Home Bento Box - Attempt 1

Alex, my army reservist buddy, sent me this amazing website called "The Adventures in Bentomaking" which features this amazingly creative individual who whips up gorgeous looking bento boxes. Wen has always been one to take pride in her work so when she cooks, she doesn't just make sure the food taste good, she makes sure it's visually glorious as well. The only time when it becomes an exception is when she is making simple home cooked chinese dishes in which case it ends up like how every Chinese family cooks it.... one communal plate for each dish cooked.

So after visiting "The Adventures in Bentomaking" website, we were inspired to try and make the simple dishes look good. Problem is, we ain't got no Bento Box to decorate the dishes in. On well, first attempt, we try with a nice looking clay bowl...

The Dishes:
1) Luncheon Meat, Onions and Potatoes fried in Tomato Ketchup and Chilli Sauce
2) Brocollini stewed in Oyster Sauce

Under normal circumstances, the Dishes would be served in separate plates. Each diner will get a bowl of rice and we eat in the traditional Chinese way. But we decided to do it Bento style!

The Idea:
1) Place the rice in half of the bowl (Vertically half, not horizontally half)
2) Place the Brocollinis in a quarter of the bowl with the leaves upwards
3) Place the Luncheon Meat and Potatoes in the remaining quarter of the bowl
4) Decorate the rice with a piece of Strawberry or Cherry for visual effect

The Result:




Haha, as you can see, not quite what we had intended for....

Bento Box attempt 1 - Lessons learned:

1) You need a nice looking Bento box, not just a bowl that looks semi nice
2) Better to use Japanese rice cos they are stickier and can clump up better
3) Portions need to be right... in this case, too much rice, too much luncheon meat

Well, at least the meal was fantastically awesome tasting and we had a nice 07 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc to go with it :)