BentoholicsAnonymous

My new favorite thing is hummus.  Especially since I've found this particular brand. oh. so. tasty.

 
lettuce, cucumbers, hummus, cherry tomatoes.  The second tier is wheat thins, cheese spread, cherries, carrots, an apple banana, and  a little more hummus in kitty chan for carrot dipping.

In Japanese, its called onigiri.  In Hawaii, its called musubi.  Its just one big rice ball, filled or unfilled.  Very tasty bento fare.

I had a deep, deep craving for rice and pickles. DEEP. 

So I made some musubi for lunch!
 

Musubi filled with tuna/mayo/green onion mixture.  Bottom tier has kimchee, takuan, and grape tomatoes.

Hit the spot!

My very best friend in the world invited me to a church picnic at Kapiolani Park on July 4th.  This was a Japanese church and she was bringing musubi to the picnic.  I figured I was going to bring in something along the lines of bento as well.

 
Everything I made!  3 tiers of Jyobako and two smaller disposable bento boxes filled as well.

 
Red, white, and blue mini onigiri, inari zushi, and a couple of bananas for decoration.

 
Decorated hard boiled eggs, apple rabbits (my apple corer was not at all sharp so their ears are a bit weird!), bananas.


 
Santa Claus melon and orange slices.

 
Potato Salad (her favorite!)
 
 
Salmon patties or salmon cakes, whichever you prefer.

The picnic was so much fun and everything was very yummy!

My coworker's wife is leaving soon for Virginia. Since she won't be here for the wedding, they decided to treat us to a pre-celebratory dinner at Assaggio's in the Ala Moana Center. I think of Assaggio's as *really* upscale. Afterall, I did grow up in Kalihi and also came from a family where "going out for an expensive dinner" meant the dine in section at Zippys. 

Assaggio's has a "romantic" atmosphere (aka when it gets dark, cameras no longer take quality pictures of food).  The only light we had after the appetizers and salad was coming from our teeny tiny tea light.  Bad idea for photos, good idea for a great date.

 
The four of us got their table side made caesar salad.  I am a caesar salad connosiuer... this one was just "okay." I found it a bit oily for my taste.  There is the cool factor that they make it right next to you though.  Still a bit funny, to get the classic caesar salad taste you need to use a wooden bowl...this bowl here only *looks* wooden.

 
Appetizers were great.  Fried calamari and some garlic asparagus.

We all tasted each other's dishes (all came out camera-blurry).  Puttanesca, Veal Marsala, and the steak with potatoes and mushrooms were DELISH.  

The only thing I suggest is skip the caesar.  Regular joe restaurants like Outback Steakhouse make better ones.  

Assaggio's is located on the bottom floor of the Ala Moana Shopping Center right next to the koi pond.

I've had this sore throat for about a week.  No other symptoms, just a sore throat.  I've been taking advil for the pain and just kept doing my daily thing... I have a full time job and a wedding to plan for! I don't have time for sore throats! 

I woke up on Saturday morning so I could go grocery shopping and do some wedding errands... My throat would not let me.  I couldn't talk, couldn't eat, everything was swollen, and my throat was closing.

Dammit.

So my husband came home from work to take me to the Emergency Room.  At first the docs thought I had something contagious and quarantined me away from the other patients.  Then they found out I really don't have anything wrong with me and that I'm really stressed out.

800mg of ibuprophen later, I was at the grocery store and doing wedding errands.

Like I said, I don't have time for sore throats!  

Because of all the hubbub, I didn't get a chance to post Friday's lunch bento:
 
White rice with garden burger riblets (fake pork riblets that taste better than the real thing!), bell peppers and grape tomatoes, brussel sprouts with shoyu, rice wine vinegar, and black sesame seeds. 

I love these veggie products.  They taste so DARNED GOOD.  I'd rather have a garden burger riblet than a pork one anyday.  Plus I can feel good about it when I'm done eating... Until I order the veal marsala at assagios for dinner when my throat got better. Oh, horrible me!  Review coming soon. :)
 

A couple nights a week, I get in to work around 12 and leave at 8 so I pack a lunch bento and a dinner bento on work nights like these.  

