bento #9: the one packed by someone else!

a 'love-hearted bento' in it's true sense! u see, i personally think that only a rice box packed for us by someone else can qualify for the term 'love-hearted bento' (ai4-xin1 pien1-tang4). it's because of the love and care someone puts into packing up the bento that such bentos are given this name in the first place.

this is my unexpected 'love-hearted bento' dinner, packed by N! fish meat with the bones picked out on the left and cauliflower, celery, carrots & prawns mixed on the right, with rice in the middle. i added on some of my usual pickles and washed it all down with one of my all-time fav drinks, self-bancuh ribena (self-bancuh to ensure it's not too sweet!).

bento #8: the one with the yellow vege

have not been bento-ing lately... coz been coming home late and been so tired! housemate M was commenting that my broccoli will be turning yellow if i dun cook it soon... so since today is the last working day of the week, and i know i'll be too lazy to cook during the weekends, i made myself put together a bento for today's lunch.

nothing much... just boiled the broccoli and baby carrots. had to discard half of the broccoli that was too yellow. and i didn't know for how long i should boil the two vege... so just agak-agak lar. turned out ok, i think.

boiled vege with my usual pickles... but i forgot to
splash some soy sauce on the vege, so lucky i have the pickles!

something a happening this sept!

woo hoo... party for bento kaki! keke... hopefully i'll be able to schedule my MATTA Fair duty around this! *cross fingers* dragging housemate M along... hop over to Bento Pet's for more info.

update (8.48am, 22 aug 08): managed to persuade good friend S to go too! who else wanna join?

a hitchhiker's guide to...

somehow, this memory suddenly popped into my head while on the way to work this morning...

during our uni days, few of us had any mode of transportation save our own two legs as the reliability of our uni bus service and the public transport leaves a lot to be desired. and our faculty was so far away from our college! most days, we'd walk back to our college after classes and even with all the short-cuts, it still took us about 20 - 30 min! no wonder we were all so slim then! hehe...

however, on some days, especially in the evening and we were all so tired out from a whole day of classes, some of us would stand at the side of the main road in front of our faculty to hitchhike! we'd just put on our 'first year muka kesian' face and stick our thumbs out at any passing car... hehehe... and abt 98% of the time, we'd get a ride either back to our college or to the main complex just opposite our college.

and it was kinda fun, actually! of course, we always do it in groups. never alone. and i think what we were doing was relatively safe coz after all, most of the ppl driving inside the campus would be students and lecturers. as our faculty is situated on the road on which at the end of it is the engineering faculty, we get lots of engineering seniors picking us up. heheh... :P and if the timing was right, we'd even get repeated hitchhikees (is there even such a word?)!

sometimes, we'd strike up a conversation with the driver and it was pretty interesting for both hitchhiker and hitchhikee. i think the reason most of them actually stopped for us was they seldom see ppl doing such things, both in and out of campus, and it kinda amused them. hehe...

well, there's that. just a short reminiscence to some of the things we did in our uni days...

* no bento today! craving for korean bibeembab! :P

bento #7: express bento

today's dinner before i go off for practice: japanese rice mixed with furikake, 2nd half of yesterday's aparagus, crabsticks, meatloaf and 2 kinds of japanese pickles.

preparing this bento is such a breeze compared to yesterday's! kekeke... but actually, they're about the same! that's bcoz most of the things are leftovers... even the rice! i just need to mix the furikake into the rice (dun even need to heat it up, coz it's supposed to be cold!), microwave the meatloaf, crabsticks and asparagus (yes, even the vege! i'm that lazy!), dish out the pickles and then chuck it all back into the fridge! easy peasy! din even bother making tamagoyaki... hehehe...

when we get too free in the office...

we start chatting nonsense!


