Sanshoku Bento: Appetizing 3 ways
One of the recipes featured in Emi Kasuko’s Japanese Food and Cooking had bento in its name so you can just imagine how I reacted. Glancing at the picture, I was quite surprised, because I recall encountering similar looking bento before. I didn’t realize that it was more than just a design element—it was traditional in its own right.
Sanshoku Bento, which translates to three-color bento, is a colorful donburi with three colorful toppings. The book further says that it was a popular bento for kids since the colorful bento encouraged the kids to eat it. Going through the ingredients, I figured there was another reason why kids would love it. All the toppings were on the sweet side!
CONTENTS:
• Sauteed Ground Beef. The original recipe called for ground chicken and some caster sugar. Instead of cooking chicken however, I decided to use my leftover ground beef from Sunday’s korokke. The beef was sautéed in a little oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a few pinches of ground cumin.
• Sakura Denbu. My something sweet and colorful came in the form of sakura denbu—ground codfish flakes that’s sweetened and colored pink. More sweet than fishy, it made a nice combination with the beef and egg. It was good that I held back on the sugar for the meat and egg since the sakura denbu compensated for it adequately.
• Scrambled Eggs. The recipe called for dashimaki tamago-style scrambled eggs, but since I was running late, I opted for plain, salted scrambled eggs. Turned out to be a good choice, preparing savory instead of sweet eggs.
• Rice. Yes, underneath all the colorful toppings is a bed of plain Jasmine rice.
Sanshoku Bento makes for a very no nonsense meal. Since the toppings were all minced / ground, it was a scoop from the box, spoon into the mouth affair. Very handy since I suddenly had a rush project, so I had me eating at my desk.
Related posts:
|
|
beautiful! that sakura pink topping in the pink box is perfect!
Is dashimaki tamago the sweet scrambled kind that Hachin sells?
I didn’t know you had your own site. Very Cool!
Your bento looks delicious. I’ll have to try making that at some point.
*OtterHuggles*
Beautiful! You got sakura denbu at Hatchin? That’s pretty cool. You really have to take me and berry_mix there soon. (Will text hehe).
I MUST go to Hatchin indeed~! Rawr… So many goodies.
I always love a colorful meal!
Why not check this Nintendo DS Game / Cooking Aid? It might give you more ideas on what bento to prepare! XD
Shaberu! DS Oryouri Navi
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/a4vj/index.html
http://gonintendo.com/?p=3380
@lalalady7
Thankies
@dementedchris
Yuh! I didn’t know they sold dashimaki tamago though. Though it’s not scrambled usually, it’s the egg thing they serve with sushi.
@KnittyOtter
Is this you OtterPrincess? If so…*huggles back*
@aoitenshi & Clair
HATCHIN HATCHIN HATCHIN! BENTO MEET NA TO!
@Drew
But it’s in Japanese! If it were in English, I’d be lining up for a copy
[...] your onigiri. Just be sure that it’s the kind that’ll last in the freezer, like sakura denbu, cooked tuna, or shredded kani. Wondering what I did with the leftovers from making SPAM flowers [...]
Did you eat this cold, room temperature or hot? I prefer my rice and meat hot, but I’m not sure how that would go with the sakura denbu.
It was okay at room temperature. Since the meat had minimal oil, it didn’t have grease even when served at room temperature. The rice was just warmish when I topped it with sakura denbu so I’m not sure how it would react to steaming hot rice.
[...] I felt the need for cute food. I miss seeing little smiles on my food so I decided to make the little outerspace themed bento. So for this meal, I made a little alien from a hardboiled egg, nori seaweed and green peas. He’s traveling along with some chicken popcorn asteroids. To get to the hotdog forest, (the one beside the green pea marshes) he has to cross a steamed rice ocean, that was liberally dusted with sakura denbu. [...]