 

First tier is cherry tomatoes, inarizushi, and a sliced orange.  Containers hold dressing for the salad under the bedtime bears.

Sleepytime bears that can't sleep are made of chopped ham, mamenori, cheese, and nori.  Bed and blankets are made of cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, mozarella cheese, cucumbers, and bell peppers.  


 
I wonder what bedtime story scared them?


 
Way too colorful for my own good.

Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. To locals, it doesn't need an introduction. Giovanni's has the best kahuku shrimp on the island. It is located on the North Shore in Haleiwa. Its a very shady looking truck, covered in grafitti. You can bring a sharpie and tag your own name with "_____ was here."

I personally like garlic shrimp, but be warned: It'll leave you with nasty monster breath. Hubby likes lemon butter shrimp.

Each shrimp plate comes with a dozen succelent shrimps, two scoops of rice, and a lemon wedge.


My garlic shrimp with its close up, hubby's lemon butter shrimp in the background.



The pic of the shrimp truck.  With its renowned fame and highlights on TVFoodNetwork, Giovanni's has tourists flocking from Waikiki (aka the-other-side-of-the-island) to taste the succulent shrimpies. 

Of course we had Matsumoto's shave ice down the road, but I inhaled my lime flavored shave ice covered in condensed milk so fast I didn't have time to document.  Bummer.

I like assembling my own sandwich at lunch.  I don't know why, It tastes fresher when you assemble it right before eating, me thinks.  :)
 
 
Romaine lettuce, turkey slices, muenster cheese, onions, tomatoes.  Whole grain bread in the waxed paper.

Haven't taken pictures of bento lately.  I've been so busy with planning the wedding.  Can you believe its only a month away??? Wowie.  Hubby and I were talking about everything we were having and he grinned and told me, "this wedding is going to be a circus!" Haha.  Its a pirate themed wedding... we've got a pirate reverend named Skull.  Nautical decor.  Bubbles.  A chocolate fountain. And a great big, black, pirate cake. 

Oh how excited I am!

Hawaiian food is delicious.  Husband from Indiana loves Kalua pork and wants to eat it for dinner all.the.time. Right next to our house is a place called Jurison's Inn. It is a "local" plate lunch plate with korean owners, so each local plate has korean sides which is pretty cool to me.

A typical plate lunch there consists of your meat, two scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad or tossed green salad, and korean sides: kim chee, corn, and/or bean sprouts. 

The best part about this place? On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, they offer THE HAWAIIAN PLATE. Oh man. Last Friday, I decided I should take Hubby to see if he would like Jurison's Kalua pork...

 
Doesn't it look delectable? Kalua Pork and Pork Lau Lau.  Also contains the usual rice, mac salad, and korean vegetables.  Where else can you get Hawaiian and Korean on the same plate?
 
We also got lomi lomi salmon and haupia cubes with the meal as well.  Lomi salmon was a little different, it was korean style.  Tasted like kim chee.  And of course, there is no such thing as bad haupia. 

Bonus: They serve Green River to drink.  Limey green punch? Score!

Jurison's Inn is just too good to pass up.  Try it for breakfast as well; they have a kalua pig omelette or fried rice omelette with adobo and kim chee.  Heck, throw filipino food in there as well too, right??? 

Jurison's Inn is located in the Waikele shopping center next to Party City.

Soba noodles always save me on busy mornings... err... mornings where I decided I should sleep for 5 more minutes...
 
Soba noodles with (LOTS) of green onions.  Cocktail weenies and cherry tomatoes on skewers.  Furikake in chococat and bbq sauce in kitty chan.

I am very happy that the hubby has taking a liking to hawaiian food!  He still wont venture out and try the very ethnic or raw stuff, but I am happy that he at least likes *some* of it. :)  

One of his favorites is Kalua pork which is a whole pig cooked in an underground oven called an imu.  The pig is cooked over hot coals and left to steam for the entire day.  Banana leaves and kiawe wood give the pig its "smoked" flavor. 
 
