Trip to Hong Kong

I didn't take much photos during my trip to Hong Kong, too busy on shopping and eating til forgot to snapped some photo :)

Here r those few I took:

Saw these cakes at a bakery at Mong Kok, they r so adorable, snapped it back to show little girl, she said she like the chic most :p

Just look at those mango cakes, aren't they tempting?

Went for some dessert as a short break after non-stop shopping at Mong Kok, this is the famous 黑燸米芒果芝麻卷 from 石磨坊...

... and this 芝痲糊＋核桃糊

Went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner at 大埔 near my cousin's house, look at the salmon sushi, we (me, SIL & her sis) went "Wah!" when we saw the size of the sushi, the salmon was almost a foot long!

Another one of the dish we had, the sashimi boat, full of fresh goodies, especially those uni (sea urchin roe) and scallops, tasted marvelous!

Eggs & Tomatoes Bento (78)

Yesterday ...

Me: What do u want for bento 2moro, little girl? Rice, noodle, or pasta?

LG: I want rice, vegetable rice, like last time!

Me: Ooh, vegetable rice again! Ok, I'll prepare it 2moro.

Similar to bento (77), bottom tier contains: vegetable and roast pork mixed in barley rice wrapped in egg sheet, chopped crab-stick & corns in tomato cup top with cheddar cheese, tea egg, and edamame.

Top tier contains: dark & milk Kisses chocolates, green grape & grape tomato kebabs.

Since most of the food was left-over, I just need to fried the egg sheet, prepared the filling for tomato cup, got it baked, and warmed the barley rice, vegetable & roast pork in microwave oven. Got the bento done in 1/2 hour!

This is the tea egg I brought from Hong Kong, my cousin bought a few for us to try out. (yeah! I'd escaped to Hong Kong for the weekend, it was a trip with non-stop shopping and good food!) It tasted just like those herbal egg selling at the malls but without the shell, so convenient to just tear open n put into bento box or pop into mouth :)

Full of Left-over Bento (77)

Other than the fruit, the rest in this bento was all left-over from last nite's dinner.  Little girl loved this rice mixed with fried Hong Kong kailan (cut to tiny pieces) very much, til she had 3 helpings last nite, and requested it for her bento too!  Not forgetting the roast whole chicken drumstick (stuffed with cheese) is one of her favorite dish too.

Since I just need to re-heat everything in microwave oven and toaster oven, place them into the box, and the time I took was about 15 minutes :) (inclusive of washing up and photo-taking too!)

Contents of bento (from left): rice mixed with fried Hong Kong kailan, de-boned roast chicken drumstick, roast potato wedges and plum wedges.

Little girl dislikes the roast potato (she refused to eat it last nite, I was trying my luck to see if she'd eat it today l0l ), and she left 2 pieces of the chicken too.  Glad that she still enjoyed the mixed vegetable rice.

P/s   There won't be a bento posting on next Mon as I'm going 'kai-kai', will update once back, bye!

Apple, Ham and Raisin Salad Snack Bento (76)

A fruit salad made for little girl's snack.  Just rub cubed apple with pinch of salt, mixed with sliced ham, raisin, mayo and pinch of pepper.

Add in few bread sticks for extra carb.  Simple salad and simple bento but full of vitamins.  :)

Hello Kitty Onigiri Bento (75)

Received the HK bento set from CP last week, didn't have a chance to try out until today, since little girl requested rice for her bento.

Another simple bento with limited ingredients, :)  however, still took me 1 hour to complete, especially on HK, I'm so slow even with the help of tools, sigh....

Contents of bento: HK onigiri with ham & cheese stuffing, tomato slices, ham flower, lots of edamame & corns, grapes and a container of mayo.

Little girl kept some edamame, 2 grapes for her snack later, finished up almost everything but the corns & lettuce.  Don know wat's wrong with the corn, she used to love it so much???

I'm Shortlisted Again!

Remember the Baby & Mummy Bento I made few weeks ago?  I'd sent it in to Javapot's 'WHO-R-U?' bento contest/challenge.  This was the 3rd time I joined a bento contest, and guess what?  I'm shortlisted again!  Woo hooo.....

And here r the rest of the bentos being shortlisted, if u like mine (I'm contestant #8, Kel's Place), pls cast ur vote here, thanks! Thanks!!  Thanks!!!

Nutella Roti Prata Snack Bento (74)

Didn't play with roti prata dough for a long time, with a little spare time to waste, I made this for little girl's snack b4 her mental maths class.

