I've kept up with the bento-making this month (if not with this blog!), and have assiduously taken a photo of every single effort (my married friends assure me the novelty will wear off after a year or so). So without further ado, today's token of my love, expressed in (hopefully) balanced and nutritious form.
Yes, I had one of those heart-shaped punches and a sheet of nori AND NO ONE COULD STOP ME.
Today he got rice with salmon, sesame and nori furikake, with okazu (side dishes) on the right (clockwise): grilled spicy chicken; wiener sausages on sticks (simple but cute when you cut them up like this!); mackerel in miso; grilled kamaboko (steamed compressed fish - sounds yummy I know but he loves it); takuan (yellow pickled radish - ditto); a cabbage salad with tomato, corn and potato salad, yuzu dressing and a wrapped piece of cheese.
Yes, I had one of those heart-shaped punches and a sheet of nori AND NO ONE COULD STOP ME.
Today he got rice with salmon, sesame and nori furikake, with okazu (side dishes) on the right (clockwise): grilled spicy chicken; wiener sausages on sticks (simple but cute when you cut them up like this!); mackerel in miso; grilled kamaboko (steamed compressed fish - sounds yummy I know but he loves it); takuan (yellow pickled radish - ditto); a cabbage salad with tomato, corn and potato salad, yuzu dressing and a wrapped piece of cheese.
I went to work on Wednesday after forgetting to go on Monday thanks to the public holiday yesterday (I always work Tuesdays, and I'd rescheduled myself to Monday, a fact which I had clean forgotten until I got an email Monday afternoon saying "er, has there been a schedule change?" Oops.) and, even as I was walking to the 7-11 to buy a salad and a soup cup, my legs steered me into The Lotus Palace, my favourite Vietnamese place ever. I got what I always get (apart from that one time I ordered something different and spent the whole time regretting it): Lunch Set H. Doesn't the very name make your mouth start watering?
This is listed on the menu as bun cha gio, which is rice noodles topped with a ton of crunchy vegetables (bean sprouts, sliced cabbage, radish etc), crushed peanut, spices, and fried Vietnamese-style spring rolls (ohmigodyum~), over which you then pour a thin sauce called nuoc cham (sweetened lime juice and fish sauce). It's meant to be spicy, I think, but as with all "ethnic" food in Japan, Lunch Set H was toned down for the Japanese palate and had no spiciness to speak of. Still delish though.