More Bento Greatness

Ok, so I went a little bento crazy over the weekend. Obviously I'm into it to the point where I'm making an extra blog entry over it.

I actually ordered bento dividers and a few sauce containers via ebay. I bought another bento box at the Lotte store in Fairfax, so now I have three of them. I got new Hello Kitty chopsticks, and I think my Hello Kitty obsession is going into new territory. It's a good thing I don't have loads of money. I think right now I'd be tempted to spend it on Hello Kitty crap, bento accessories, and shoes. Sad.

Anyway, my supply stores right now are (for anyone in the Northern Virginia area):

Lotte - Fairfax, Virginia
Super H Mart - Fairfax, Virginia
Grand Mart - Annandale, Virginia
little thingamajigs - Annandale, Virginia
Some International mart in Woodbridge

So far, my two favorites of these places are Super H Mart and little thingamajigs. Lotte was awesome, and all, but those other two have more of what I wanted. Lotte was great for little bowls and cutlery. They also have incredible fish selections, so go there if you want fish of any kind.

Super H Mart, on the other hand, was like the perfect combination of an Asian specialty store and a regular grocery store. They have incredible produce and reasonable prices, and carry small fruits that fit into my bento. :D (tiny donut peaches, baby-sized pears, and baby bananas for my son) They had rice molds, which I desperately needed, and a huge section of housewares and other similar 'stuff'. I also got a lucky bamboo plant. I've been wanting one for a while now and they had the most perfect ones at Super H Mart. So here it sits, now, on my desk in front of me. They also had full bento sets. Most of them were pretty modern, and not a whole lot of cutsie ones. But they still had such an incredible variety, it's impossible to find fault.

My other favorite place is the little thingamajigs in Annandale. First of all, Annandale is like the Asian store mecca. There's this bakery...not sure what it's called, I'll find out so I can update here, but they have this incredible cake. They have green tea cake with raspberry filling...just amazing. There are Korean BBQ buffets all over the place, and of course Grand Mart is right down the road. But little thingamajigs is like Ali Heaven. I swear this place was made for me. It's a tiny store with tiny things, lots of cuteness, and an overload of Sanrio/Hello Kitty 'stuff'. I could probably spend easily a couple hundred bucks in there. But nothing is expensive. There's just that much stuff that I like.

So anyway, this weekend I got all but the bento dividers. I spent a good half an hour hand-washing everything when I got home, and it's now all put away and organized. Now I need ideas of what to put into my bento. I wanted to have leftovers for lunch today, and they would have been perfect bento fodder. Unfortunately, we're having leftovers for dinner. So no go. Now I'm trying to rack my brain to come up with ideas for my bento lunch tomorrow. I already know I'll put in a donut peach. And probably one of the desserts I got from the Asian stores. I have salad I can put in there too. But that leaves some sort of rice and some sort of protein. No idea what to do for those.

I'm off to search the web for inspiration. Meanwhile, I wonder...will I use the cute tiny blue bento, the more grown-up looking bento, or my special blue with dots? Or will I put my own bento together, using the Hello Kitty containers I got? Tough call. I did see a Hello Kitty bento yesterday. I almost bought it. I bet I'll get one at some point.

It's an addiction, it really is.

Throw Me Down!

Oooh that sounds kind of dirty! But really it's just a reference to my obsession with "Throwdown! With Bobby Flay"

I heart this show. I love that there are Throwdown marathons.

One thing that makes me sad is watching Bobby lose all the time. Sometimes I think it's just because he veers so far off the mark of the person he's up against, it's impossible to win. I bet if he tried to duplicate those dishes, instead of just do his own version, he'd win more often.

Anyway, I love how he doesn't get upset when he loses, and he's a pretty gracious competitor. I can't say the same about the people he competes against. They can be kind of rude and arrogant. Oh well, I can't say I blame them. I mean, I don't know how I'd react to someone coming up to me, in the middle of nowhere, and challenging me to a cooking duel. Since I can't cook anything worthy of a throw-down, I'd probably cry and hide in a corner.

So far I'm dying to try Bobby's lasagna and mac and cheese. But as much as I love him, his soft pretzels that were supposed to be in the Philly pretzel throwdown were just...um...yeah. Not a Philly pretzel.

One thing I wonder about though. Has anyone ever declined a throwdown with Bobby Flay? The guy who made donuts a while back seemed like he might. He was kind of a jerk about it too. I can understand not being up for the challenge. I just wonder if anyone has ever said no. If so...I wonder what happens then. Does Bobby just pack up and leave? I mean, he spent all that time preparing. I bet nobody has turned them down yet.

I'm not ready for a throwdown, but I sure am ready for the next marathon.

Bento, I love you won't you tell me your name...

