Go Bento!

Photo Courtesy Of: miheco

A bento is a single serve portioned meal common in Japanese cuisine. This boxed meal can either be served in restaurants or eaten on the go as homemade packed lunches. The concept has many variations all over the world. Similar forms include biandang (Taiwan), dosirak (Korea), baon (Philippines) and tiffin (India).

History of the Bento

Bento boxes were originally served during a hanami or tea party. Later on it became common to bring food during travels or while sightseeing. Since concessionaires were not common then, people who came to see kabuki or other shows ate their bento boxes during intermissions. Through the years it evolved as a take away meal that adults and children took with them for lunch and during picnics or day trips. These delicious meals are often cooked at home, but they have been sold commercially since the late 1800’s.

Bento bako or the lunchbox itself was initially made of woven bamboo leaves and then it evolved to wooden boxes. During the Taisho period (1912-1926), aluminum bento boxes were used because they were more sturdy and reusable. Nowadays, lacquer bento boxes are used for special gatherings and in restaurants, while plastic ones are used on a daily basis. Disposable bento boxes are also sold commercially.

Character Bento

Photo Courtesy Of:  leafar.

Types of bento

Makunuochi bento is a bento meal served for formal meals and in restaurants.

Kouraku bento is for sharing and it is also known as a picnic bento.

Ekiben bento is for travelers and is often sold in food halls, train stations and convenience stores.

Charaben or kyaraben is the art of making ‘character bento’ which often resembles anime or cartoon characters.

The Japanese follow two traditions in preparing food

Goho meaning five ways of cooking -boiling, grilling, pickling, frying, simmering or steaming gives further balance to every meal.

Goshiki  means five colors –white, red/orange, green, yellow, black/purple/brown. It is a Japanese Buddhist thought that balances aesthetics and nutrition in every meal.

Picnic Bento

Photo Courtesy Of: kimubert

How to assemble a bento box

The traditional bento box ratio is 4-3-2-1. Four parts contains carbohydrates such as rice or noodles, three parts protein such as meat or fish, 2 parts vegetables for fiber and vitamins and one part dessert such as fruits or baked goods for a daily source of sugar.

Why bento?

Bento boxes are healthier options since food is portioned according to your daily needs. This can vary or change though, depending on one’s diet. It is also earth friendly because food is served in reusable containers, thus reducing waste from plastic and paper bags or other forms of disposable packaging. Going bento does not necessarily mean eating Japanese food. These healthy lunchboxes can also contain sandwiches or dishes from other cuisines.  So if you are tired of your usual boring lunch, be creative and make a bento box today.

Umami is for Delicious and Savory

Japan is one of the few places in the world that offers the most unique and the tastiest of delicacies and cuisines, whether fried, steamed, or even raw. As the Land of the Rising Sun rises with its amazing food selections, another revolutionary offering about food is the innovation and development of the fifth taste called “umami” found from MSG or monosodium glutamate. We have been familiar with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter flavors, but umami, not known to many, has been tasted way before, even though it was only discovered in 1909 by a Professor of the Tokyo Imperial University, Kikunae Ikeda. He found this tang when he experimented with kombu seaweed and sought for the reason of its palatability.

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Is Sushi Good For You?

I finally satisfied my sushi craving the other day when I went out to eat with several friends. It was actually a funny meal because I had just spent the whole afternoon at the hospital getting some tests done and then met up with my friends for dinner. While gorging ourselves on the delectable pieces of sushi that the chef whipped up, we found ourselves talking about the health benefits of sushi.

Does sushi really have health benefits or is it just good to eat?

Well if you think about it, sushi is simply rice and fish. Of course, different varieties would have vegetables, other kinds of seafood, and sometimes sesame seed. Whether the fish is cooked or not, the fact that sushi has very low fat content remains the same. More so, sushi also has low cholesterol and caloric content. That is good, isn’t it?

In addition to these things, having seafood as the main ingredient implies another healthy reason to eat sushi. Certain seafood have a healthy does of Omega-3 fatty acids. Technical term aside, this simply means that seafood is good for your heart! As such, sushi is not only low in fat and other stuff, but it also has something good for your body!

Last, take a look at vegetables and the seaweed that is used to wrap the sushi in. These ingredients are definitely high in nutrients and other healthy things (notice that I cannot enumerate them). Cheryl Koch over at Yahoo Health says that phytochemicals are present as well.

