Year of the Rooster Bento Box

My page on JapanUp! magazine got bigger and one full page from a half page!
January 2017 features "Year of the Rooster Bento".
Please pick up the magazine at Japanese grocery stores or restaurants if you live in LA or OC!!

Inari Sushi Bento ~Year of Monkey~

Almost new year already.....
Happy year of Monkey!

I cut inari sushi pouch and stuff rice inside.
Here is my bento page on Japan Up! magazine Feb issue;)
Please pick it up at your local restaurants or Japanese grocery stores!! (in LA and OC )

New Year Horse Bento

Happy New Year!!!!!!
We celebrated by eating sashimi, sushi and some of Japanese traditional New Year food.

Shrimp dish is one of the must-have items for Japanese New Year's food.

It symbolizes a wish for a long-life. To live until back bend like shrimp's. 

I made Golden Shrimp this time.

Have you seen a pair of golden fish on the roof edge of a Japanese castle?

Those are imaginary animals and considered to blow out water.

Japanese castles were made with woods, so they put the fish with a wish for an avoidance of fire.

Anyways, that is kinda good-luck thing, so this shrimp dish is made to look like those.

Golden Shrimp (Recipe in Japanese)

8 shrimps (raw, tail on, deveined )

2tbs Mayonnaise

1 Egg yolk

2in Green onions, chopped

1. Make a slit along the shrimp's belly to open. Lay on a toaster pan.

2. Mix mayonnaise, egg yolk and green onions and put on each shrimp belly.

3. Cook in a toaster about 3~4 mins.

Made bento with leftover food.....and a sausage horse! This year is the Year of the Horse:)

To make a horse, you need 2 mini sausages.
Cut one in half vertically and cut off V shapes from the ends as shown below. (hands and legs)
Cut the other sausage to make a head as shown.
Create ears and a tail with remnants of the sausage.

I made hair by mixing bonito flakes and a couple of drops of soy sauce.
Connect the parts together with fried pasta.
Create the face parts with a sliced cheese and a piece of nori seaweed.

Sushi Cup Cakes

Happy New Year!
Celebrated Japanese new year with sushi cup cakes:)
It's easy to make sushi cups.
Just line a small cup(column shape is desirable) with plastic wrap.
Put sushi rice on the cup and push with plastic wrap to shape.