Back to school lunch ideas

My oldest is going to kindergarten this fall and that means packed lunches. I am now brainstorming and trying out different meals for him. I am inspired by the Japanese bento style of eating. 

This is what I found in the Japanese supermarket. Genmai Inari (brown sushi rice encased in tofu);
I paired it with 'baby mushrooms' fried in butter. The only way my picky vegetable eater would consume tomatoes and cucumbers is to have it in a sandwich. This time, I rolled tomatoes, cucumber, sliced chicken and a touch of hoisin sauce with rice paper rolls. The boys were intrigued with the rice paper. When you buy it in the supermarket, it so stiff like paper and when you damp it with water, it becomes rice skin! It's almost like a science experiment. Needless to say, the rice paper rolls were a surprising hit with the boys. You never know until you try.

For dessert, I got chocorooms (little chocolate mushrooms) They are delicious and reminds the boys of the little mushrooms in Fantasia.

Watch this space for more lunchbox ideas!

What to do with my tomato crop?

So I planted heirloom tomatoes in my garden box in the springtime. It's one of the easiest vegetables to grow for a novice gardener. Now in July, the tomatoes are ripening aplenty. And I am getting a bounty of tomatoes. I have to constantly think up more recipes to use up the tomatoes.  

A recipe I always fall back on is Shakshuka. 

(Adapted from Ottolenghi and Tamimi's cookbook, Jerusalem)

This is my adapted recipe: 

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 tsp tomato paste

2 large red peppers (diced)

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

1tsp ground cumin

5 large, very ripe tomatoes, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic, onions, pepper, cumin and 3/4 tsp salt. Stir and cook until peppers soften. Add the tomatoes and gently simmer the sauce. Cook until you have a thick sauce. Season accordingly.  It's that simple. You can either make small dips in the sauce and cook a few eggs in the sauce (be sure to watch them and don't overcook)

Or you can put the shakshuka sauce into jars and give it to friends as a gift (to make for breakfast).  Or freeze them for another lazy sunday morning. It's all good. 

Mee Pok in San Francisco

Let's talk about noodles. To the uninitiated, noodles are just that. But there's so much variety - the type of noodle, the type of sauce or soup can be mind boggling and then you have the different types of dishes from different regions - China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.

One of my favorite noodles growing up in Singapore is Mee Pok (noodles from Chaozhou, South China). El dente wide noodles with a soya-chili-vinegar sauce. It is topped with fish ball, minced meat, sliced meat, fried garlic and sometimes fried lard. It is highly popular and good Mee Pok stalls always have long queues of customers. My favorite store growing up is Tai Wah Pork Noodles. The eatery used to be situated in a corner shophouse on the banks of the Singapore river. I would remember watching the workers ferrying goods into the godowns from the wooden bumboats as I slurped on Mee Pok.

San Francisco has it's very own Mee Pok store too! Hai Ky Mi Gia is a Teochew Vietnamese noodle house (Vietnamese Chinese from Chaozhou province) in Tenderloin (707 Ellis Street). The noodles were bouncy and el dente and the fish ball tasted home-made. You will have to add the soya-chili- vinegar sauces yourself.