Tuesday, November 9, 2010

In Flight Bentos

My lovely family came to visit this past weekend and we had a blast wine tasting, eating out, and shopping. It went by way too fast. But I saw an opportunity to make some in flight bentos for my mom, sis, and brother and had to do it! Debra of Hapa Bento makes them for her house guests all of the time, and I am so jealous of her guests! :) So I made these little snack bentos for my family to enjoy on their short flight from Santa Rosa to Seattle.

There's a heart shaped onigiri rice ball topped with a little spiral I punched out of nori seaweed in each box, plus carrot slices from Quivira Vineyards and Winery, red bell pepper slices, frozen Aidell's teriyaki chicken meatballs, and slices of persimmon tossed with lime juice to keep them from turning brown. The persimmon is from De'Santis Farms. I also used romaine lettuce and parsley (from Quivira) for decoration and to separate the different portions of the snack bentos.

As you can see, my family loved their snack bentos! And the meatballs had thawed by the time I presented the bentos, since I made them in the morning and then stowed them in the fridge until they had to leave for their flight. It was really fun to do, and wasn't hard to make three little bento snacks since I put them together in an assembly line kind of way. If you want to make in flight bentos for visitors as a parting gift, I suggest collecting a few disposable containers to use, so you don't have to part with a beloved bento box. I found these plastic containers at Daiso, but berry containers are great for this use, too.

39 comments:

  1. That's so cool!!! They look so excited and happy to have them :) This post really made me smile. Yay!

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  2. How do you know when a persimmon is ripe? They are horrible if they aren't completely ripened, I learned that the hard way, LOL.

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  3. Thanks Ohayobento! I was so anxious to give them their bentos and see what they thought. I love this picture! :)

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  4. Hi Michele! There are two types of persimmons: ones that you eat while they are still hard, and ones that you have to eat only after they have ripened to a nearly jelly state. These persimmons are fuyu, which may be eaten while still hard. Yeah, you get a mouthful of yuck if you bite into a hachiya persimmon when it is not yet ripe.

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  5. that was so nice of you :) haha i love that pic, they all look so thrilled. Do your family eat bentos normally? what do they think of them?

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  6. Hi Kelly! They don't eat bentos, I am the bento freak in the family. But they really liked these. :)

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  7. aww.. thats thoughtful of you.. now you have spread the bento culture.. good job! :)

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  8. That photo is hilarious. They must have been thrilled! Great job!!

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  9. So thoughtful of you to make them in flight bento! Can see that they are extremely happy with the bento! Bravo!

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  10. Your family is so lucky to enjoy such a nice in flight bento. Can see from the picture, they are all happy. Perhaps they will follow you to make their own bento very soon ;)

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  11. ah...can I have one box, please...??? :b

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  12. They look so professional! ^_^ You could start a business of bentos :D and.. I would order everyday ! XD
    It was very nice from you to make the bentos.. they are astonishing.

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  13. Your family is so lucky can enjoy the delicious bento from you. They are so happy. I wish I can have one too...hehe...please? ;)

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  14. I really love to see their happy faces to get such yummy bentos from you :D

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  15. Adorable in-flight bentos, and even cuter to see your family members beaming with their special packages! So cool, SB, hope you are feeling better!

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  16. Now all your relatives will want to visit you just so they can leave again and get a bento lunch! I bet they were the envy of the skies.

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  17. awww....that's so sweet of you. I bet they all ate their bentos even before the got on the fly!

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  18. Awww.... I love the bentos and also love to see their happy smiley faces ^_^

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  19. I always say I need to visit Deb for going-away food, need to add you to my list too! :o)

    That looks wonderful!

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  20. Oh my gosh, I've missed so much! Wonderful inflight bentos! Who wouldn't love to have one of those gorgeous bentos!

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  21. Those were such great inflight snack bento you made for your family!!!!

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  22. Thanks bobo! Yes, we need to spread the bento word! :)

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  23. Thanks sheri! They were so excited to get bentos. They have been oogling my bento pics on facebook for a while now.

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  24. Thanks Kids Dream Work! It was so fun to make bentos for my family.

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  25. Thanks Lia! Who knows if I can get them to make bentos, too? I know they just want me to make bentos for them, ha ha.

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  26. :) Journal Mommy Yenny! Just come for a visit, I will make you one.

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  27. Thanks karaimame! My mom said the same thing too. I could set up shop at our dinky Sonoma County Airport and make bank!

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  28. Thanks Emily! I will happily make you a bento when you come to visit. :)

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  29. Thanks tatabonita! They started laughing and cheering when I showed up with their surprise bentos.

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  30. Thanks bentobird! Finally feel near %100 again today. That cold really hit me hard.

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  31. I know dragonmamma! I have only made inflight bentos twice now, once for myself and once for my family. But we all got comments on them!

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  32. Thanks Tiffany! I think my sis ate hers right away. :) Too much wine tasting on an empty stomach.

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  33. Thanks Lina! I love this pic of my family, they are so cute. :)

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  34. Sweet Shannon! You can stop by any time, I promise to make you a bento. :)

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  35. Thanks Susan! I was happy with how they turned out. :)

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  36. Thanks Angeleyes! It was fun to make them for my family and imagine how happy they would be to get them.

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  37. What a great idea!! My sisters just were down visiting...I should have done that for them. Next time!! Love it <3

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  38. Next time for sure, Amy! I couldn't wait to have visitors so I could make in flight bentos for them after I saw how awesome Debra's were. It's super fun.

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