Obento Love
Clearly, I am not very good at this blogging thing but I will persist. Luckily no one reads this blog.....YET!
Tigergirl and Tigerboy`s yochien has obento days on Wednesday and Friday. This means I have to wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual to put together something spiffy for their lunchboxes. I used to be stressed about this because I wanted their obentos to be just like the other kid`s obentos and there are a lot of "rules" and expectations when it comes to preparing the perfect obento. A typical mother spends about an hour creating every lunch into a healthy and enticing blend of cartoon characters, flowers, and animals......anything to make the lunch cute and appealing to her child. The teacher judges whether the lunch box is prepared according to obento rules: 1.) Handmade food 2.) Looks good 3.) Child likes it 4.) At least 4 colours present etc. Can you see why I was stressed? I even went so far as to go out and buy a magazine showing kids bentos and how to make them. The magazine didn`t get me far however because I couldn`t read the recipes...duh. Plus, I just don`t have the patience to create something like this:
Thankfully neither do most of the moms at the kid`s school. So, my obentos have evolved to looking like this:
(fried rice, fresh cucumbers, mini tomato, orange slices, gyoza w/sauce.)
And this:
(rice with furikake, steamed brocolli w/sesame dressing, fresh persimon, marinated chicken, cheese.)
It`s interesting how much the kids adore obento days. They ask every day if today is "Obento Day" and they get really excited when I`m making them. I suppose there is a lot of truth to the bento-as-showing-a-mothers-love ideal that is inherent in this culture. I`ll keep posting the kid`s obentos until you get sick of seeing them....or I get sick of posting them!
Ja ne.
Tigergirl and Tigerboy`s yochien has obento days on Wednesday and Friday. This means I have to wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual to put together something spiffy for their lunchboxes. I used to be stressed about this because I wanted their obentos to be just like the other kid`s obentos and there are a lot of "rules" and expectations when it comes to preparing the perfect obento. A typical mother spends about an hour creating every lunch into a healthy and enticing blend of cartoon characters, flowers, and animals......anything to make the lunch cute and appealing to her child. The teacher judges whether the lunch box is prepared according to obento rules: 1.) Handmade food 2.) Looks good 3.) Child likes it 4.) At least 4 colours present etc. Can you see why I was stressed? I even went so far as to go out and buy a magazine showing kids bentos and how to make them. The magazine didn`t get me far however because I couldn`t read the recipes...duh. Plus, I just don`t have the patience to create something like this:
Thankfully neither do most of the moms at the kid`s school. So, my obentos have evolved to looking like this:
(fried rice, fresh cucumbers, mini tomato, orange slices, gyoza w/sauce.)
And this:
(rice with furikake, steamed brocolli w/sesame dressing, fresh persimon, marinated chicken, cheese.)
It`s interesting how much the kids adore obento days. They ask every day if today is "Obento Day" and they get really excited when I`m making them. I suppose there is a lot of truth to the bento-as-showing-a-mothers-love ideal that is inherent in this culture. I`ll keep posting the kid`s obentos until you get sick of seeing them....or I get sick of posting them!
Ja ne.
posted by Tigermama @ 9:50 AM
2 Comments:
At 8:48 AM,
Tigermama said…
Yay! My first comment, thanks Kristin! I really love reading my friend`s blogs and think it`s such a great way to keep in touch. I will try to keep it as interesting as possible. Ha!
At 1:18 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Sue!
Wow! I just throw an apple and a juice box in Jimmy's back pack and think I'm doing fine! Well done!
Elaine.
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