Monday, March 14, 2011

Hot Jook Thermal Bento


Hot Jook Preschool Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.
Double bento today for my son and daughter are nearly identical. They both get true comfort food: black/white rice jook with turkey and ginger, green onion scattered on top. I packed them in thermal food jars: the Stanley jar which you've seen me use before many times (and which I recommend highly) and the Thermos brand Hello Kitty jar which I hadn't used before. First thing I noticed is that the Thermos is much lighter. Of course, it is smaller (I have the 10 oz version), but also the lid is plastic and there seems to be quite a bit of heat loss through the lid. Immediately after filling the jar and closing the lid, I could feel it getting warm right away. The Stanley has a double lid: an inner plastic screw lid which is set inside the jar, and an outer plastic-lined metal cap which can be used as a bowl. If there is heat loss through the inner lid, it's not detectable through the outer lid, as fas as I could tell. I tested the Hello Kitty jar with boiling water, and found that the temperature of the water began dropping within an hour after sealing. That was pretty disappointing to me. We'll see what my preschooler says. Both kids toted along a side bento filled with strawberry, grapes, cara cara wedges, broccoli and carrots.
Many of you may be following the terrible events unfolding in Japan following Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake; the resulting tsunami devastated towns and destroyed thousands of lives. The people of Japan face a long journey towards healing and rebuilding, even while aftershocks still rock the country and rescuers continue to search for survivors. I and many fellow bento-bloggers have been keeping up with real-time developments via @makiwi on twitter, who has embarked on a labor of love to translate and update the rest of us on the news from Japan, seemingly without sleep. If you are looking for a way to help, please consider making donations to The Red Cross at IFRC.org or Doctors Without Borders at doctorswithoutborders.org.

11 comments:

  1. yum yum yum...
    i need to try packing bento with my husband's thermal jar. i haven't had any experience before
    Yes, it is terribly sad news about Japan's earthquake. We all pray for them. I was speechless to hear it on last Friday since we have many buyers in Japan and we have pleasant relationships with them.

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  2. Comfort food! Surprise to read that the Thermos Hello Kitty jar is not so good. Almost buy that one last time because it's cute. Saved by you now :D Friend and family are moving temporarily from Tokyo to Osaka today because of the nuclear crisis. Really hope everything will get back to normal soon.

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  3. Sheri, Lia, am also surprised thermos is not so good. I have a (ahem not my choice) Hanna Montana thermos and it keeps the food hot for a few hours.. Maybe yours is defective Sheri?

    Comfort food is what's needed for sure. It's hard to even imagine what ppl in Japan are going through. I pray for everyone there.

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  4. I hope your HK thermal works out good, anything with HK on it has to be good! ^_^ I love the fruit and veg sidecar, it adds so much color!

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  5. Jook is really comforting. We three here would like a bowl of it too ;). Oh.. sorry to hear the HK jar doesn't keep heat so well. A pitty.

    The situation in Japan is really worrying. Heartbreaking news most of the time. We need to keep faith things will get better and also value the happy news, the smallest they are.

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  6. Oh yum...I love congee...! This bento looks so healthy too :D)!

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  7. Thanks Sandy, Lia, Chantale, Heather, karaimame and Cooking Gallery.

    The Hello Kitty Thermos brand works all right, but the food cools down noticeably after a few hours. My girl told me it was "warm" but she had finished the entire jar, so I guess it was acceptable to her!

    Hoping for the best for Japan, along with all of you.

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  8. hi there! where do you get your bento container from? my daughter is starting preschool next week and i need to prepare lunch for her and am looking for a good thermal bento box.

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  9. The Hello Kitty thermal jar is made by Thermos and I found it at Target. You can probably find it at other department stores as well. The Stanley (larger) red thermal jar I got online. It's sold on Amazon.com and CSNstores.com.

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