I guess I have presented my argument quite convincingly, huh? Sushi is indeed good for the health.

Photo courtesy of breezeDebris

Noodle Robot Coming Up!

The Japanese have always been at the cutting edge of technological discoveries, and they haven’t failed to impress. Try visiting one of their ramen shops in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi and you will yet again be impressed; this time, with the juxtaposition of great food and robots.

What do they have in common? Well, this ramen house has its own robot chef, which takes care of the assembly of the noodle bowl. While the human chef still makes and cooks the noodles, the task of putting everything together to create the perfect bowl of hot steaming noodle soup is left to the robot.

Customers merely have to input their orders on a computer, and the robot takes care of everything. If you think that this might affect the flavor of the soup somehow, then you are right – but only in the best possible way! The robot can customize the flavors depending on the preferences of the customer. It can measure the different spices and flavorings – up to 40 million different permutations! From the amount of salt, soy sauce, and down to the richness of the soup, you can be sure to have a perfect bowl to match your tastes!

The shop owner, Yoshihara Uchida, is quite proud of his achievement. He worked on this robot for quite a while, meeting a lot of hurdles along the way. Finally, after five years of working on the robot, Uchida was able to launch his creation in December of 2008. He dreams of mass producing this robot and making a name for himself.

Inarizushi: A Different Kind Of Sushi

It seems that my sushi kick is not totally over yet – will it ever be? I have never heard of inarizushi before. I accidentally read about while browsing the Internet and it made me want to try one.

So what is inarizushi and how is it different from the “normal” sushi that we eat? Gale Fox describes is really well:

Inarizushi is a form of sushi that stuffs the vinegared rice into teriyaki-seasoned pouches of deep fried tofu. It was invented by a Tokyo chef in 1848 who advertised his creation with the emblem of the Inari shrines. Inarizushi is great for hikes, as the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and sake preserve it from the bottom of the mountain to the picnic at the top. It’s a plain-looking dish, on the sweet side, but you can dress it up with colored cross-cultural condiments of the season. Every batch features ofukurononaji, the taste of home-cooking, because each chef seasons it just a bit differently.

I think it’s the tofu that makes me really want to try this dish. I love tofu and am always willing to try different ways of cooking it but deep fried, in my opinion, is the best. Combine that with vinegared rice and you simply can’t go wrong!

This kind of sushi is even better for those who have qualms about eating raw fish or any other kind of seafood. More so, for those who have allergic reactions to seafood (like me), inarizushi should provide an alternative. I wonder how I would like the sweet taste to it, though?

Photo courtesy of panduh

Tasmanian Wasabi: One Of The Best

For those who are into Japanese food, wasabi is something that is always appreciated with the rest of the meal. Wasabi is a plant that belongs to the Brassicaceae family, the same plant family that includes cabbages, mustard, and horseradish. You can buy wasabi in its original form – as a root – or as a paste, which can be consumed as is. These days, you can even buy wasabi in powdered form, which is even more convenient. If you have ever tasted the real thing, however, you would know the difference between that and the powdered stuff, which is quite nasty. Some people would only touch the real thing – the connoisseurs.

There is this kind of wasabi, however, that even the most discerning of people have given it a thumbs up. There is a group of farmers from northern Tasmania in Australia who grow a special kind of wasabi. Instead of the traditional way of growing the plant, they grow their wasabi hydroponically. The Tasmanian wasabi was actually featured in a festival in Japan.

The festival was called the Taste of Tokyo and it featured the produce of Steven Welsh and his partners. So why do they grow their wasabi hydroponically? Welsh says that the method increases the quality of the wasabi as well as increase the output. It seems that the quality is indeed very good as it impressed Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda. He was so impressed that he brought the wasabi to the festival in Tokyo.

Tasmanian Wasabi: One Of The Best

For those who are into Japanese food, wasabi is something that is always appreciated with the rest of the meal. Wasabi is a plant that belongs to the Brassicaceae family, the same plant family that includes cabbages, mustard, and horseradish. You can buy wasabi in its original form – as a root – or as a paste, which can be consumed as is. These days, you can even buy wasabi in powdered form, which is even more convenient. If you have ever tasted the real thing, however, you would know the difference between that and the powdered stuff, which is quite nasty. Some people would only touch the real thing – the connoisseurs.

