This omelette was easy to make, as it only entailed slicing carrots, peppers, onions and of course some crabstick, while mixing them in egg batter to form little round shapes. I added rice to the box, Chinese dumplings, a small apple and peanut butter puffs. My angel twins couldn’t help but smile at the sight of their happy bento which impersonates a bright sunny day (look at the cocktail umbrella.)

I was supposed to submit this to Coffee and Vanilla’s Wholesome Lunchbox monthly bento event. But since am a day too late, am joining Aibento’s 500 K contest instead. This amateur bento maker doesn’t hope to win, but hey, there’s such a thing as the random pick too. Tee hee

Something happened in the past few months, and it’s the fact that I’ve joined the legions who bring their lunch boxes to work. I found out that this is the greatest money-saver ever, plus you’re spared the trouble of lining up in the crowded cafeteria. It’s an added bonus if you have a microwave oven in the office pantry to have piping-hot “baon” but in case you don’t, those insulated lunch boxes will do the trick.

Just a note: making bento with all those cute characters is painstaking and simply won’t work with me most days, as I always wake up late and only have time to shower. Here are some pics of my baon when it was me who prepared, and not our dear househelp (who also cooks well) :

Spaghetti, ham pinwheel sandwiches, Babybel cheese and crackers. A snack you’d love to keep, and great for kids!

A Filipino packed lunch of steamed rice, bistek, fried lobster balls and grapes. The colorful divider box is priced so cheap in SM (below P50) while the spoon and fork were from Japan Home Center.

This is what I’d call my easy-peasy baon consisting of cherry tomatoes, sliced red salted egg and mini-Hungarian sausages bought from S & R.

Via the Wholesome Lunchbox monthly food blogging event of Coffee and Vanilla.

One thing I know, it feels nice to shop for fellow bloggers. I initiate events “once in a blue moon” and as a gesture of appreciation for those who joined the recent Lasang Pinoy 25, I am giving away the following:

Lacquered bento box, a set of chopsticks, a Periplus Mini-Cookbook on Homestyle Japanese Cooking, P1000 gift certificate from Delifrance courtesy of GeiserMaclang and a Blog-O-Rama feature to the most prolific bento maker Miss Kitchencow. Thanks a lot for submitting two bento entries Chrissie … and many more bentos to come

A set of plastic lunchboxes from Japan Home Center and The Adobo Book : Traditional & Jazzed Up Recipes goes to Ryan of KainPinoy who made the picnic adobo bento. The book is a winner of the National Book Award and contains every imaginable styles of adobo you can find, from personal inventions to regional versions to recipes passed on through generations. A few of the examples: Paella de Adobo of Don Anastacio de Alba to pork adobo in buko juice to adobo sa alamang at gata with finger peppers and the Solar Box Day-Long Adobo of Reynolds Philippines. Viva adobo!

I am bequeathing a copy of A La Carte: Food and Fiction (as edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Isip Orosa) to Mike Mina for his blog treatise on the fiambrera. A La Carte is one of the excellent Filipino food books to come out of late, a luscious salad mix of fact, fiction, fantasy and recipes. If you like food and would love the literary effort that goes with loving it, this one is a must-read!

Lastly, I’d like to give Bento boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go (to order from Amazon) to Iska for being this round-up’s earliest bird.

Congratulations fellas. You may contact me soon on how to get your prizes, or how I can get your prizes to you (whatever ) Cheers to great global Filipino food!

Apologies to our dear Lasang Pinoy 25 participants who made their own creative bentos. End of the round coincided with a major house move, which presently leaves me with boxes of unopened stuff and no internet connection, ugh. What could be worse for a blogger, especially a blogger who’s supposed to do a timely round-up?

But I did promise some stuff for the bento-makers and they’re here, namely a couple of Filipino cookbooks, bento box, lunch kits and my sexy friend Alma from GeiserMaclang has even donated a P1000 gift certificate from Delifrance. So it’s still fun

Here’s a summary of participants and their bento creations. It wasn’t MANY but I do believe in quality rather than quantity. Also, I realize that bento-making is not really part of the culinary mainstream..it’s more like an acquired taste for our aspiring slash busy cooks. Still, I’d like to give my kudos to the following blog friends for coming up with their entries:

Early bird Iska came up with a beautifully-laid tocino bento consisting of yummy cured pork, hard-boiled egg and vegetables.

Ryan of KainPinoy prepared something most of us just couldn’t resist: classic adobo bento with sidings of fried eggplant, tomatoes and bagoong which they brought on a sunny picnic to the La Mesa Ecopark!

Pinoy bento princess Kaoko of Kitchencow did a great feat of submitting two entries: the soy vinegar pork belly bento and an irresistible-looking adobo flakes and daing bento. Yum!

