bento #14: the one with the experimental porridge

since trying the herbal porridge at a cafe called 'sweet bean', i've been wanting to try cooking my own herbal porridge. but for someone whose idea of "cooking" is basically just pouring hot water into the mee cup, i've no freaking idea what to put into my porridge! so i've been putting off cooking this porridge week after week...

then yesterday, while i was on my way home from my climb at batu caves, i was just thinking of what to do abt dinner when i suddenly had this craving for herbal porridge. for a second, i toyed with the idea of dropping by 'sweet bean' to ta-pao, but remembered that i forgot to bring my wallet. then i thought, "what the heck, why not just go home and cook it urself?!"

on arriving home, i din even think, but was very gung-ho abt it... just dumped in everything i feel would make a herbal porridge taste... erm... herbal porridgy. hehe...

anyway, my guage was slightly off the mark and i ended up with a pot full of herbal porridge! i made housemate P have it for dinner as well, but there were still half a pot left.. just nice for 2 bentos for today --> mine and housemate M's! kekeke...

oh, i used an old food container today... a thermos set i bought few years back from jusco, also during the mega sales. i got the blue set while N got the black set. but forgot how much we bought it for lar... i think i've only used it 2-3 times, mostly to ta-pao nasi lemak from the train station on my way to work last time. the makcik thought it's from Tupperware!

ultimate insulation... keeps home-cooked meals
hotter, fresher, longer until it's time to eat

fits snugly, with a pocket on top of the cover
and another one underneath for utensils and serviettes and such...

it's a 3-piece set...

main container: herbal porridge; 1st side container: pickled 'za-chai' aka 'szechuan chai';
2nd side container, in colourful angel-shapped silicone cups bought from bento party:
2 types of japanese pickles and 'fu-yi' aka fermented bean curd

and here's M's porridge bento... she wanna tumpang her bento photo here (M, next time kenot tumpang ar... go get ur own blog! if not, i'll charge rental! keke...)

'black masculine bento box' bought from mini 100 yen shop at the bento party.
top tier with lid contains the herbal porridge;
bottom tier, in identical square silicone cups (from daiso, singapore) are 'szechuan chai'
and 'chai-xin' aka pickled lettuce, and also some fried eggs at the side.
digression: this set was dubbed 'masculine bento box' by us coz originally,
it was meant for M to pack food for her Mr. DD. it's 'masculine' coz it's black
and not cute or colourful like other bento boxes... but unfortunately it had remained
in her Osram bag from the bento party up until now! hehehe...
so i persuaded her to take it out and use it for the porridge! :P

stargal's chin-chai herbal porridge:
1) rice (of course)
2) crab sticks
3) kei-zhi (wolfberries)
4) red dates
5) a few slices of 'pao sam' (some sort of ginseng-like roots)
6) chinese mushrooms
7) some sort of nut (dunno what it's called) normally used in soup and such

cooking method:
cut up the crab sticks and mushrooms, wash everything and dump everything into the rice cooker. cook with a lot of water.

special note:
need to cook longer, coz the nuts did not cook properly.

*pray the housemates did not get food-poisoning!*

Read also:
bento #11: the one slapped together in 2 minutes
bento #8: the one with the yellow vege
bento #6: sushi breakfast & home-cooked lunch...
bento #4: steamboat leftover