One more day to Mother’s Day, why not show your love by whipping something special in the kitchen?

Using a wide variety of Japanese products at Isetan Supermarket, I prepared this Panda Bento lunchbox.

Some of you may have seen my live demo session last week at Isetan Scotts, it was really awesome to be up close with everyone and I hope you had fun seeing how the homely dishes can be easily prepared and enjoyed the food sampling!

Below are the recipes for this cute Panda bento.

All ingredients used in this recipe can be found at Isetan Supermarket.

Tamagoyaki

Ingredients

• 2 Eggs (Mangetsu Noukou)
• 10ml Shiro Dashi
• 10ml Water
• 1 tsp Caster Sugar

Method

1. Crack eggs into a non-reactive bowl. Add shiro dashi, sugar and water. Mix well. Try not to introduce any air into the egg mixture as air bubbles in the egg will hamper achieving a smooth egg roll.
2. Pour out a layer of egg mixture in the tamagoyaki pan and cook over low heat. Cover the pan when cooking to ensure even cooking of the egg.
3. When cooked until the edges are slightly firm, roll the egg from top end towards yourself. Push the egg roll to the top of the pan.
4. Pour in another layer of egg mixture and cook the second layer. When slightly firm, roll it up together with the first egg roll and push the combined roll to the top. Repeat until all the egg mixture is used up.
5. Serve.

Basic Dashi stock

• Approx 5 inch long Kombu Seaweed, with slits cut along the sides (Yamada Saomae Kombu)
• 400ml Water
• 3g Shaved Bonito Flakes, Katusobushi (Marutomo Hana Katsuo)

Method

1. In a pot, soak kombu in water for 15-30 minutes.
2. Over low heat, bring kombu and water to a boil and let simmer for 1-2 minutes.
3. Take off heat and remove kombu.
4. Add in bonito flakes and bring to a boil.
5. Simmer for 3-4 minutes on low heat.
6. Sieve out all the solid ingredients and set stock aside to cool.
7. Serve.

Basic Miso Soup

Ingredients

• Approx 2 cups of Silken tofu and or vegetables
• 450ml Dashi Broth
• 1.5 Tbsp Miso (Marumo Aoki Mutenka Shiro)
• you may add thinly slice pork meat (Momoiro Pork Shabu Shabu ) if you like
• spring onions or parsley (optional)

Method

1. Bring dashi stock to boil, add in vegetables.
2. Add meat if you like.
3. Lower the heat
4. Put in 1.5 Tbsp Miso into strainer and mix using chopsticks to dissolve the miso
5. Add tofu and mix gently.
6. Turn off heat and serve.

Stir Fry Momoiro Japanese Pork

Ingredients

• Approx 5-6 slices of Momoiro Japanese Pork
• garlic clove 1 pc, minced
• onion, 1 Tbsp
• Nissin cooking oil
• 1 tsp japanese soy sauce
• 1 tsp mirin
• 1 tsp cooking sake

Method

1. Heat frypan. Add about 1 tsp of cooking oil, and fry garlic and onion until garlic aroma is released and slightly brown and onions are slightly brown and caramelised.
2. Add in sliced pork and sauteed quickly until about 80% cookied.
3. Add in soysauce, mirin and sake.
4. Stir fry until seasoning coats meat evenly and pork is cooked.
5. Serve

Panda Riceball

Ingredients

• Japanese rice approx 90-100g
• seaweed 1/2 sheet
• Furikake (optional)

Method

1. Using cling wrap, shape one large round rice ball. You may wrap some furikake inside the riceball if you like.
2. Then make a smaller rice ball, closer to oblong shape for Panda’s body.
3. Make 2 small round rice balls, and 4 smaller pieces of rice balls for the ears and limbs.
4. Trim 6 roundish pieces of sushi seaweed.
5. Wrap the small riceballs from step 3 with the sushi seaweed. You could make slits around to help the seaweed adhere better to the riceball. And rewrap inside the cling wrap to shape it.
6. Assemble in the bento box together with the side dishes such as the tamagoyaki and stir-fry pork, fresh lettuce, cherry tomato, mizuna vegetables. Recommend to drizzle some Kewpie Japanese sesame sauce on the mizuna salad – so yummy and easy to whip up.