In my bento I have some kalua pig and rice (bottom) and some kimchee and limu (fresh hawaiian seaweed) with maui onions and cherry tomatoes in the top.

SO GOOD.  I'm also excited to say that we'll be having a traditional hawaiian luau for our wedding reception!  Hubby was a little skeptical at first, but he is really excited now!

I'm having a hard time planning this wedding.  This bento is as plain as can be in the midst of wedding drama.
 
Half a turkey sandwich with munster cheese.  To the left of it is romaine, tomato, onions to go into the sandwich.  The bottom has a cheese and olive salad.  Dressing in the chococat.

This bento was thrown together at lightning speed.  Yes, I made maki at lightning speed.  I had an entire class of sushi making back in culinary school and its pretty sloppy, my professor would be so disappointed! :D
 
Morningstar Farms chick'n nuggets on romaine, crab, cucumber, and kewpie maki, takuan, cucumbers and katsu sauce in the pink tube.

The side container has fresh lychees and fresh cherries.

This is for this week's bento challege:

 
Sir Yoda is made out of boiled and dyed egg and egg whites, cheese and nori.  Camera didn't pick up my awesome carvings, but thats okay, he's still cute! 
Rest of the lunch includes yakisoba, edamame, grape tomatoes, cocktail sausages, and breadfruit.

Second lunch:
 
Tuna salad with tomato florets and cucumbers on romaine lettuce.

Had a great barbeque yesterday for memorial day.  We had steaks, sesame marinated marlin, kalbi, and roasted portabellos.  I figured I'd pack just one kind of meat to avoid iron overload. XD  I chose kalbi and created a quickie carrot and edamame "slaw" to accompany it.
 
Kalbi, edamame, hard boiled egg, tomato, carrot/edamame slaw, onigiri. 

Delicious dinner bento I took to work. :)

Bento from Friday:

 

Pasta salad "somen style" (somen dressing, kamaboko, green onions), grape tomatoes, cucumbers, edamame, tomato and snausages on picks.  Ketchup in my melo.
 
When I got to my car this morning I realized it had been broken into.  Damn it!!!  I immediately started freaking out because I left my wedding dress in the trunk (hubby and I are having our "real" ceremony in August).  Thank God it was still there.  The just stole my *brand new* stereo system and the old stereo system in the car.  Hubby decided that I had too much drama for one day and let me go on a bento shopping spree...wheeee!

 

Yes, I'm crazy. :P

Yes, this lunch is HUUUGGGEE..  This box is 1500mL.  I work until 8pm tonight and when I made my bento I hadn't even had lunch yet so this is to satisfy me for lunch and dinner. It really is a nifty box though, I think I'm just trying to find more uses for it. :P
 

Top tier:  Kim chee crab salad, cherry tomatoes, turkey meatballs, zarusoba.  Furikake and tsuyu sauce in the containers. 
Bottom tier: Half a thai watermelon cut up, 2 strawberries.

 
Isn't the box  cute?

Those thai watermelons are grown here in Hawaii at Aloun farms.  They are waaaay too cute.  I could probably eat the whole watermelon in one sitting, half of the entire watermelon fits in one tier of this bento box! :) tee hee.  I feel like a giant when I have some.

Zippy's korean leftovers from last night.  :)

 
Korean bulgogi, fried man doo, heart rice balls, cucumber and carrot flower, cherry tomatoes. 

Decided I should work on the bento challenge today.  My zodiac sign is LEO.

 
King lion (top) is a cream cheese and turkey sandwich with cheese face, cheese and nori eyes, nori whiskers and nose and turkey mouth.  Cub lion (bottom) is a cream cheese and ham sandwich with ham face, cheese and nori eyes, cheese nose, and nori mouth and whiskers.  The rest of the lunch includes lettuce, carrots, cauliflower, edamame, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Having a bad day.  What cures a bad day? MAKING APPLE PIE!!!

 
Pie crust  with the apples and delicious filling.

 
All latticed.  Decided to add HK's friends because I have a serious obsession with HK and all things cutified.


 
Deliciousness!

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie
(As taken from allrecipes.com)

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced