Easter Egg and Jook Bento

Easter Egg and Jook Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Got the inspiration for today's bento from my very own scratchy throat and cough. The cough is especially annoying, and has been lingering for a few days now. I can tell it's getting better when I can get through a whole sentence without suddenly hacking off to the side for a couple minutes. I made jook for myself, really, but the kids love it too so I packed some for them (my basic jook recipe is here). For this batch I used white and brown rice, a mixture of organic chicken broth and water, and added baby spinach, green onion and steamed wild cod fillet into the bubbling soup. I also drizzled hot chili oil on top of mine but omitted for the kids. I packed it in our trusty Stanley thermal food jar so it'll be nice and toasty come lunchtime. He also gets a side box filled with a half mandarin, strawberry, grapes, blackberry, steamed broccoli and a cute little quail egg chick. I'd attempted to make the zig-zag egg cut before without success, so I boiled a few eggs in case I encountered trouble. This time it worked beautifully the first try. I used a sharp razor blade to make each tiny individual cut, and then pulled the two halves apart gently. If you have a thin blade paring knife, you could use that as well. Make sure your egg is boiled completely hard, to make it easier. I added nori eyes and a carrot beak, and now the little chickie is ready to pop out and be eaten!