 Isetan Supermarket

Website https://www.isetan.com.sg/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Isetan.sg/ 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/isetansg/ 

Locations:

Isetan Scotts Supermarket
350 Orchard Road, Basement
Shaw House, Singapore 238868
Operating hours: Sun to Thur | 10am – 9pm
Fri, Sat & eve of PH | 10am – 9.30pm

Isetan Jurong East Supermarket
3 Gateway Drive, Basement
Westgate, Singapore 608532
Operating hours: Sun to Thurs | 10am – 9pm
Fri, Sat & eve of PH | 10am – 9.30pm
*selected items are not available at Isetan Jurong East Supermarket

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Elephant Bento for Monday!

Amongst the many animal theme bento creations I have made, I realised that I have yet to make any elephants.

Monday always call for simple bento so that I can get a little more Zzz to start the week.

This elephant onigiri bento was a quick and fast bento. :D

I shape Mr Elephant using rice mixed with some purple furikake and pink sakura denbu to achieve the light violet and pink colours.

The features were added on using some seaweed which I cut with a small scissors.

I also made the Elephant hold a red balloon. Did you spot that?

The ‘balloon’ was made from half a cherry tomato and a bento pick. 

The side dishes were really yummy!

For meat –  I cooked Laksa Squid (or known as sotong to some). Using Dancing Chef’s laksa paste, and some milk, it was so easy to cook the laksa squid.

For pre-made cooking paste, Dancing Chef has one of the best in town. Not just in the flavour but also because it does not contain any MSG, preservatives and artificial colourings.

From now till end of June 2015, Dancing Chef™ is holding a special ‘Curry in a Hurry’ promotion, where individuals can get any three packets of Dancing Chef™ cooking paste at just $7.55! woo hoo :D

I also packed some sauteed bean sprouts and snap peas in the bento.

Have a wonderful start of the week and I hope this elephant bento will cheer you!

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Gudetama Bento!!

Hahha this Gudetama character from Sanrio really makes me laugh. He looks so ‘nua’ and even has a bacon as blanket~

Another anthropomorphized character from Sanrio. Everyone, please meet, Gudetama, translated as lazy egg. Yes its an egg that does not want to do anything~

Its name, which is a combination of “gude“ describing something or someone with no energy or strength, and “tama” from the word tamago, which means egg in Japanese.

Interestingly Gudetama even has his own Twitter account with over 380K followers!!! He also has some videos on Sanrio official Youtube channel, which are quite funny.

I remember seeing quite an increase in gudetama character goods when I was in Japan end of last year~ Here is a photo I took in Kiddy Land, Harajuku. He also now has his own shelve at Sanrio Puroland’s shop too!

To make today’s Gudetama bento (so easy), I just fried an egg, and make sure that the yolk is still runny and not overcooked.

Arrange on a bed of rice and add on the features using seaweed which I cut.

The bacon was grilled in the pan and a small piece was added for Gudetama’s blanket.

The side dishes included (more) bacon, blanched broccoli, spinach with sesame sauce, cherry tomatoes and lettuce.

Packed this Gudetama bento  in my white rectangular bento box from Noda Horo. I bought the box from Japan but this bento box is now available in Singapore, spotted it at Tokyu Hands :)

Have a lazy Monday morning~~ but a good day ahead!

Here are some funny Gudetama pictures (not mine, please see source link)

Source: Tumbler

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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As promised, here is a Doraemon Bento.

So you like Doraemon?

I didn’t use rice this round to make Doraemon Bento as this is a one dish item – fried rice. So for Doraemon character, I used mashed potatoes instead.

I woke up a little later than usual so I needed something pretty quick and decided to just make fried rice with leftover rice and ingredients from my fridge. I added mushrooms, crabstick, vegetables, bacon and egg to the fried rice.

For Doraemon, I steamed the mashed potatoes then coloured them with some icing colours. I use icing colours as I only need to use very little to achieve the colours.

Method of shaping and colouring the mashed potatoes is as per the technique shared in my Kawaii Bento cookbook.

I also added some carrot flowers to the bento, lettuce as well as some pasta alphabets.

Since this is Doraemon Bento, the pasta alphabets spelt ‘Doraemon’.

Today’s Dorameon Bento was packed in the bento box from Afternoon Tea Japan.

I love the mix of the wooden lid cover which doubles up as a mini tray and the white box.

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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My Sweet Piano Bento today for lunch!

Another sheep character for the New Year.

My Sweet Piano is a baby sheep with pink fluffy fur, and a good friend of My Melody in the Sanrio family. My previous My Sweet Piano Bento was almost half a year ago, haha, can’t believe it has been so long.

The technique I used to create My Sweet Piano character is as per ‘Tracing and Cutting Characters’ (page 29) of my Kawaii Bento cookbook.

Over here, I used chicken ham (white layers), picnic ham (pink layers) to cut the different layers and parts for My Sweet Piano.

The eyes and mouth were cut from seaweed and the nose is a small piece of thin egg sheet.

As the feet were light in colour, I sprinkled some furikake on the rice so that the feet could be seen. The small flowers and leaves at the sides were thin egg sheets of different colours.

The side dishes included grilled scallops, sauteed lotus roots, tofu and vegetables, pan grilled pork chips, edamame beans and lettice leaves.

I used the Sanrio vegetable cutters to make the carrot cut outs of My Sweet Piano.

The edamame beans were skewered with the ribbon bento picks.

Today’s My Sweet Piano Bento was packed in my Maru Magewappa Bento from Bento&co.

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Super thrilled when I spotted this cute Winnie the Pooh pancake pan set at Kinokuniya (Liang Court) last week. I immediately grabbed one.

It was about $34, very worth the price as the pan is of good quality.

Nothing beats having a pancake party for breakfast~ So I made this Winnie the Pooh Pancakes Bento!

Check out the pancake pan set~ how cute!!

The product name is [Kuma no Puu san Pancake Book]. Kuma no Puu san is the Japanese translation/reference of Walt Disney’s Winnie the Pooh.

It can be found at the Japanese recipe book section of Kinokuniya.

I love how the pan comes with a little recipe booklet for pancakes and even items like lemon curd etc.

There is two ways you can use the pan.

You can either use the pan to make a whole round pancake with the Winnie the Pooh/words imprint, OR only pour the batter into the Winnie the Pooh shape (see pic above for reference).

I chose the latter for today’s Winnie the Pooh Pancakes Bento.

So fun! I love pancakes~~

Cook over gas under medium-low heat to get nice evenly browned Winnie the Pooh pancakes!

I served it with grilled bananas topped with salted caramel sauce~ so super yummy!)

Wish I made more bananas cause they were so good! I wanted more~~

The other sides included some greek yogurt with New Zealand honey comb, strawberries and vegetables. The cute Winnie the Pooh carrot was cut using a Winnie the Pooh vegetable cutter.

I also added some bento picks including a bee in the yogurt/honeycomb pot, and some flora bento picks skewered with edamame beans.

I was also happy that I can use the silicon cup I bought from Japan to hold the bananas. It is designed to look like a piece of green lettuce, cute right ;)

Follow my food art and bento creations on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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It took me such a long time to choose these 14 bento creations for this Favourite Bentos of 2014 post. It was so hard for me to choose cause there were so many others that I personally liked a lot or found really interesting.

To wrap up 2014, here is some of my bento creations for you~ please click on the posts to read more about each of the bento!

I chose a good mix of different types of bento and a little information on why these bento made it to the favourite list for the year ;)

In addition, I want to also take this opportunity to thank you for your constant support~ I will continue to do my best!

(In no order of preference)

1. Teddy Bear Bread Bento and Recipe (blog post link)

This was one of the most original recipe and fun creation, I really loved the end result of the teddy bear bread I baked and how they fitted into the bento. It was also a yummy breakfast.

2. Chinese New Year Horse Bento (blog post link)

Sometimes simple does it the best. I think in this case, the calligraphic style of the seaweed cutting worked really well for this bento and visually was impactful.

3. Kitty Cat Bento (blog post link)

Inspired by some wagashi I saw, I think this mashed potato creation was really cute and I want to cuddle the kittens! The pita bread was also a nice combination with the branding iron mark that I made.

4. Russian Doll Sushi (blog post link)

And of course, sushi art rolls! Another original sushi design of mine that I was really pleased with the final outcome. The placement of the sushi design was spot on and I love the sweet colours.

5. Tigger Bento (blog post link)

This bento was a surprise to me. When I was sketching the design the night before, I didn’t expect it to come out so vivid and cheerful. I rarely make Tigger bento but this was a bento that I really liked.

6. Totoro Seaweed Cutting (blog post link)

This was one of the most challenging seaweed cutting bento as the lines were really fine and the seaweed got a little tangled after I cut it and tried to assemble onto the rice. It took quite a big of effort I love the entire seaweed cutting design. It really reminded me of the movie which I loved and I was also happy that all 3 Totoros were depicted in this bento. Plus I even had time to put together the tutorial.

7. Kitty Udon Bento (blog post link)

Most of you would know that I like using quail eggs in my bento. This was one of my favourites and also quite popular when I posted it on my social media platforms. I was happy to then see other people making kitty quail eggs inspired by this bento~ Again, sometimes a simple idea goes a long way.

8. Panda Sakura Bento (blog post link)

Somehow I always have a weakness for anything Japanese and Sakura. This bento always makes me feel ‘Awwww…’ haha, especially that look on the Panda rice ball. Many have commented that my panda bento character has a certain signature look which I tend to agree :D this sort of pitiful kawaii face! haha I also loved that small matcha cup I made! 

9. Kimono Seaweed Cutting (blog post link)

Though this seaweed cutting looks very complicated, it was actually not that difficult to make. This reminded me again alot of Japan and the beautiful geishas. I liked the little details that I added on the kimono and obi that made this bento design looked really intricate.

10. Hello Kitty Omurice (blog post link)

I loved how this bento was really full of Hello Kitty designs. This was also very popular when I posted it online, seems like many people are still fans of this famous Japanese cat. I loved how the colours came together in this bento and I was also able to use many of my tools and ingredients such as the HK furikake, vegetable cutters and tofu!

11. Teddy Bear Sushi Art (blog post link)

Another original sushi art design of mine. In the past year, I have been getting more inspired to come up with my own designs and the creative process is something that I relished very much and get a lot of satisfaction. This were also among the many sushi creations I made that were featured by bored panda and went quite viral.

12. Strawberry Curry (blog post link)

The reason why I chose this bento was because strawberry curry was one of the things I really had wanted to try very much, and was so thrilled that I bought some when I travelled to Tokyo this year. I also loved the whole strawberry theme of this bento.

13. Snoopy Bread (blog post link)

A fun breakfast bento that made it to my 2014 favourite bentos list. I liked to have a variety in my bento making and I think in a way, this was one bento to showcase the versatility of bento making. One can not just limit to using rice but explore other types of main dishes such as bread in this case, noodles etc for your bento. Another cheerful bento for you.

14. My Sweet Piano Bento (blog post link)

This was one bento that the choice of ingredients to make the character was a good one. The shaved kamaboko (fish cake) really gave My Sweet Piano a fluffy sweet fur like coat which was perfect for the character.

So here you have it! My personal 14 favourite bento creations of 2014.  This year has been an amazing journey especially with the launch of my very own bento cookbook ‘Kawaii Bento‘.

I look forward to an even more awesome new year!

Thank you so much for the support :)

Follow my food art and bento creations on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Ho Ho Ho~~ festive mood here!

With Christmas just around the corner, I made Gingerbread Man Bento!

I always love Gingerbread Man, or a more intimate name – Gingy!  And especially when they are depicted in animation movies or cartoons.

Today I am joining my friends from Bento Bloggers & Friends in a festive theme bento hop, and decided to make this Gingerbread Man Bento!

What is a bento hop? It is when a group of bento bloggers come together and create certain thematic lunches and we post them at the same time on our individual blogs. Then via a hop button, readers can simply move and hop from one blog to the next to see all the lunches. It is perfect for getting different ideas for making bento!

