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
Mochi-tsuki
January 3, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else Tags: mochi-tsuki, rice cake
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My boyfriend has been taking a Japanese class for almost 4 years now. At the end of every year, his school has a “mochi-tsuki” (rice cake pounding) event. We went there at the end of last year, and had a lot of fun! So I decided to share it with you.
Rice cakes are made with mochi-rice (stickier than the regular sticky rice) made soft by soaking it in hot water for a while then mushed and pounded in a wooden or stone mortar with a wooden mallet.
When I was little, my grandmother used to make it every year, but she had a “mochi-tsuki machine” because it’s so much easier than pounding to make mochi, and it’s still a lot fresher than store bought mochi.
“How hard can it be to make rice cake?” you ask.
Probably harder than you think.
They start with four people mushing the mochi-rice, start pounding, and gradually reduced to one person as rice cake gets stickier. I took some video with my digital camera.
First you mush the mochi-rice around.
And they start pounding!
The guy in the middle flips the mochi between each pounding with wet hands once the mochi gets a little harder and one ~ two people are pounding. He has to be very experienced and brave to stick his hands in there. I didn’t shoot a video of the middle guy actually flipping the mochi when adults were pounding the mochi, but I got to shoot a video of a kid with the guy in the middle in action.
And after about 15 ~ 20 minutes of pounding, the mochi is put onto a dusted pan and carried to a separate room for cutting/sorting.
Freshly made mochi is so soft and easy to cut. They have to cut and shape mochi while they're still warm.
Freshly made mochi is so good in Zouni soup (very simple soup with veggies) and Oshiruko. (a sweet porridge of azuki beans boiled and crushed, served in a bowl with mochi)
Zouni (mochi, kamaboko and mitsuba)
mochi in oshiruko
I remember my grandma used to freeze left over mochi, and make my favorite “kinako-mochi” (rice cake with soybean flour mixed with sugar) for me as a snack for a couple of weeks after New Year.
And this is just boys being boys… fast pounding! It’s quite dangerous but fun to watch.
I still haven’t eaten mochi this year… One piece of mochi has about 200 calories, which is about the same as a small bowl of rice. So people used to eat zouni or mochi just as a meal after the new year so that they don’t have to cook much and rest, and get the same amount of calories at the same time, I guess.
I used to eat a couple of mochi in one sitting though… They’re so yummy it’s impossible to just eat one!
*Elderly and young kids can choke on mochi very easily. Every year, there are several (or more) deaths from choking on mochi. So please be careful if you’re eating mochi with elderly and young kids!
Happy Happy New Year!
January 1, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else, bento blog (all) Tags: soba, studio ghibli, totoro
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We didn’t go out on New year’s eve. We stayed home and I cooked “toshikoshi soba,” and we just watched the ball drop on TV. “Toshikoshi-soba” means “the end of the year soba noodle.” In Japan, people eat soba at night before the year’s over. Any soba eaten on the night of December 31st is “toshikoshi-soba.” What kind of soba you’ll eat depends on your family tradition, where you’re from, etc… For us, I just cooked soba and ate it with a little bit of scallions, kamaboko (fish cake), carrot and enoki.
Our toshikoshi soba 2009!
And to start off 2010, I made this for my boyfriend’s brunch! It’s not very special, but since we make rice balls for brunch almost every weekend, I thought I’d play with it a little this morning. I’ll do a post about this later, but here’s a picture.
It’s “kagami-mochi” Totoro! Well, it’s not mochi (rice cake), but I decided to stack them on top of each other like “kagami-mochi.”
Just like my any other Totoro, they’re made with rice mixed with black sesame seed and seaweed powder, stuffed with tarako (cod roe), and the chibi-Totoro is made with a quail egg.
Kagami-mochi is a decoration for the New Year in Japan. It’s made with 2~3 round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, you break it and eat it on the second Saturday or Sunday of January. But my grandma wasn’t that strict about when we broke the kagami-mochi though. I remember her beating the crap out of a kagami-mochi with the back of a knife because mochi gets rock hard after being displayed for a couple of days. (A lot of time, people use a mallet or hammer to break it.) Most of kagami-mochi sold in a store is shrink-wrapped now so it will never get too hard or moldy. We stopped by at Sunrise mart (a local Japanese grocery store) the other day and got ourselves a “kagami-mochi.”
This year is the year of tiger, so it came with a cute little tiger figure.
Have a happy new year, everyone!
新年明けましておめでとうございます。
今年もどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
アンナ
