I think my girl has finally entered a stage where she thinks that bringing a bento to school is strange. Not a bad strange but just a little different. The other day when I was in a hurry, I stuffed a sandwich and some chips into ziploc bags for lunch. When she came back from school, the first thing she said to me that she felt normal that day!!! Her lunch was packed into a ziploc bag like everyone else!!! Does that mean my bento-ing days are coming to an end? I really hope not! Next year she will be going to a new school with new friends and of course, new lunch buddies. I am looking forward to seeing what she feels about bring a bento to school then. : p

P/S: A big heartfelt thanks to my readers that still drop by once in a while to check on this almost abandoned blog.  Will I ever abandon  this blog? Probably not but I think I am at a point in my life where I am not thinking about this blog all the time. It’s a good thing because when I first started this blog, it was  a fun outlet and it evolved into work at sometime but now I am content to let it be my fun outlet once again.

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted. I blame it on the winter blues. It has been a long winter but I think we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The sun actually showed up and stayed for the whole weekend!! For those who live in the Pacific Northwest or places with similar climates, that is such a pleasant surprise! The rest of the week has been cloudy but I am optimistic that sunny days are not too far away.

So for now I am back! This is a review of a new-to-us restaurant that has been on our must-try list for a while. For the longest time, I didn’t know that there was a restaurant behind the catering sign that we passed by so often. Then we discovered it and to my surprise, it is rated very highly on most of the restaurant review sites.

So we went and checked out Max’s World Cafe in Issaquah. It is a very small no-frills restaurant with only about 5 tables in there. So people who eats there are definitely there for the food and not the atmosphere. The most recommended dish there was the lamb shank as shown at the top of this post. It was falling-off-the-bone tender and so yummy.

DH ordered the pork chop stuffed with sausages and he loved it. It was moist and tasty.

They don’t have a separate kids menu which is fine for me. I am not a big fan of some of the kids menu items offered at some restaurants. Anyway, C ordered the fish and chips with homemade tartar sauce. She really liked it.

For dessert, I wanted to try the portuguese egg tarts but the owner/chef told us that the egg tarts were not recommended since they are not very popular and thus not at the freshest state. I was really pleasantly surprised at her honesty. If she had not said anything and we went ahead and ordered, we might not be very happy with our dessert. Instead she recommended her most popular dessert which is the sticky toffee date pudding and after that first bite, I am glad we ordered that dessert. The warm sticky toffee sauce, the light date cake and the cold ice-cream were a great combination!

Prices were a little high here but well worth of the quality of food. I will definitely be back again to try other dishes.

Shoyu Ramen

These couple of weeks I have been in an organizing mood. Yes, even my photos too! While going through my photos, I realized that I have so many unpublished restaurant photos. So watch out for a lot more restaurant reviews coming up soon.

First up is Kukai Ramen & Izakaya in Bellevue. Kukai is fairly new in town. It is a franchise store of a popular Japanese Ramen store in Japan. DH had the Shoyu Ramen. He said that the soup was a little to light for his liking.

Pork Chashu Rice Bowl – They have 2 sizes. This was for a small order. It was just right for a light eater. Flavor was pretty good.

Takoyaki – my favorite dish. Chewy with a yummy octopus filling.

Calamari – good but the portion was very little. For $6.50, this was all we got.

Chicken Wings – This was good. A little on the sweet side but nice crispiness.

I think whenever I run out of bento ideas, I always turn to my trusty and faithful hearts or stars cookie cutters. Today was of no exception. It was stars galore…..  This bento is filled with star-shaped Peanut Butter sandwiches, red pepper stars, ham stars, blueberries and a chocolate macaron.

DH is a big ramen fan. So when we were in Vancouver BC one weekend, we decided to try out one of the more popular ramen store – Kintaro Ramen. Since we were expecting a long line, we tried to get there by 12 pm which was the opening hour according to many websites sans their own. I haven’t been able to find their website anywhere. Anyway, we got there around 11:45 and there was already a long line. Apparently they open at 11:30 now!! So there we were stuck in line while waiting for the first batch of diners to finish their meal. At least they gave us the menu to browse while waiting. One thing to note is that Kintaro requires a minimum order of $7.50 per person.

DH ordered Miso Ramen. He gets the option of light, medium or heavy broth and also either lean or fatty pork. He ordered the Miso Ramen with heavy broth and fatty pork.

He likes it but it was just a little too heavy. I think next time he will stick to the medium broth.

I had the Garlic Spicy Ramen. Note the big ball if garlic!! It was good but I needed a lot of mint after the meal to get rid of the garlic smell. The medium soup with lean pork was good.

Since C does not like Ramen, we had to order a couple of side dishes for her to meet the minimum order amount. We ordered Gyoza which was pretty good. Love the crispy bottom crust.

We also ordered the BBQ Pork. This was a little dry for me to eat it on its own but it was good when we added it to the ramen and soaked in the broth.

Taking a break from bento, this is a post all about Chinese New Year goodies from the archives. Chinese New Year falls on February 10 this year. So this week there will be lots of baking in preparation for Chinese New Year. What’s on my baking list this year? First up will be the yummy melt-in-the-mouth German cookies as shown above.

Then it will be the ever popular Peanut Cookies:

CNY will never be CNY without the Pineapple Tarts:

or Sticky Rice Cake (Nian Gao)

or my favorite crunchy snack – Mini Crispy Spring Roll

Finally rounding up the CNY feast with desserts – different varieties of jello:

Somedays there is so much going on that everything seems to be spinning around  :P I guess I must be feeling that way when I made this bento. A mock sushi roll, this roll is made up of ham and cheese rolled in bread. Also included are carrot sticks and dip in the little container, and finally apples.

Have a great week, everyone

Another lunch packed in a Lock & Lock box. I love the Lock & Lock boxes. They have different sizes for different needs. Most of the boxes also come with removable trays which can be removed to incorporate bigger portions. In this bento, I am actually using a square box with 4 removable trays and a rectangular box with 2 removable trays. Today’s bento  contains grilled cheese sandwich, mozarella cheesesticks, broccoli, ham on picks, orange slices and cantaloupe.

Usually C does not like spicy food and she does not like tuna either. But for some strange unknown reason, she loves the Bumble Bee Spicy Thai Chili Tuna. I love spicy food. Usually I will cook one spicy meal like curry or nasi lemak (anchovy chili paste with rice) once a week. On those days I have to cook a different dinner for her. So I am really glad that she is starting to like at least one spicy food. Hopefully she will soon begin to enjoy more spicy food. That way I do not have to cook  2 meals on spicy food days. Today’s bento contains Spicy Chili Tuna with crackers, red pepper strips, a slice of pear and a banana.

Blame it on too much Strawberry Shortcake TV shows over the weekend. Now I have the berrykins song playing in my head the whole time. So this bento is all about the berries. Speaking of berries, have you noticed that nowadays berries are available all year round? It used to be available only in the summer but not now. Anyway today’s bento contains Trader Joe’s mini croissant filled with strawberry jelly, ham slices, red pepper strips, veggie chips, blackberries and strawberries. Actually the container at the back is for snack time. Have a great bento week!