Lasang Pinoy’s resident moderator Mike Mina educates us on the origins of the fiambrera (Spanish for lunchbox) of his childhood. These are the multi-level tin lunchboxes we see in the stores up to now, and very handy too! See how Mike makes his baon more special with a tower of fiambrera goodies.

Ces over at Spices whipped up another can’t resist dish, Longsilata (short for longganisa, sinaing and ensalata) which she prepared on the verge of watching American Idol. We think the highlight of this creation is the irresistible salad of mangoes, red onions, salted eggs and bagoong – yum!

Fashionista Dexie over at FeistyMomma prepared a Pinoy-style bento of my favorite (and yours too?) fried tilapia, rice, green beans and mango salsa. Am suddenly getting hungry, and we surely want your salsa recipe Dexie;)

JMom’s entry is ‘better late than never’ (and it’s indeed getting better!) Her garlic fried chicken bento is just good, and embellished with stir-fried snow peas and bell peppers.

As for me, I was busy myself and was only able to make the Arroz a la Cubana bento you can find somewhere in this blog.

Thanks also to the following for the mention in their blogs: Bembites and Em Dy.

Up next: the prizes!!!

My bento lunch box addiction led me to retrace my footsteps to Japan Home Center in a major mall. This is a place which prides itself of its Made in Japan knick-knacks, and almost everything is P88 or less – like those 100 Yen stores in Tokyo.

I immediately liked what i saw….

Cuteness!!!

I even saw a lady monk, and she is seen here posing beside the Burberry-style umbrellas.

Service at Japan Home Center Robinson’s Manila is very good, and at least they didn’t freak out at the sight of a certain digital camera taking shots of the merchandise in the place.

Japanese household items are very utilitarian to say the least, there’s one for every purpose and Japan Home Center is just filled with goodies you’d be curious about. There’s earthenware, cleaning tools, hooks, trays, kitchen utensils and even a portable pasta strainer. The items change every now and then, so my advice is to scoop up already what suits your fancy. Just don’t stuff your house with so much clutter!

I found one toddler tray with a cartoon cover so cute that I immediately put it to good use. I call this my fastfood bento … pizza, spaghetti and hotdogs.

Here’s something to kick off our little Lasang Pinoy bento festival: a bento adapted from the popular Filipino dish Arroz a la Cubana. Translated, this dish is “Rice, Cuban Style” whose terminology eludes me, since this arroz was brought to us by Spain, not Cuba

Still, Arroz a la Cubana should be a favorite on the tables of many, and mine too, especially as dish looks good on a plate, with your sunny-side up egg mounted on a cup of rice, with sauteed minced meat and fried saba (plaintain) bananas on the side.

This Arroz a la Cubana-inspired bento, whom I call Arroz a la Cubento, for short, is a take-off from the original and consists of the following:

a cup of rice

banana cue (plaintain bananas with caramelized brown sugar, instead of plain fried bananas)

Happy bento-making!

My most recent post on the bento inspired me to host this April’s themed Filipino food blogging event Lasang Pinoy. It has been quite a while indeed … Lasang Pinoy is already on its 25th round-up, a silver celebration if you wish.

It is for this reason that I am inviting all Filipino bloggers and readers to participate in my merry theme entitled Make Your Own Bento. ‘Make Your Own Lunchbox or Baon’ if you like, just as long as it depicts a combination of Filipino food that closely resembles a Japanese bento – the healthier and more creative, the better.

If you’re a blogger, all you have to do is to write a post of your Pinoy bento creation, preferably with a picture and related recipe (s). Feel free also to use the LP25 icon (designed by Lasang Pinoy’s very own Mike Mina). Leave a comment here with a link to your post on or before April 30, 2008.

If you’re a reader, you may join in the fun by informing me of your bento creation or by simply taking a picture of a fantastic bento meal or lunchbox you’ve had. You may also leave a comment or email me using the Contact link in the right sidebar of this blog.

I will post a round-up of all entries by May 7, 2008. Prizes await the yummiest and most creative entries

So what are we waiting for? Bring out those aprons and make our own Pinoy bento now….:)

I call this our Pinoy bento which the kids had as a meal in the house.

What went inside the box:

braised pork adobo with hard-boiled egg
lumpiang sariwa (fresh egg rolls made of ubod or palm tree trunk) with brown sauce
buttered mixed vegetables
cupcake with chocolate swirl (bought from our local bakery)
rice with fish ball decor

The Hello Kitty Bento which the kids brought to school:

Spaghetti
Chicken Nuggets Fun Shapes
Mixed veggies
Star- Shaped Mini-Pancakes with syrup

veer away from the usual round pancakes by shaping it with a cookie cutter!

I’ve added a new category in the blog for “bento.” I loved the challenge of doing this and will definitely be creating some more in the future.

Good that my foodie twins loved it. Bon appeTITE!