Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Just Bento Bento

I was thrilled that my recent trip to Seattle coincided with Makiko Itoh's appearance and book signing at Uwajimaya there. Maki wrote the wildly popular The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches To Go which is available on Amazon already in its third printing! I got my copy at Uwajimaya and I looked inside the front cover to see which printing I got, and I think it's the first edition! Wow.

It's me and Maki at Uwajimaya! Maki's husband was nice enough to take this picture of us. Uwajimaya was PACKED that day. I've never seen it so busy. I think it was because they were celebrating some kind of anniversary, and had a free sake tasting later that day. I skipped the sake tasting. :)

This is my husband's favorite aisle at Uwajimaya: The Ramen Aisle. I have a pic somewhere of him with his arms spread out in the middle of this aisle. It's less like a kid in a candy store, and more like a devotional pose. Very funny.

The other side of the ramen aisle, aka Mecca.

I've only been able to read a few of the bento chapters in Maki's book so far, but one I wanted to try out right away was the Tamagoyaki bento. I added green onion to my Tamagoyaki omelette, which is one of Maki's suggestions. I have a pan made for tamagoyaki which makes it really easy to cook this omelette, but this time I tried rolling it on a sushi mat after it was cooked. It made a nice round tamagoyaki. I can't wait to try more recipes!

Also in this bento: steamed edamame, roasted red, purple, and yellow baby potatoes with pepper and bacon, apple rabbits made with apples from Lambert's Apples, walnuts from the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market, and slices of blood orange from Twin Peaks.

6 comments:

  1. What a fun post, SO cool to see you and Bento Goddess Maki together! Yummy bento bursting with pleasing textures and colors (yay blood oranges), delish!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was so nice meeting you! They were sooo crowded at Uwajimaya because of Chinese New Year! It's a good thing we didn't get trampled ^_^;

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Bentobird! I was so excited to meet Maki, I think I was babbling like a school girl. I really appreciate your kind comments about my bento, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ha ha, maki, I forgot that it was time to stock up for CNY! I thought it was just the free sake tasting. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Major score! Uwaj is indeed always crowded but it looked like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing the photos :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks sheri! It was really fun to poke around a bit at Uwajimaya, and I did buy the HK thermal jar there. Can't wait to make some jook to bring to work!

    ReplyDelete