There is this kind of wasabi, however, that even the most discerning of people have given it a thumbs up. There is a group of farmers from northern Tasmania in Australia who grow a special kind of wasabi. Instead of the traditional way of growing the plant, they grow their wasabi hydroponically. The Tasmanian wasabi was actually featured in a festival in Japan.

The festival was called the Taste of Tokyo and it featured the produce of Steven Welsh and his partners. So why do they grow their wasabi hydroponically? Welsh says that the method increases the quality of the wasabi as well as increase the output. It seems that the quality is indeed very good as it impressed Sydney chef Tetsuya Wakuda. He was so impressed that he brought the wasabi to the festival in Tokyo.

Mobile Phones to Aid in Weight Loss

The Japanese have always been at the forefront of utilizing technology to make life easier and more interesting at the same time.  NTT’s new project is no different: they have launched a service which will help the Japanese people in their quest to live a healthier lifestyle – not that they need to be healthier! Correct me if I am wrong, but in general, the Japanese do not have weight issues. (How can you get fat on Japanese food?)

Last month, the world renowned telecommunications company announced the Health Enhancement Assist Service, which they are working on together with NTT Resonant Inc. (NTT Resonant) and foo.log Inc. (foo.log).  Basically, the service will make use of mobile phones (and their cameras) and data center services.  The former will take photos of the food that a person will ingest and send the data to servers in the cloud.

What will happen is that the photo of the food will be analyzed using high-tech software, which is developed by the University of Tokyo.  The data will be compared to the guidelines that have been set by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Forests and Fisheries.  Factors such as quantity, caloric content, and nutritional value will be determined based on the image.  More so, the service will allow the user to determine the amount of exercise he or she gets via walking. The system will then return recommendations based on the data analyzed.

The service is not available commercially yet, and testing is scheduled for early next year.  I think this is brilliant – you can take photos whenever you eat out and kill two birds in one stone: watch what you eat and update your food blog as well!

Photo via Whale Balanced

Hortensia: Fraponese Treat in Tokyo

The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, and is surprisingly affordable. For only 4,750 yen (inclusive of tax), diners can choose four dishes from the menu. Whatever you feel like eating – appetizers, main courses, or desserts – you can pick out from the menu. Dinner is a bit pricier at 8,400 yen (inclusive of tax) and the choices have to be two appetizers, one fish dish, one meat dish, and one dessert.

After dinner, the whole place takes on a different character and transforms into a wine bar. They have a pretty decent wine list – what else can you expect from a French-inspired restaurant?

What gives Hortensia an edge is the skill and preferences of Chef Kogi, who incorporates local influences into his cooking. He also has a propensity for making use of seasonal ingredients, making sure that guests have something new to look forward to even after several visits.  Delectable Fraponese cuisine is what awaits you when you pay Hortensia’s visit.

If you find yourself hankering for French cuisine while in Tokyo, make sure to head out to Hortensia:

B1F, NS AZABU-JUBAN BLDG, 3-6-2 AZABU-JUBAN,
MINATO-KU, TOKYO JAPAN 106-0045
Telephone: 03-5419-8455 FAX 03-3451-9300

Miso And Its Health Benefits

While we are on the subject of miso, let me share with you the health benefits of this wonderful soup. Though, of course, its primary purpose (at least for me) is to satisfy my tummy and make me feel better, miso does have potential health benefits. I ran across this article from Associate Content written by Scott Kessman. In it, he details the benefits that miso soup can give to our health.

For women, consuming a bowl of miso a day can help keep breast cancer at bay. The reason for this lies in the inherent nature of the main ingredient, which is fermented soy bean. Another thing about miso is that it is supposed to regulate the production of estrogen in women. This, in turn, helps keep tumors from developing.

Miso also contains a whole lot of other nutrients such as Vitamin E and Vitamin B12. These vitamins help in increasing our immune system. In addition to these, miso contains antioxidants. We all know how antioxidants have come to the forefront because of their anti-aging and anti-cancer properties. Of course, miso contains protein, making it a good alternative to other protein-rich food such as beef and pork.

How about the other ingredients in the soup? The seaweed that is normally included in the dish is purported to have the effect of lowering cholesterol levels. Combine the seaweed with miso paste and what you get is something to help combat problems related to nicotine.

Indeed, miso soup is not only food for the soul but for the body as well!