Simply just mold out the flower shape from dough, pan-fried them with no oil, spread with nutella n packed into box, done in 20 minutes!

Little girl loves it, well, she'd down anything with nutella, ;p

Baked Rice Bento (73)

Today's bento was mostly left-over from previous day, I used about 1/2 hour to complete the bento and clean up the kitchen.

Top tier: pear bunnies, grape tomatoes and cucumber slices.

Bottom tier: Baked rice with crab meat, tomato based sauce, top with lot of cheese, stuffed chikuwa with snake bean, steamed crab meat, stir-fried mushrooms and snake beans.  The bear container hold some parmesan cheese for the baked rice.

Little girl kept a few pieces of the snake beans, mushrooms and pear for her snack.  The remaining for today was the chikuwa (she disliked it, when I tasted it once reached home, it tasted funny, it'd turned spoilt only after 2 days in fridge) and the cucumbers (she complained that there was no mayo to go with it).

Inside-out Chicken & Egg Sandwich Roll Bento (72)

There was not much food left at home, after checking thru pantry and fridge again last nite, the only carbs supply I have on hand was bread.  However, tot having sandwich for lunch was quite pitiful for little girl since she oledi have it for breakfast, so this was the best way I can think off to make-do her bento with it.

I used about 1/2 hour to complete this bento.  Contents of the bento: shredded lettuce, tomato, steamed chicken, bread and some mayo rolled in a piece of egg sheet, lots of edamame and more shredded tomato.  Fruits were 1/2 of an orange and pear.

Little girl finished up the bento, slow, but was in time for her assembly :)

Pineapple Jam Roll and Cheesy Bun

These are some back-dated photos, breads that I baked 2 weeks ago. They were all bundled with leftovers: cheddar cheese that about to go expired (!) and pineapple jam that left b4 CNY (!!) , don worry, these breads were eaten by me and hubby only, little girl had her sausage buns.

Pineapple jam roll, still tasted yummy though the jam was aged ;p

Cheesy Bun filled with cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese and bit of brown sugar, sprinkled with some black sesame for color

I experimented with the bread dough this round too, freeze it for a couple of days, then took it out to defrost at room temperature for 5 hours (proofing at the same time). After baking it, the bread was not fully rise, see below, think it need another hour or 2 to defrost/proof.

It was dense at the bottom, however, tasted fine

They rise unevenly too, funny!

Ok, here is the recipe for the basic bread dough as promised:

Ingredients A

500g high protein flour (I used 250 high protein flour and 250 whole meal flour)
1 tsp instant yeast

Ingredients B

60g sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp milk powder

Ingredients C

1 egg

250g water

Ingredient D

50g butter

1. Put ingredients A in mixer and blend at slow speed for 1 minute. Then, add in ingredients B, blend for 1 minute.
2. Add in ingredients C, blend at slow speed for 1 minute, then use medium speed to blend 5 minutes til dough-like.
3. Add in ingredients D and continue to blend 10 to 15 minutes, til the dough is shiny and springy.
4. Use cling wrap to cover the dough, allow to leaven for 40 to 50 minutes til dough size is doubled.

For pineapple jam roll:

1. Divide bread dough into 50g portions, roll them into balls and proof for 10 to 15 minutes
2. Roll dough into rectangular shapes and spread pineapple jam. Roll dough up into long strips, use a sharp knife and cut bread dough to half. Place into baking tray, allow to leaven for 30 to 40 minutes

For cheesy bun:

1. Divide bread dough into 50g portions, roll them into balls and proof for 10 to 15 minutes
2. Wrap cheese fillings into bread dough, place into baking tray and leaven for 40 minutes.

For pineapple jam roll and cheesy bun (or small buns), bake at 200 C for 10 to 12 minutes. As for the bread loaf, bake at 200 C for 30 to 35 minutes, remove bread from mould and allow to cool on rack before slicing it into pieces.

Happy Forest Bento (70) and Maki Bento (71)

On Wed evening, little girl had demanded sushi for her bento, she complained that she didn't have it for long time, so ....  'Ta Dah'!  Here comes the sushi bento for her this thu :)

It took me slightly more than 1 hour from blanching, boiling, cutting, rolling, packing til photo-taking.  Think time took a bit too long for preparing 2 bentos only....

 

Contains of bento: broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumber & furikake maki, chicken cocktail sausages, hard-boiled egg and containers of soy sauce & mayo.

