Boston Bento

This bento is a bit of an old one, but I found a bunch of pics I that never used on the site. Rather than just throw them in my flickr account, I figured they deserved their spotlight time.

Contents:

breaded chicken breast strips (my own kinda shake and bake)
cucumber slices
sesame dressing
bbq sauce with chili sauce swirl
olives
reduced fat cheese
rice cracker

This bento was fun because i had a good time using the chili sauce not only to spice things up in terms of taste, but also in the look of things as well. The trick is to make sure you mix it into the other food before you eat it if you want things to be a bit more mild.

The chicken was really simple to make. While you can buy pre-cut chicken strips and pre-seasoned bread crumbs, I often like to do these things myself. Buying whole chicken pieces can help you cut down on the cost, and making your own bread crumbs from that bread you forgot about helps reduce waste. Also to be sure these stay healthy, I baked these in the toaster oven rather then fried them. It’s nice and fast and makes a pretty satisfying lunch.

Recently a restaurant near me had added carpaccio to their menu for a limted time. I was thrilled, we are talking all kinds of excited and demanded we go for it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. When we placed our order at the restaurant, I noticed that the chef came out with a plate and the waitstaff all kinda crowded around him. They talked for a few moments and the chef himself came over without plate. It turns out that we were the first people to order the dish, and the chef wanted to know about our background, experience with the dish, and to pretty much give us a culinary pat on the back.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to discover that no one was ordering the carpaccio, but considering that very thinly sliced or pounded raw beef is one of the main ingredients, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

For a pretty decent picture of what all this looks like, check out this link.

The meaning of what carpaccio is has changed a bit over time to be pretty much any thinly sliced raw meat or fish (even fruit or veggies sometimes too) with some sort of dressing on top. When I was a kid however, carpaccio was always the same thing: very thin raw beef topped with shaved Parmesan, a drizzle of good olive oil, capers, and perhaps some lemon juice. Yes, yes, I know, raw beef can be challenging for some people to eat (and even scary considering Mad Cow Disease and all that), but when prepared by a reputable chef, it might be one of my favorite dishes of all time. Imagine if you will the beef melting on your tongue, set off by the sharp and salty toppings…. I am getting hungry just thinking about it!

If this sounds appealing to you in anyway, I highly suggest you try it. The Boy tried it for the first time that night and we have already gone back a second time for more (only to discover that we are still the only people ordering it). Alton Brown even has a pretty easy recipe for those of you who want to take things one step further and make it at home. Considering my level of obsession, this might be a better option than camping outside my local restaurant every Wednesday night for the summer.

I have to admit that I am pretty lucky when it comes to friends. I’ve managed to surround myself with a pretty adventurous crowd of people who always like to push their culinary boundaries. May it be braving the snow to fry a turkey in the back yard, or seeking out Chinese soup dumplings and cold pig ear salad, my friends are pretty much up for anything. And yes, this includes the infamous durian fruit.

So one afternoon I found myself at the home of The Red Menace for my first durian tasting. For those of you not familiar with durian, allow me to point you towards the Wikipedia article. It will save us both some time I’m sure.

I do admit to being pretty nervous about this afternoon. I was genuinely worried that the smell would get the best of me. I had visions of myself turning green and hiding under a bush with a clothespin on my nose, or worst yet…getting an unexpected visit from my breakfast.
The durian itself is heavy with hollow spikes. This is definitely something that is not something you want to carry around with you. Regardless, we all insisted on touching it anyway:

Before we cut into it, there really wasn’t that much of a smell coming from the durian. There was just a faint smell of onions oddly enough. Nothing too scary. So we all prepared ourselves as to dive on in.

When the smell hit me, it started off rather sweet. Not so bad. But then the durian got closer and I got a better whiff of the finish. Think sweet fruit and onions that have been left out in the sun and are just starting to turn. It smells like it’s rotting. Much to my relief though, the smell wasn’t nearly as strong as I thought it was going to be and it was just kinda icky rather than horrifying and vomit inducing. The Red Menace suspected that the smell wasn’t too strong because the durian might have been previously frozen, also she had heard that durian from different regions can vary in strength.

The durian itself reminded me of an almond custard. There was a sweet fruitiness at the beginning that reminded me of melon, but then the finish was almost creamy and tasted like almond butter. All-in-all I could see why people would go nuts over this. The consistency was custard-like as well, but had fibers running through it, kinda like the furry stuff around a mango pit, only these fibers were longer and maybe even a bit tougher. The fibers also had a drying quality that coats the top of your mouth like when you eat a really unripe banana or persimmon.

Final consensus was that I liked it, but I was too afraid to go back and eat more because some people were reporting an onion taste in their bites. I figured it was best to quit while I was ahead. Escaping with no regrets can often be essential to having a positive food adventure experience.

