Presenting another bento that’s not for the squeamish, my Kare-kare bento. A popular Filipino dish that can be categorized as comfort food, kare-kare is another example of slow-cooking that speaks of home and its familial comforts. It’s made with tripe, oxtail, occasionally beef, and veggies in a rich peanut stew. Water that had annato seeds soaked in them is used to give the sauce a rich orange color. Finally, it’s served with bagoong, a salty shrimp paste that’s used as a dip (for stuff like kare-kare and green mangoes) or as an ingredient for dishes like sauteed veggies.

I can’t give a more specific recipe since it’s my mom who did the cooking, but I’m sure there are a couple good ones on Pinoy cooking webbies for the interested.

Clockwise from top left:
• Fruit Cocktail: Pineapple, Peaches, Red Papaya, and Nata de Coco
• Kare-kare: this version has tripe, eggplants, string beans, and banana hearts
• Super yummy (haha, I’m my cooking’s biggest fan) homemade garlic cream cheese spread and flower-shaped toast circles
• Steamed rice, a Hello Kitty container of bagoong and sliced green mangoes.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 8:07 am and is filed under bento. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.