Bento/Today's Lunch Box (February, 23rd, 2010) Recipe

This time the "mazegohan"/mixed rice was a bit complicated. The Missus had prepared pork belly for three days by regularly massaging in salt and sugar for no less than 3 days. Before steaming the rice, she cut the pork into tiny bits and fried it in sesame oil. She steamed the rice together with the fried pork and its juices, pieces of carrots, and pieces of sakuraebi aburaage. Aburaage is deep-fried tofu sheets. The sakura ebi/cherry blossom shrimps were originally mixed into the aburaage when she bought it. She ut it into strips and dry-fry them first, before cutting them again into small pieces she steamed together with the rice. Once the rice had been steamed, she stirred the whole and added cut boiled peas in their pod, shredded konbu/seaweed she had used for streaming the rice and black sesame seeds.

As for the "garnish", it consisted of half soft-boiled egg lightly marinated in soy sauce and something elese, boiled Na no hana/rapeseed flowers seasoned with gomadare/sesame dressing, mini tomatoes, freshly cut yamaimo/yam seasoned with umeboshi flesh, and white and black sesame seeds, and home-made stewed beans (sweet) for dessert.