BentoNow is a service which delivers Asian dinner / lunch to your curbside  in *minutes*. When they say "minutes'", they mean it too! I personally got mine delivered in 4 minutes! No kidding! 


You get to pick your main and 4 sides. I believe their dinner time starts at 5pm! 

Once you pick, enter your CC info and confirm your order,  you'll receive a confirmation text which shows you where your food is! You get to track it all the way through it's journey....Then, fwah-lah, 4 minutes later I had my very first BentoNow in my hands! 

This day I ordered: Seared Salmon (as a main dish), Asian Chopped Salad, Chicken Wings, Fruit and Vegetable Gyoza. Most of these dishes are Japanese; like the salmon and gyoza....I must say, being born and raised in Japan - I *approve* and want to thank BentoNow for serving such great Japanese casual food in San Francisco! 

The Seared Salmon was absolutely the highlight. The ponzu sauce was fresh and real. Matched with the perfectly seared salmon! The Asian Chopped Salad was seasoned very well - not too sweet, not too dressed. 

You can use "MARIKA1" to get a couple dollars off your first BentoNow!


BentoNowというお弁当を届けてくれるサービスに出会いました。
アプリからオーダーして４分後、お弁当がお家の目の前に。
しかも、アメリカのサービスにしてはとても美味しくて、日本人として誇りを持ってしまったほどです。

I was surprised to see DAISO (Japanese $1 store) in San Francisco selling hijiki! 

Hijiki is a very well known healthy ingredient in Japan; it's high in fiber, iron and calcium. The most popular dish which is made using this ingredient is a simple simmered dish. It's a side dish, not a main dish. People like to throw in carrots, garbanzo beans and even konnyaku. All of which can be found in the US. The ingredients are simmered in a sweet broth made of dashi, soy sauce and sugar. It's simple, tasty and very good for you. Great to pack in your obento too.

Hijiki is usually sold in its dried state. You'll have to soak it in water for 20-30 minutes. The amount will increase by 7 to 8 times; it's fun to watch :) 

Ingredients (This makes a substantial amount, maybe around 6-8 servings) 

• 1 bag of hijiki (40g) 
• Carrots
• 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans 
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2-3 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
  
• 3 tbsp Japanese sake
• 1.5 tsp Hondashi soup stock
• 1 cup of water
• (Optional) 3 tbsp mirin

Steps

1. Put the dried hijiki in a bowl of water and see it increase its mass by 7 to 8 times. Rinse and wash thoroughly.
2. Heat a pan on MEDIUM heat. Place some oil and stir fry the carrots, garbanzo beans and hijiki until heated through.
3. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sake, soup stock and water (optional: mirin)
4. Place a otoshi-buta on the pan (Use foil as a lid and place directly on the ingredients, this helps the ingredients soak up the goodness). Heat until most of the broth is soaked up.

I was surprised when I saw a small Japanese kabocha being sold at a Farmers Market. Kabocha is a pumpkin or it could also be a winter squash of Asian variety according to Wikipedia. 

If you follow my blog, you may have realized that I've been cooking a lot of "boiled" dishes lately. The technique is to "niru" (煮る). When you cook ingredients in a broth, the broth is sucked up by the ingredients, ending up in a very tasty dish. This technique can be used for vegetables, meat and seafood. The best thing about it is that it is so easy. You just prepare the broth (probably just a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, etc), toss in the ingredients drop a lid and wait for the broth to be soaked up! 

The dish I'm introducing today is a Japanese kabocha nimono (煮物). Kabocha boiled in Japanese broth. It's sweet but savoury. The more you leave it in the broth, the more intense the taste will get. So be careful in boiling the ingredient too long! 


Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a kabocha (a fairly large kabocha)

Broth

• 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Japanese mirin
• 2 tbsp Japanese sake
• 1 - 2 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like the dish)
• 3/4 - 1 cup of water

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a hot pan. Heat until it starts boils.
2. Once the broth starts boiling, toss in the cut pumpkins. (Cut them into bite-size pieces)
3. Place a piece of aluminum foil directly onto the pumpkin. This is called "otoshi-buta" which means to drop a lid directly onto the ingredients. This will help the pumpkin truly soak up the broth. Keep heating on MEDIUM heat.
4. Heat until the broth has been completely soaked up by the pumpkins. 

