Sunday, October 17, 2004

Childhood Memories ...


Lunchbox that makes me feel nostalgic...

I went for a sketching excursion yesterday, and this was the lunch I brought with me. This time I didn't want to spend too much time on it, so I went for something quick & easy and also very popular when I was a kid.

See the artificially-colored, bright-red fish meat sausages? Don't they look really bad for your health? I never buy this kind of sausages any more, but in my childhood, kids (including myself) were crazy about them, especially when they were shaped like these:

Tulips, crab and octopus

Gee, I still remembered how to do this!
In my elementary school days, I practiced this quite a lot when I packed lunch for my younger sister's school excursion. We also loved to have the crab- and octopus-shaped ones in our yakisoba (stir-fried noodles).

About other things in the lunchbox:
Tamagoyaki (fried eggs or rolled omelet): Usually kids like it sweet, but my mom's mother sometimes made savory one for me. The eggs are seasoned with salt, soy sauce and MSG but no sugar, and chopped scallions (often with dried baby fish) are added. It's important to fry thoroughly until it looks slightly brown in order to bring out the natural, subtle sweetness of the soy sauce and eggs. I made the savory kind today.

The cucumber stick in chikuwa (steamed and grilled fish cake ): This always comes in handy. No seasoning necessary, and looks kind of nice in a lunchbox.

And for making this kind of rice balls, I never use plastic wrap. These are the typical ones my mom always made in my childhood, and at that time, plastic wrap was probably already invented but not yet popular in my hometown. So, the image of this kind of rice balls was imprinted in me without the plastic wrap, and now I just can't relate them in my mind.


5 comments:

pinkcocoa said...

konbanwa~
The little sausage animals are so kawaii! I had attempted to shape my sausage into the octupus but they always curled up too much. How do you make the crab one?

I love sweet tamagoyaki too! hehehe. I think I have to admit that I am still a kid at heart. I wont mind bringing a very cute bento like yours to lunch. :-)

Would it be too much if I ask for a tamagoyaki recipe? Do you make your tamagoyaki in the tamagoyaki pan?

obachan said...

Konbanwa : )
My octopus used to curl up quite a bit, too. Honestly I don’t know why it didn’t happen this time. To make the crab: Slice the sausage into half and make 3 or 4 cuts on each end, then cut an X mark in the center and fry.
Tamagoyaki recipe! Gee, I’ve never ever measured the ingredients when making tamagoyaki. Can you give me some time? Do you want the recipe for the sweet one or both? I don’t have a tamagoyaki pan, so I use regular frying pan.

pinkcocoa said...

Thanksss so much, obachan! *hugs*
Would it be too much if I ask for both recipes? I am a greedy greedy girl. hehe. and also thanks for telling me how to make the cute little crab. hehe. I am going to include this in my bento next time!

So you can make tamagoyaki in a round frying pan too? I was actually very tempted in getting a tamogoyaki pan :p It seems like I dont actually need to, right?

obachan said...

OK, greedy girl ;) I’ll post them sometime this weekend.
Tamagoyaki pan definitely makes it easier to roll and shape tamagoyaki in a proper (professionally looking?) way, but good many Japanese women are surviving without it.

pinkcocoa said...

domo arigatougozaimasu!!!!!
*muakkkssssssssss*