Kids Dish

Finding actual bento boxes in Tasmania is pretty difficult, but I’ve been on the hunt since reading the blog of Peacockharpy, who has been using bento boxes to get her three year old enthused about lunch.

Actually, I cracked pretty early and bought a stack of bentos from Japan on ebay as Christmas pressies for the household.

But in my local search, I did find restaurant-style bento boxes for sale at this lovely Japanese textiles shop down on Kingston Beach (I was actually there buying pretty fabrics for a super sekrit craft project that I cannot reveal because certain family members might read this blog and it’s a surprise!). Now, restaurant bentos are pretty massive for one person to eat their way through a whole one, but I thought one could do quite well to share between the two adults of the household.

As it turned out, it was a brilliant idea. With rice & miso soup in separate bowls, the family bento has four compartments plus a little dipping sauce corner. We were so pleased with how my first bento turned out, that the man of the house decided he wanted to do one next, so we nominated Sunday night as bento night.

Last night was the third Official Sunday Bento - I slaved enthusiastically in the kitchen while the man gave little missy a bath, and produced the following masterful menu:

Basmati rice
Miso Soup (from instant paste but, hey. At least it comes with sea vegetables)
Marinated, stir fried baby octopus on steamed bok choy
Steamed baby carrots and asparagus
Avocado, bocconcini & pickled ginger salad in sushi vinegar
Pork wontons & spring rolls

I was so proud. Little missy’s dinner was mostly rice, but she also chomped through half an avocado and about half a watermelon! She also climbed into my lap at the tail end of the meal and had a good stab at stealing some of my rice with chopsticks (she’s ridiculously good at using them in a general balance and shovel kind of way) and also displayed noticeable interest in the spring rolls and wontons.

If only I’d put vegetables in them! But no, I just hurled the pork into the wrappers because, well, mixing things into mince takes effort!

I’ll have to make some special Raeli spring rolls next time, maybe with a bit of zucchini or carrot hidden in the mince.