An American in Bento

I am so excited :D Today I received in the mail my review copy of Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go :) Be on the lookout next week for new little touches inspired by the book and my review!

There were no bento the last 2 days as we celebrated Kat's Birthday - She's 18 now! :o and her Graduation. We went to Medieval Times for dinner and did the cake after we got home, so it was late and I was too tired to pack a bento for today, but here are a couple pictures from Kat blowing out her candles :)






Yesterday I took her up to Edgewater, NJ to Mitsuwa where we had lunch - we all ended up having the special at Kayaba of Gyudon (one of my fav Japanese dishes, I often buy the frozen version at the Asian market - I have forgotten the brand, but the box claims it has only 3.5 grams fat, whereas the other frozen one carries at Mitsuwa had something like 6 times that...) and Soba - For $7 each we couldn't even finish all of it! :) Kat is currently eating the Salmon Onigiri she got there yesterday.

We also got a naruto kamaboko that I hadn't seen at our market (they also had the pink w/ the white naruto design, but it was double the price and I just couldn't justify it at this time), a jar of nice red umeboshi - even though we still have 1/4 of a container in the fridge, but they just aren't as pretty red! I also got a package of green tea candy, which will be appearing in future bento, along with brightly colored chocolate covered sesame seeds :)

I also finally found Inari! Finally! :) I have never been able to find it at Hong Kong Supermarket (though it could be there, eluding me ;)

I also purchased a new bento box - one I had been wanting for a while on VeryAsia.com, but it has been sold out for months - Mitsuwa was about $1.34 more for the box, but no shipping, so WIN! :) They still only have about a 6 to 8 foot section of bento gear, but what they do carry seems to be of good quality and reasonably priced in comparison to what I have seen for the same or similar boxes online.

The Mars store in the center however is very overpriced after being spoined by Ichibankanusa.com - making me even sadder that they are going away :( They had the very same Putifresh and Clickety Click boxes seen at Ichibankanusa.com for $6.99 - more than 4 times the price I paid!

I am so jealous of those who have an Ichibankan or Daiso or the like near them! Though my bento collection is probably too big as it is!

Plan to be back on Monday with a new bento post! :)