That’s right, I did it. I realized that I needed to hold myself more accountable for what I eat so I joined Weight Watchers. The plan is to at least follow it through until my sister’s wedding in October and then focus on maintenance. However, I promise this won’t become a diet blog. Really, I want to focus more on better and whole foods rather than talking about what strange non-food based packaged product I can eat for hours without racking up the points. Food is not my enemy, and I’m the one who is choosing what to put into my body. Eating crap makes me feel like crap, so it’s time to move on for now.

While I do have a more exciting durian post in the works, here is an example of my new quickie but good for me bento:

Contents:

1/2 blood orange
1 cup turkey breast
1 plum tomato with cilantro, and kalamata olives
English cucumber with seasoned rice wine vinegar

Point Total: 8

Notes: Seasoned rice wine vinegar has a surprising amount of points. I am guessing this is because “seasoned” rice wine vinegar has the addition of sake, salt, and sugar. Lesson learned.

Next post: Durian? Don’t mind if I do!

While my wrists continue to be a rather painful annoyance, I’ve decided that I really have gone too long without blogging.  Frankly, there are too many exciting things happening right now NOT to be blogging about them.  The most exciting of these things is Mokey, my new dog.

Please feel free to take a second to marvel at the size of those ears.

Kitsu, the fluffy little Pomeranian who is often featured in my blog is moving with his owner/mommy to California in a week or so, so Mokey will now be assuming the mascot duties for this blog. She doesn’t seem too thrilled about the silly outfits, but it’s possible some progress can be made if there are enough treats involved. Oh, and in case you are wondering, she’s a rescue, so we aren’t entirely sure what breed(s) she is. We just know that she seems to be made of awesome, and ears.

The dreaded Carpal Tunnel has hit again. This means that updates are going to continue to be a bit sparse lately. I will still try to post some pics if I make anything good, but even holding pots and pans has become a bit difficult. Maybe I can get The Boy to guest post again.

The thing about cheap bento boxes is that they exactly what they are, cheap.  No matter how careful you are to never put it in the dishwasher and treat it as gentle as can be, there is still a pretty good chance the once adorable designs on the top are going to get scratched and look a little worn.  I think of these $1-3 bentos like those gladware containers, no matter what, I’m just going to have to replace them at some point.

Now some of you know and some of you may not know that I am turning the big 30 pretty soon.  So as prepare for my biological clock to start ticking, I am also looking to start by 30s by getting rid of things (other than myself) which are starting to show their age.  Worn out zippy with holes in the pockets and sleeves?  Gone!  Socks worn so thin you can see through them?  You are out of here!  Scratched up and cracked bento boxes meant for preschoolers?  As much as it pains me to say this, it’s time for me to see other boxes.

The good news about all this bento cleansing is that I was able to make a trip to Kam Man market.  I’ve mentioned this place before, but it seems like they realized just how popular bento culture was getting in the US because I h ave never seen such a selection there before.  And the prices?  Well, let’s just say that I am ready to have quite a wild fling with several new boxes.  Here is just a sample of the goodies they carry:

See that? Sensible, understated, and microwave safe to boot.  But since old habits die hard, I did manage to throw these lovelies in too, you know, to mix things up.

Overall these boxes ranged from $2-$8, with the $8 one being made of sturdier stuff with an additional microwave top underneath the colored outer one.

This weekend I went on a trip to Quincy to check out both JnJ Turo Turo and get some supplies at Kan Man Market. I will take some pics of the goodies I took home with me, but until then I would like to direct you all to check out the blogs of those who also went on this little food adventure:

Erin - who already wrote a nice blog post about Turo-Turo complete with pictures!

Elise - With even more pics of the food and some descriptions from the menu to boot!

Yes, I realize that I am lazy and allowing them to do the work for me, but frankly, they both did such a great job on their reports that I felt there wasn’t much left to add. We are hoping to find a reason to go back and sample some other menu items in the near future, but if you are local and like to suggest any other places we should check out, please comment below. Hooray for culinary adventures!

and i’m back. Though once again I must admit to being neglectful. Part of the reason I was away was a rather nasty cold, ad the other part is just being too worn out from work and my hectic schedule to feel like posting a bunch of stuff. The trouble is that this leaves me with a bunch of pictures on my camera that are just forced to sit there sad and neglected. I do have some plans for posting this week, especially since I am hoping to attend a french themed night at my local watering-hole/pub.

While I am forcing you wait wait once again, here is a little something to entertain you:

Disney seems to have started a push to utilize the Muppets again and there have been a couple viral videos out there lately. I sure hope this is a sign of more to come.

It’s time for another one of my trips to Philly.  This means that I will be spending my day tomorrow lazily looking out the window of my train and dreaming about Top Gear.  I am going to try to remember my camera for some pics because I’ve realized that I have yet to post anything about some of my favorite places to visit there.  Then again, there might not be all tht much to see other than leftover turkey sandwiches.

Regardless, here is a pic from my last time down there this summer when we spent a day out in Lancaster.

Is it wrong that this pic makes me think of pie and pretzels?

See you all in a few days!