LX: i believe if we believe in our dreams, it'll come true lo
me: yeah, me too!
me: actually i have this crazy fantasy... hehe
LX: tell! tell!
me: i was fantasizing, maybe it'll be nice to just marry a diver and run a dive operation in a remote beach
LX: wah!!
me: yeah, just live a simple life... and be a beach bum the whole day!
LX: then u must get a beachboy for a hubby
me: kenot lar... beachboy hubs will only frolick in the sun with bikini-clad girls
LX: wa, u let him get near bikini-clad girls ar? so tai-fong lah u!
me: no choice lar... i need to man the counter mar. the dive operation needs to run... if not how to survive and maintain my beach-side shack?
LX: no one ask u to be there mar
me: aiya, it's just a small operation lar, where got money to employ ppl? everything needs to do it myself lar
LX: fix a schedule lah. get ur hubby to man as well
me: kenot lar... the useless fella will only sapu all the money in the cash register and use it to buy drinks for the bikini-clad girls
LX: aiyo... must keep an eye on him leh. follow him everywhere he goes!
me: yeah lor... but how to keep an eye on him 24 hrs??? if the customer is a bikini-clad girl, takkan i follow them down underwater?
LX: hmm... then u set rules lah... only can wear 1 piece suits! no bikinis allowed!
me: u siao ar? u wan my business to go bankrupt issit? that's y i'm gonna get my own dive master license
LX: eh? what's that got to do with keeping an eye on ur hubs?
me: i'll teach diving also lar. all the sexy girls, i teach!
LX: hahaha... like that also can?
me: ya lar... all the old uncles, the hubs teach. cute young hunks, i teach!
LX: wakakaka...
me: hehehe... good plan?
LX: perfect! i think i'll go take a dive master license also. ur place needs more staff?
me: no, go away! i'm not sharing my cute young hunks with u!
LX: oi, dun be so kiam-siap lah!
me: no, u keep away...
LX: kedekut!
me: :p

bento #6: sushi breakfast & home-cooked lunch...

housemate M came home from midvalley yesterday night and happily announced that she bought some sushi for me! but i've already cooked my rice by then, so after much negotiation, i agreed to take 2 pieces for breakfast...

sushi breakfast, with a blob of wasabi and soy sauce, courtesy of M... yummers!








lunch was home-cooked japanese rice mixed with furikake, 2 types of japenese pickles, boiled asparagus, crabsticks, slices of japanese cucumber and tamagoyaki!

bought the asparagus last week, so had to cook it before it all gets dump into the bin. after a crash course with auntyjo, i up and gave it a try yesterday. 1st, i din know how much to cut away. auntyjo said to cut away the fibrous or woody lower part of the stem... erm... ok, so i just snapped off 1/3 of every stem, woody or not! :P

next, i'm to boil it 'until it turns bright green'. yikes! this is the first time i'm handling asparagus. how would i know a 'bright green' asparagus from a 'not-so-bright green' asparagus??? so the whole time it's boiling, i was just staring at the stems, asking myself, "is this bright green? is this bright green?" aiyo, tension! then right after boiling, need to dunk the vege into a cold bath. with no ice cubes, i just made do with cold water from the fridge.

but it turned out ok! maybe a bit too soft from boiling too long, but it still tasted ok. housemate M said it tasted like edamame... i was like munching on them the whole time i was preparing my bento. hahaha...

and my tamagoyaki turned out well this time! so happy... hehe... but my crabstick was a bit too dry, coz i microwaved them. hehehe... now i realized i should've stick them into the rice cooker after the rice is cooked! ok, will do that the next round...

and the japanese cucumber i bought from carrefour last week dun taste like japanese cucumber at all! tastes like local cucumbers. bleah! so M is gonna kao-tim the rest of it for me. hehe...

all in all, a satisfying breakfast n lunch... but the preparation (i'm such a slow worker in the kitchen!) is so tedious! and washing up all those pots n pans, plates and bowls is a real bitch...

chewie @ home...

taking a respite from posting abt bento, here are some updates on chewie. it's been more than a month since she went to her new home and last week, her new owner, NL e-mailed me some photo n video updates...

snoozing in the laundry room... she seems thinner,
but maybe it could only be the angle the pic was taken...

chewie & max in their lepak place, the laundry room,
waiting for the gals to come out and play...

