Year of the Bento: Bento No. 4: Chicken Korma Bento

January 25th, 2010, lunch, photos, year of the bento, Janaki, 2 Comments

Chicken in a korma, I know it’s serious.

Seriously delicious, that is. Follow the jump for more, and a gallery.

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Year of the Bento: Bento No. 3: Omuraisu (Japanese Omelette Rice)

January 21st, 2010, lunch, photos, year of the bento, Janaki, 2 Comments

Omuraisu is kind of like Japan’s equivalent of mac and cheese. Short for “omelette rice”¹ , it’s essentially a good way to use leftover ingredients but suit them to Japanese tastes.²

Follow the jump for more, and one more photo (not really a whole gallery this time).

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1. because the Japanese love their portmanteaux almost as much as I do [↩]
2. For those interested, this idea of taking Western-style dishes but bending them to Japanese flavor profiles is not uncommon. It’s a subgenre of Japanese cuisine called youshoku. If you’re familiar with kareraisu (curry rice), that’s part of the youshoku family, too. A good indicator is whether or not the name is just a Japanese pronunciation of borrowed English words—but that’s not always the case. However, if sighting such a word makes you suspicious, you may want to investigate further to see if you’re right. [↩]

Year of the Bento: Bento No. 2: Pan-Seared Tilapia with Caramelized Leeks and Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Salad Bento

January 18th, 2010, lunch, photos, year of the bento, Janaki, 4 Comments

As you may already have guessed, this isn’t a Japanese bento. I enjoy Japanese food a lot, but as with most other things, I don’t like to restrict myself to only eating one type of food. I like flavors that play well together, and giving respect to ingredients, cuisines, cultures, and traditions. However, I’m a multicutural person and my particular style of cooking tends to reflect this—as will my bento.

That having been said, follow the jump for details and a gallery.

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