My hectic days--the forgotten bentos

i know--i know..
blame me for being so long neglected this blog and forgotten to write any new bentos i've made >>>guilty face

anyway, i go to deep with my new activities. i have to take care hubby's need in every days' food supplying--house works--while on the other side, i have to deal with the creative stuffs (making handmade toys), look after the bento club with beloved friends from 3 different countries (now, we have reached 101 indonesian members and continue to grow in number since the bento club was held on last week in the month of April 2011), and lead a garment business and consumer goods too. 


ok i admit it.
it was hectic days to live. :,)


i've got my first alert here. yesterday, the doctor said that i've got variant angina. it's a syndrome typically consisting of angina (cardiac chest pain) at rest that occurs in cycles. It is caused by vasospasm, a narrowing of the coronary arteries caused by contraction of the smooth muscle tissue in the vessel walls rather than directly by atherosclerosis (buildup of fatty plaque and hardening of the arteries). It occurs more in younger women . Two-thirds of patients have concurrent atherosclerosis of a major coronary artery   >>> hard words to understand huh? :D in short words,  i have to slow down a moment. 

well, i cut off the communication on my facebook, the blogs, phone--for these few days, and take some rest. I've been neglected some questions, orders and cooperation offers. i'm so sorry for the inconveniences of all my costumers. but i assure you, this is the best for now. and i'll be back soon.

so, since i have lots of spare time today, let me share you the bentos that i've been made for days behind.

1. still remember the javanese bibimbap a.k.a pecel at my last post? still with  the traditional concept, on april the 18th, i made this :

my review on that day was : "since i overslept this morning, and i haven't cooked the rice yet, and i ruined the dish recipe too..T___T (great!) well, i finally ended up with this bento : hot plain rice with egg curry spice and the gardenia fish in tauco sauce..."

2. on April the 25th, i've made this one :

it was kimbap--the korean sushi. i made this not with the bamboo sushi mat, but only with clean napkin. it shows that, you don't really have to try so hard to have the japanese stuffs for making the japanese cooks. you can use the other equipments at your kitchen to help you. anyway, we had some arguing stuffs on the day before. at the morning, i've made him this as mark of my apology..and very grateful for having such a patient hubby like him :

i'm sorry for what i did before,
you know the reason WHY i did it,
though i messed it up, and we all make mistakes.
i had no idea what i was getting myself into,
but anyways, i just wanted to say,
that i am really sorry.
i ♥ u

3. on April 26th, i decided to make the korean dishes for hubby's bento today. there were korean hamburger and korean pancakes. :) i made the photoshop writing there of korean that said : Annyonghaseo. i've thought it's a korean for : "bon appetit"..but then someone told me, that it isn't. anyonghaseo is a greeting word like "hai", "hello" something like that. After this silly simple mistake, friends from the bento club called me with "Mrs. Anyong--haseo" :D :D i often laugh at this. but i love it :,)

 
 4. April 27th, actually I am more familiar with "kimchi bokkeumbap". It's a popular variety of fried rice prepared with Korean pickled cabbage. But since hubby doesn't really like kimchi, so, i skipped the kimchi thing--and left only the "bokkeum bap"--fried rice. but different with the fried rices from many other countries, this bokkeum bap doesn't need any seasoning instead salt, and sweet soya sauce if you like it. But even though the seasons are simple, it tastes rich. bokkeum bap is using three kind of vegetables, so those make bokkeumbap as a healthy dish!

and this time, the writing is correct !!! :D (it's korean for "fried rice"--bokkeumbap)

5. April 29th, I was trying to make the kyaraben (charaben--character bento). but i knew, it didn't work :D actually i was trying to make chicks here, but instead make them, i was give a try to my new bento kit of character cutter---and made this fat yellow couple.

i made grilled chicken tulips and the egg plants burgers----i know--it looks horrible huh ? :D


6. May, 9th, hubby asked me again to make him bento after being absent for a week. I didn't make something special, but he liked it :

the onigiris were formed to triangle shape and i put some flavor on it before. i gave rice vinegar, sesame oil, salt and sugar. the dishes were baby kailan in oyster sauce, tamagoyaki, and tilapia fish in dabu-dabu condiment. 


7. my latest bento. i've made this--just yesterday. with the bad condition of my angina, i still forced my hubby to go to work, caused i knew that he got lots of things to do. the angina got worst after i made this. and hubby insisted not to go to work at the end. well, this is the simplest bento i ever made : the rice burger. 

that's all :) i'm trying to consistent in making the bento for hubby these days. but i knew that i couldn't do it better than these. after all..he still loves me so much. and i do too :,)



cheers.

Javanese bibimbap a.k.a PECEL ! ^______^

another colorfull bento!! ^____^
looks like bibimbap huh? :D
but this is 100% INDONESIAN. we call it with 'pecel'.
different from korean bibimbap, all the veggies here are boiled and plain. We do not eat this with gochujang, but instead with chilli pasta, we mix it with peanut sauce. we also add fried tempeh and tofu as the additional dishes.
while in the other tier, we have brown rice, with fried shrimp in condiment, fried egg (sunny egg-but i roll it so it looks more stylish :p), and some mixed fruit. lovely..

actually this theme caused by friend's request, he said he misses Indonesia so much after years in Brunei.  he misses his homeland's cuisine. and he asked me to make bento si ayah with the original indonesian contents.

this morning, after i tagged him on this photo at my facebook, he said,
"I miss my home so badly, thanks to you, for making the traditional ones and tagging me on the picture....it cures my homesickness..."

I'm so pleased to know that.. :,)
wishing him to get home soon....

xoxo

Sundanese Traditional Cuisine

A WEEK !!!
yes, i didn't make any bento for a week. My last bento was the 'aishiteru' theme, that i've been posted at last wednesday. That's because i'm a lil bit busy here for these few days, besides, last week hubby got fever--so he didn't go to work and that caused me in pausing the bentoing activities too.

well, today i made him this humble bento. Hubby loved it so much, he thanked me a lot this morning for making him bento again. And the menu was fit his taste.
These are "Sundanese traditional Cuisine". The Sundanese are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Indonesian island of Java, like us :D--but we're not the native, actually we're Javanese that stayed in the land of Sundanese. You know something--The name Sunda derives from the word su which means goodness. Sunda also means light, cleanness, bright, and white.
well, because of that, i try to make the bento's menus as simple as possible.

in the tier there were: hot plain rice with corn maize, baby nila fishes, fried tempeh-tofu, stir-fry watercress leaves, and condiment with shrimp paste in it. yummie :D
well hubby said, these remains him to the root-culture of national culinary. indeed.

happy wednesday, all !

*wish me luck, i'm in the progress of making these bentos to a book. well.. hopefully :D

love, kisses and hugs.