The main dish my Gingerbread Man Bento is pasta. I love the rainbow strips design of the Padonni pasta, it feels so festive. I bought them from Rakuten Japan and thought they will be great today today’s bento!

I seasoned the pasta with some olive oil, garlic, sea salt, parsley and chilli.

The Christmas wreath was made from broccoli florets, cucumber and some christmas tree deco pasta.

The red ribbon is imitation crabstick (kani kamaboko) while the Gingerbread Man character and the candy cane were made mainly of mashed potato.

I packed today’s bento in my white round enamel Noda Horo bento box.

I also packed some Laughing Cow Party Cubes, I love how they come in little cubes. Great for bento, tasting and also as fingerfood or snacks.

Now are you ready to hop?

Click on the button below and hop on to see some 17 other wonderful Christmas theme bento! Next up will be Sarah Felder from Bentoriffic :) ~ ho ho ho

Follow my food art and bento creations on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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I made Baymax French Toast Bento today! My second Baymax Bento :)

See my earlier Baymax Bento (rice-based) here. 

With a lunch appointment in place, I needed something for breakfast. Decided to give myself a treat and made from French Toast. I really love French Toast, plus it is awesome since I have some lovely berries and pomegranate seeds too.

Recently Fairprice Finest have been started to sell pomegranate seeds, really sweet and fresh. The seeds come in a sealed pack without the outer fruit layer. Perfect to toss them into your yogurt, ice cream or salads, etc.

Do you know Baymax?  Baymax is the superhero in Walt Disney recent animation film, Big Hero 6. He is an inflatable robot built by Tadashi to be a healthcare companion, so cute!

Since I had some quail eggs left, I boiled them and used them to make Baymax character in this French toast bento.

The eyes/mouth of Baymax was simply drawn on using edible markers. I was trying to make a quick bento.

The downside is that edible pen ten to sort of change color depending on the food items. For instance, you can see that there is a greenish tint here.

I used some French baguette to make the French toast. They give a nice sturdy, less soggy but chewy French toast.

At the side, I packed fruits including strawberries, blackberries and pomegranate seeds. I also packed a jar of maple syrup to eat with my French toast.

Today’s bento was packed in my white monbento, and I also added some heart shape bento picks.

The monbento box is available at Bento&co.

Follow my food art and bento creations on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Inspired by my visit to Ekiben-ya Matsuri (read post) and NRE Daimasu bento factory (read post), I made a Shinkansen  Bento today!

I was not feeling quite well last night so I wasn’t sure if I would wake up and be okay to make bento. Thankfully I woke up feeling better! So I made this bento!

Using the Shinkansen rice molds from Bento & co , I made this bullet train theme bento~

Have you taken the Shinkansen ‘新幹線’, Japanese bullet train before?

Shinkansen is such a convenient way to travel between large cities in Japan. While you are taking Shinkansen, don’t forget to buy yourself a ekiben ‘駅弁’  (train bento) to eat!

I seldom use rice molds as I actually enjoy shaping my riceball freehand more.

But I had bought this set quite some time ago and decided not to waste it. Plus it does help to save time!

To shape the rice neatly using molds, there are some tips :) Here are my 3 golden rules~

1. First, please rinse the mold to wet it under running tap. Shake off the excess water, but do not wipe. The wetness helps the rice to be removed cleanly from the mold, giving you a neat shape.
2. When you are filling the rice and pressing the ‘lid’ to pack the rice, always hold the bottom or where there is opening flap to keep the shape, you do not want rice coming out at this point. The opening flap is meant for you to press out the rice ball later.
3. After removing the rice ball, I usually place the rice ball on cling wrap while I work on the other details. The cling wrap makes it easy for me to transfer the rice ball into the bento later without sticking or losing its shape.

I included the step-by-step photos on how I used the Shinkansen onigiri mold set. Enjoy~

This Shinkansen bento was packed in a very special box – see that aluminium bento box? This is a limited edition ekiben bento box and the cover is a photo of a really old Japanese anime. It does have a certain vintage feel~

The side dishes were tofu patties, stir-fry pea shoots with shiitake mushrooms, lettuce, broccoli and a strawberry. Ah… a vegetarian bento box today!

Follow my food art and bento creations on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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