So I got the bento I won from ebay yesterday! WOOT! It's so cute! (or should I say, kawaii?)

I even got two molds with it. Isn't it awesome?



I've also got some links from craftster.org for bento related items. There is a swap going on right now that I missed. Next bento swap, though, I'm totally in.

Links a-plenty!

http://community.livejournal.com/eat_my_bento/
http://www.justbento.com/
http://www.ichibankanusa.com/

So this weekend I'll be spending time practicing my bento skills. I'll learn how to do sticky rice so I can make futomaki, sushi, etc. I'll get some dividers for the box itself, and some small-ish containers so my food isn't all running together. Hopefully, Monday will be my first day of bento-lunch heaven. *grin*

And to add flavor to my rice, I'll need some furikake (rice seasoning), so it looks like this is the perfect weekend for a trip to the Asian market. Sweet!

Procrastination Station

That is my setting today. I'm at work. I should be doing...well...work. There's not a lot to do, but if I get it done now then it's a whole free afternoon, right? But I want to be doing a billion other creative or crafty type things rather than boring PC-related work.

I want to make some crafty felt stuffies for one of my best friends. She lives in Texas, so every so often we ship each other a box of 'stuff'. Thing is, I am still putting packages together for three other friends right now. I am SO far behind. It's what we do. We send care packages since we're all so damned far apart.

Anyway, I brought my knitting to work with me. I haven't knitted in months. I am still just learning how to properly cast on etc. I'd like to be able to make blankets for Jason and Jessica. Preferably before the baby is born. (for those who don't know, Jessica is the baby...she's due in November at some point)

I also want to learn how to make things out of polymer clay. It's so rad, I just haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet. But I've always been really into sculpting and clay 'stuff'.

I have my Aranzi Aronzo Cute Book with me, for inspiration, plus a few Craft magazines, my Stitch N Bitch book, and some craft book I don't remember buying. Oh, and I have a 'color it yourself' folder that I got from the craft store. They're fun for keeping busy during slow times at work.

I've also decided, against better judgment, to plan to do National Novel Writing Month yet again this year. Yes, I am going to be having a baby in November. That leaves me with about 2 weeks to write while also getting ready for a baby. Of course I'll have 2 weeks off of work before the scheduled c-section, if all goes well. So that should be plenty of time to write! But I need an idea. And do I want to do a children's novel or do I want to try another grown-up story? I actually completed my novel last year but it sucked. It sucked bad. I only have...4 more months to come up with a story and characters.

Procrastination is all it's cracked up to be. Here I sit, 30 minutes after I started writing this. I've looked through some books, posted on message boards, PMed my friends, and daydreamed.
I think we should all get at least one day a month to just bail from work to be frivolous. I know it would make me more productive. Tomorrow.

I'm a pop-culture wasteland.

That's right. I know ridiculous amounts of pop-culture flotsam and jetsam. None of it will ever help me make money, and it will never win me any awards or anything fun like that. So here it will go, spilled out onto 'teh interwebs'.

My pop-culture interests are pretty varied, so one day you might be reading about the previous night's Top Chef, or you might be reading about Bento Boxes (my current love interest), or Korean candy, or 80s toys, or video games through the years. It's really a mixed bag here and you never know what's going to come oozing out of my brain. Kind of scary, huh? Like that yogurt stuff in that bad movie with the Bloom Brothers, back in the 80s. What was that one? "The Stuff"? Anyway, yeah, that's what my brain is. Stuff.

Today, in between tedious computer support work and emails, I've been looking for the perfect bento box. I had one that my son sort of stole and decided to use for his bath-tub time. It was so cute too! Blue Hello Kitty. So now I'm on a search for one of my own. One that won't end up in the bath. I had gone to JList, but I couldn't quite decide on anything. So now I'm scouring ebay.

The only bad thing about ebay is the price and the potential for buyer's remorse later on. I mean, I want a bento box, there's no doubt about that. Ebay has the best variety. But what happens if tomorrow I go to H-Mart and find the perfect bento box after I already ordered one off of ebay? Well I guess I get another one, that's what. But still. I'll feel as if I wasted money on the ebay one. Then there's the other big 'what if'. What if I suck at doing bentos? And what if I get tired of doing them? I mean, they take some work and I already end up eating crap lunches because I don't have time to pack stuff for myself. The plan now, though, is to make a lot of stuff ahead of time and freeze it. Then it stays cold until lunch, is pre-made but still home-made, and it fast to put together. Rice balls, curries, stir-fries, lots of veggies, and mini desserts I got from the international food mart. Those are all things that can easily make up a bento. It's just a matter of actually getting off my ass in the evening and putting them together. Not an easy feat lately. I'm pregnant and feel kind of like a land-locked whale.

Maybe my first bento should have baleen...