after bath... she still hates the hairdryer! can hear NL hollering at her in the background! haha...
NL: "...bathing her (very challenging), especially blow drying her... notty lar, run here and there... haha... she's totally opposite of max... max enjoy the blow drying..."



out for walks... the one thing she's been deprived of up until now. but she's still so stuck-up... dun really like to make friends with other dogs. *sigh*



NL: "...SupER HYPER!! especially i bring them for walks... usually i bring them walk walk at night... if i walk during evening scared chewie and max bite other kids in the park... scary lar, chewie act so big boss to other doggies... scare the kids..."

gosh, i miss her soooooo much! even now, when i walk into the kitchen, i'd half expect chewie to be sitting in her cage there, looking expectantly at me with those puppy brown eyes of hers... *sob*

but it's good to see that she's settling in so well, and she's still the hyper, naughty and 'siao' doggie that she is! so tho' a part of me ached at parting with her, i can be rest assured that i've made the right choice and giving her up means giving her a better and healthier life. *sob*

bento #5: discounted sushi & nando's leftover

was at isetan, klcc yesterday and like i've mentioned before, i can never resist discounted food offered by supermarkets at closing time. hehe...

sushi for breakfast? yeah, i know! but heck cares... yums!

had nando's for dinner with N and since i always can't finish my 1/4 chicken meals, i decided to have them pack up my side dishes (another form of portion control, no?) for a bento lunch the next day! with that in mind, my choice of side dishes were mediterranean rice and potato salad.

added on a generous dash of prawn chilli sauce, and made tamagoyaki (click link for recipe). but tamagoyaki failed miserably, coz i waited too long to fold it. the egg were already cooked, so it refused to stick when folded, hence can't achieve the 'multi-layered' effect of a tamagoyaki. but still yummy! :)

bento #4: steamboat leftover

was at N's place for makan yesterday, coz it was N's new baby niece's full-moon celebration. had steamboat and there were lots of leftovers. so N asked me to pack some home... and ta-dah! another bento for today! hehe...

used the smaller plastic container for rice, coz rice is fattening! so need to ration that! in the metal box are quail eggs, fish balls, long fish meat thingy (dunno what that's called!), cuttlefish, fu-jook wrapped fish meat, japanese to-fu, fish and sui-kao (dumpling). sprinkled some parsley and splashed on some soy sauce, and we're ready to go!

had this for dinner, coz went out for lunch with the bosses and also, went for practice straight after work tonight. i always go to practice hungry... so since today is a rainy day and the jam will probably be worse than usual, decided to eat my bento in the office and leave office later. but even tho' it's gotten cold by then (boo to the company for not providing microwave!), it's still yummy!

bento #3: warm-hearted breakfast

went to pasar malam yesterday, and bought my fav 'everytime go pasar malam must buy' kueh, the kao-chi (or chai kueh in hokkien). bought 4 for RM2, and 4 kao-chi for breakfast is too much for one person! so decided to surprise housemate M with a warm-hearted breakfast bento! hehe...

aiyo, accidentally poked one of M's kao-chi when putting it in the box!
can see the filling spilling out on the right. sorry! hehe...

cute food containers for bento!

tried out new furoshiki tying methods today. M's (red) is "yotsu musubi", a 4 tie wrap, while mine (blue) is "futatsu tsutsumi", a 2 knots carry wrap. mine looked a bit messy, coz actually i was late for work! :P

reading up on bento, i found this site on furoshiki. actually there are many ways to tie the furoshiki. all these while, i've only used the "otsukai tsutsumi", the basic carry wrap

bento #2: breakfast & lunch

my bento for today...

this is the full set of the bento box auntyjo helped me get... (minus the furoshiki, of course!)

2 tiers of boxes; a plastic box and a slightly bigger metal one, with a plastic cover thingy and an elastic band, along with an insulated bag to put everything in

6 tartlets for breakfast... yums!

store-bought fried nissin noodles with chicken fillet and mushrooms, with some prawn chilly sauce. surprisingly, the small metal box can take in quite a lot of mee!