Note: Mix while heating so that the pumpkin is heated evenly. Also, you can adjust the heat to low since the aluminum foil lid can contain a lot of heat.

I packed the leftovers in my bento the next day. Became tastier than the day before! 

I've got multiple comments about Tamagoyakis, Japanese sweet omelettes. 

According to some research, Japanese people only started to eat egg during the Edo period (16th to 18th century). Even then, I'm sure it was a luxury item. Now tamagoyakis are often made as a form of comfort food. Moms and Dads pack it in children's lunches a.k.a. obento. Every time I eat a tamagoyaki I always reminisce my mom's homemade lunches back in elementary school. 

Just like an onigiri (rice ball), it's a dish which reminds you of your family. Somehow tastes different depending on the family though the ingredients being used are probably the same. 

Ingredients being used are eggs and sugar with a dash of oil on the pan. Use a small pan for perfect results.

It may seem difficult at first but practice makes perfect. The more you try, the more easier it gets. I promise! 

As I mentioned earlier, I sometimes make these at night, cut them, freeze them in saran wrap and take it for lunch in its frozen state in the morning. By lunch time, they are defrosted and taste delicious! 

They go perfectly with rice; especially onigiri. I hope you check out the recipe I posted for this dish and try it out yourself! 

One of my favourite destination in San Francisco so far are the Farmers Markets! There are so many around the city all throughout the week and the quality of vegetables and fruits you get there are outstanding. My favourite so far is the "Heart of the City Farmers Market" in Civic Center. If you follow my Instagram, you should already know that I got 2 large daikons, 4 apricots/peaches, bitter melon and zucchinis, all for $3. I also got a bag full of delicious onions and zucchinis for $1 each last week. You get fruits and veggies in season directly from the farmers, how amazing is that?! 

One vegetable I've been seeing a lot at these Farmers Market recently are eggplants! 

I've already introduced the ginger eggplant stir fry on this blog, but today I'll introduce something more simple and easy. A simple Japanese stir fry, somewhat like a teriyaki sauce! 

May I warn you that my boyfriend and I just could not stop eating this. It was so tasty, went perfectly with Japanese rice; just unstoppable.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• (Optional) Any other vegetables of your choice
• 1 tbsp oil of your choice (I use coconut oil or olive oil)
• 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• (Optional) A hint of sesame oil

Steps

1. Cut the eggplant into slices and soak them in water for a couple of minutes.
2. Heat up a pan with oil.
3. Once the pan is heated, toss in the eggplants (and additional veggies if any).
4. Once the vegetables get soft and heated, add the sugar.
5. Once the sugar is disolved, add the soy sauce. Heat for a couple more minutes until the soy sauce settles into the veggies. Add the hint of sesame oil at the end for a savory smell prior to serving.

So I've begun my life as a fulltime employee in San Francisco. Absolutely loving it so far. Starting my second week, I decided to pack obentos to work! There are cute cafes around office but they are all crowded and the last thing I want to do is wait in line! I've never really packed true Japanese obentos myself. I've always watched my mom though. I decided to start simple. A bed of rice with furikake, tamagoyaki and some stir fried veggies. Absolutely perfect. 

How to make a simple but delicious and safe to eat obento? Read below! 

Rice

• I cooked the rice on timer mode so I can pack fresh rice in the morning. Let the rice out to cool before packing it up.
  
  

Tamagoyaki (Japanese sweet omelette)

• Click here for the link to the recipe. Once you have cooked it, wrap it up in saran wrap and store it in the freezer! In the morning, take it out of the freezer and pack it into your obento. By the time it's lunch time, it will be defrosted and delicious. I promise.
• After learning the successful result of my frozen tamagoyaki defrosted by lunch time, I've decided to make batches of them before hand on the weekends so I don't have to do it every night prior. (Yes, my boyfriend and I absolutely LOVE tamagoyakis and can't get enough of them)
  
  

Stir fry veggies

• I simply stir fried veggies (like zucchini, onion, garlic, mushroom, salt and pepper) and store it in the fridge until next morning.