Story behind this bento:  Trees (broccoli) are growing happily from the healthy soil (cucumber & furikake maki), therefore, bird, chick and bunny live happily and healthily nearby too!  Grape tomatoes are the sunlight shining between the trees and chicken cocktail sausages represent the wood fence.

Little girl kept 2 maki, 2 sausages and 2 cucumber for her snack later, then she polished the bento with no fuss!  I was surprised that she ate the egg yolk, the reason behind it was she was told by her cousin Y that one may know how to swim after finishing the yolk!  Kids can really make up something *roll eyes*

Hubby's dinner bento, from ingredients left after preparing little girl's

Baby & Mummy Bento (69)

I must confess, I'm not good at drawing human, and I don have a steady hands to make kyaraben bento like most of u.

I sketched this out last nite, well, just the baby and mummy, then started thinking of what should I used to make-do them, almost lost my sleep while thinking of it, :)

I began my day at 9 this morning, steaming the 'kok cai' (from hubby's aunt, a kind of savory kuih stuffed with shredded turnips, dried prawn, etc), and potatoes in rice cooker, also braising the mushrooms with some oyster & soy sauce at the cooking pot.  After breakfast, I fried a piece of egg sheet, and started filling the bento box.

I started with the baby, placed the kok cai in, split a hole for the baby's head (combined of egg for face, shredded mushrooms for hair and eyes, tiny piece of cherry tomato for mouth and ketchup for the cheek).  Next was the sliced potatoes (under mummy's head),  pork chop (on top of baby), cherry tomatoes & edamame to fill the gaps, lastly, was the mummy's head (ingredients same as baby).  I got the bento ready slightly b4 11am, phew!

Ok now, the story I'm trying to convey in this bento:  I am a SAHM (obviously, the mummy is me), my life is fully filled by little girl (the baby) after she is born at the X'mas day of 2003 (What a coincidence, I just realized the edamame and cherry tomatoes replica a X'mas tree after uploaded it!).  I have been jokingly saying that as I'm always a good girl, Santa sent me this cute baby :)

Little girl didn't finish her bento today, as her yoga teacher released her after the school bell rang, luckily she managed to fill her tummy while her school mates having assembly at the hall.  I packed some leftover from the bento (plum and potatoes) for her snack time.

P/s  Ok, so this will be my submission to javapot's contest, wish me luck!

Korean Style Shredded Potato Pancake Snack Bento (68)

I have this mini cook book with the titled of Step-by-Step Japanese and Korean Cooking, which I placed on the dining table for few days (hse undergoing some works, is in a total mess condition), whenever I glanced at it, it'd haunt me with: "try me, try cooking my recipe..."  So, tried this out at last, since little girl and me like potatoes very much.

I half the original recipe, the ingredients I used were:

5       small potatoes

2       small onion, very finely chopped

1        large egg, beaten

1 1/2  tbsp corn flour

pinch of salt & pepper

1. Peel the potatoes and grate them.  Place in a large bowl with the onion, egg, corn flour and season with salt & pepper, to taste.  Stir very well, making certain that the corn flour is mixed in thoroughly.

2. Heat oil (I used butter & bit of vegetable oil) in a frying pan.  Using a spoon drop about 1 rounded tablespoon of mixture onto the hot surface, spread out gently with the back of the spoon.  Cook for 2 - 3 minutes or until golden brown on both side.

I packed 5 mini pieces for little girl as her snack b4 mental maths class, thinly brushed the pancake with some okonomiyaki sauce and deco the top pancake with mayo & ketchup.  (Hahaha!  I'm cracking idea for Javapot's contest, this is just a warmup ;p )

Verdict:  Both of us loved it, and hubby too.  It is still tasty after it turned cold, so it'd be good for bento.

Seafood and Ito Konnyaku Bento (67)

This bento took me 15 minutes to complete, as I cooked the seafood and ito konnyaku last nite and steamed those sweet potatoes earlier in the morning.  The 15 minutes were spent on skinning and cutting of the sweet potatoes, cucumber, dragon fruit, then packed everything in.

Contains of bento (from left): ito konnyaku, prawn, fish ball noodle, cucumber, purple & yellow sweet potatoes and dragon fruit.

After taking the above photo, thot it was rather plain & dull, thus dig out my food picks and added these: elephant, bear and monster picks to the box with an additional of mayo too in the yellow bear sauce container.

Little girl left the prawns, 3 pieces of cucumber and most of the sweet potatoes, she said she dislike the sweet potatoes.