Sakura Ma Po Tofu Bento

Sakura Ma Po Tofu Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

MisterMan's ma po tofu gets an accent of three beet-dyed sakura cut tofu "blossoms" floating atop his meal. Did you enjoy the cherry blossoms in your neighborhood? Seems this year I noticed quite a few specimen trees that I never noticed in years past. There's one fabulous double-blossomed tree that I pass every single day, and somehow I never realized its striking beauty until the past couple weeks. I can't take a picture because there's no parking, but I've been slowing down to appreciate it each day. So here's my homage to that lovely spring display. His upper tier has a couple of the last market strawberries, and some cups of: marinated baby bell peppers and pickled red onions; pickled turnips with sliced kumquats, pickled carrots and daikon, and pickled bittermelon. The baby turnips recipe called for lemon, but I substituted kumquats -- it's delicious this way! I think the kumquats would be nice by themselves as well. They are an unusual fruit in that the flesh and juice are tart but the skin is sweet. Have you had them? And this batch of bittermelon was marinated in equal parts vinegar and pineapple juice. It's a lot more palatable this way. I think this method is a winner! I may put together a post of all my pickling experiments, in case you have a hankering to try any of these, and so that I can remember what I've tried so far. What do you think?

Red Spring Bento

Red Spring Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

This bento ended up with lots of red in it, which wasn't planned, but which nicely represents the feeling of spring awakening with lots of color!

Along with more chicken and furikake rice, I added a piece of steamed broccoli and a giant cherry tomato. The salad is composed of watercress tossed with diced Cara Cara oranges (with their nice dark orangey-red hue) and crushed walnuts. The third section has cottage cheese studded with ripe strawberry slices and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and wheat germ.

And because I am currently obsessed with beet-painting satsumaimo sakura blossoms, there are a bunch of those too! Instead of fingerpainting them, you can also simply steam a slice of satsumaimo with a slice of beet on top (you can layer them alternately too) and the beet color will stain the imo it's touching. The color comes out uneven, lending a kind of "tie-dye" effect which is really cool! It might have been prettier to make a lighter pink color, but I guess I got kinda carried away. Well, plenty of chances to try again! ^_^

Spring Blossoms Bento

Spring Blossoms Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Okay, ready for more spring blossoms?
Pink sakura (beet-dyed satsumaimo), white plum (plain satsumaimo), and um, carrot flowers. I made chicken "medallions" using an egg/flour mix and pan-frying. The kids love chicken like this, and I don't know why! It's really easy and they don't even ask for any sauce although I like sriracha. I tried making him a smallish musubi, hoping he'll start to like eating more rice. Plus it made a nice background for the pink flowers. Steamed broccoli and enoki mushrooms complete this bowl. Other bowl contains three super juicy strawberries and a little clementine.
Am I overdoing the flowers theme bento? Can't help it. Got flowers on the brain -- everything blooming over here right now!