New Bento Boxes - Zebra lunchbox set

I'm growing ever increasingly disillusioned with the SG50 La Gourmet set from last year. I only realised recently that the gap in the top lid where the gasket fits, leads to the inside of the hollow lid, which there is absolutely no way to clean, especially if oily soup or sauces get into it. Yuck!

So, when I saw this on sale at the supermarket last week, I couldn't help myself.

Stainless steel round lunch bowls with leakproof, airtight lids and seals, yes please! The bowls stack up and fit (with room to spare for ice packs I suppose) inside the thermal lunch bag.

Each bowl has a plastic lid, with a blue silicone gasket and a colourless silicone seal, both detachable for thorough cleaning. The lids are really tight because of the seal, and airtight so that even if you turn the bowl over, the lids do not budge at all. The kids have reported that to get the lid off, they have to first open the blue gasket to let air into the container. Awesome!

There is a mesh pocket on the outside back of the lunch bag to hold cutlery. I haven't used the bag yet, as the bowls usually go separate ways (haha), but DH has started to bring very occasional bentos to work (so far only sandwiches) and these two bowls (12cm in diameter and approximately 500ml capacity each), should be just right for him. 

Meantime, as long as I'm packing oily foods for the kids, read - noodles, rice with gravy, it's these boxes I'm turning to. Hurray for stainless steel!

Chirashi Don + Review of Kago Onigiri Box

Is a great way to pack the ingredients for a bento if you're running out of time.

RM's chirashizushi don

I knew if I'd tried to push the rice into sushi moulds we'd be late for school, so instead I just packed a bed of sushi rice and quickly arranged the toppings. Roast Meat will be having some aburaage (sweet deepfried beancurd skin), surimi crabstick, arctic surf clams and Japanese cucumber. Oops! I forgot to pack him some soy sauce d:/

Takoyaki doesn't eat any of the seafood (fusspot) so I just gave her inarizushi plus some ham to up the protein factor.

And this one... is lunch for me and Mouse (the tot) in my new Kago Onigiri Box from Bento&Co. I have decidedly more toppings d:P including pork floss tamagoyaki, edamame and seaweed chicken (for Mouse).

Chirashi Bento in my new Kago Onigiri Box

I love love love this box! Just the sight of it fills me with indescribable happiness. The natural smell of the bamboo is calming and adds fragrance to the rice. Ok my rice is sushi rice but I'm entitled to think what I want, yes? d:)

Review of Kago Onigiri Box

The box itself is very sturdy because it has reinforced corners and bottom. I had expected it to be rather soft but it's quite the opposite. This box is as strong as my other plastic bento boxes any day! The food will not be squashed in it. And it's as light as a feather - this is a decided plus. Only thing left is to see how well it washes, but according to Just Bento, all I will have to do is use a non-abrasive sponge to scrub it, then let it dry completely.

(Update: Because I used wax paper to line the box, washing was a breeze with my 3M sponge. I just left it on the dish drainer overnight to dry out completely and back it went into the cardboard box it arrived in - it's own "home", so sweet.)

To hold onigiris is it's original intended function, but here I've packed a bed of rice (on a layer of wax paper to prevent sticking), and I can see myself packing sandwiches sometime soon. It's certainly spacious enough. You can pack a full bowl of rice in for an adult AND still have lots of room left to add sides and fruits. The height is adequate for medium to long picks to stand upright. Since it's porous, it is not advisable to put foods with a lot of gravy or sauce, not even with silicone cups. You will have to put any wet stuff in a small box with a tight-fitting lid, such as the smallest box in my One Piece, Matryoshka or Cowboy sets. The box requires a bento band or furoshiki to keep it closed and secure in transit.

The price is not cheap, but to me the quality is worth every cent. I got it shipped free to me so I certainly saved a bit there!

This box is NEVER going to school with the children.

It's the weekend, yay!

Cold Steamed Chicken Bento + Review of Style Lunch Nature

We had steamed chicken again last night, and it's really easy to just set aside one of its breasts for today's overnight bentos.

Roast Meat has his with some udon tossed with black pepper sauce (he likes it, even though it's spicy).

RM's Cold Steamed Chicken Bento

Takoyaki will have hers with rice and lots of fruits and vegetables. She is using, for the first time, her new Style Lunch Nature Bento from Bento&Co in its entirety. I love the way this box stacks - each tier screws on tightly to the one below and there's a pretty lid to cover it all up. I can even just use 1 or 2 tiers and it still works and look attractive.

This bento box has really solved some problems I had in the past when wanting to pack food in three tiers for Takoyaki. The other 3 tier thermal set I have (Mr Bento Style) is heavy and I don't always want the food to be kept hot. So this fills a bento niche of mine. The tiers are just right for the amount of food an older kid would eat for lunch - 650ml in total.

Bento&Co is having a storewide 20% discount till 15 July! Oh I should have held off my purchase! d:/

Takoyaki's Cold Steamed Chicken Bento

New Animal Onigiri Wrappers

Yesterday was Youth Day, so today is the school holiday in lieu of. Kids are home so I have one more day of rest. I decided to post about some new stuff I purchased last week.

Short of time to decorate your bento but still want it to look good? Not good at moulding onigiris with your hands but don't have a riceball mould? No problem! Just pull out a sheet of animal onigiri wrapper and pack the rice in with your paddle. Simply use the wrapper itself to mould the riceball into a flattened ball, then just fold the edges of the wrapper over, like a present, and tape the edge down with the kawaii, matching sticker included. Ta-da! Bento instantly cutesy-fied!

Animal Onigiri Wraps

Spotted at Daiso - a new design of rice ball wrapper plus a set of plastic food cups which can be used as barans as well.  Although these are all disposable, they're really easy to use. The stock at Daiso is very erratic however, so whenever I come across them, I buy a few more packs to tide me over. And now I've got rather too many packs of onigiri wraps in different designs d:)

To eat the onigiri, simply tear the tag on the animal's face straight down to reveal the yummy onigiri beneath, it's that simple! This onigiri wrapper was the only one I'd allow RM to bring to school, because he was not able to use the other type with the nori sleeve, which requires flipping the riceball or unfolding and refolding the plastic. Recently though, he has learnt how to use both types, so good for him d:)

This type of onigiri wrapper was previously featured in this post and this post.

New tools plus Nori Puncher Review

Found some cute rice moulds, and got two nori punchers, $2 per packet. I set the punchers to use right away.

These punchers are made of plastic, with a metal spring, and are much bigger than the Daiso ones. What I like best about them is - they're dismantleable (is there such a word?). In the picture below, I've taken them apart for washing, and the various nooks and crannies are waiting to dry.

Now for the actual usage. As long as the nori is crisp, the cutters punch clean and sharp about 9 out of 10 tries. (To make soggy nori crisp again, simply toast a single layer in a toaster oven for about 2-3 min.)

It should be noted that the punchouts are about 1.5 times bigger than the Daiso ones, which is especially obvious in the face punch. But that's no problem for me.

Overall, I give these punchers 5 out of 5 stars.