Eating in a box

A trip down memory lane this week. I asked my eaters to give me their list of favorite dishes so that I can create a blast from the past lunch for them. Lots of suggestions, the tough part was picking something from everyone's list that still put a lunch with some balance of complimentary flavors. The lists were pretty big, I guess I'm doing something right. Let's explore what lunch brings us today. We'll start off with our entree, miso glazed salmon from our Omega 3 goodness box. Topped this one off with some chives today. (not from my aerogarden) I've learned a lot from my experiments on this blog and the number one tip is to slightly undercook certain things to allow them to finish when a reheat occurs. That way the food is at perfection when the eaters actually eat lunch. Also I've learned salmon seems to be one of the rare exceptions of allowable fish to be packed in lunch. Usually, fish type lunches that are reheated get lots of complaints from co-workers...

Yes, I'm posting a bento solely around the entree, I've been wanting to work with short ribs for some time and my recent purchase of a nice dutch oven pushed me into action. The rest of the items in the bento really were, "what can I put in with short ribs?" so there's no real point in trying to fabricate a theme. This bento did include yet another coworker from my work, he's been standing in line asking when I'd bring the bento goodness to our work. I'll admit I was a little intimidated to cook for him, he's very well traveled, well knowledged about food, and has eaten at some of the best places, and has a brother that's a chef. I cringed as I put the bento in the fridge this morning. Hopefully it is to his liking. Ok let's just lead off with the entree. Short ribs, it's one of those things that if I see it in a menu there's going to be about a 95% chance it'll be what I'm having for dinner/lunch/breakfast whatever. Why th...

I was invited this week to a food writer/blogger event hosted at Elevation Burger. The featured speaker was Susan Leibrock from the Sustainable Food Center here in Austin. Our event was host Rob Faubion editor of Austin On Stage magazine. Elevation Burger is a franchise owned by Danny Bone. Funny enough, I met Danny at my previous company as he was our insurance provider. As he mentioned this was his first venture into the restaurant business and he was very passionate and proud of Elevation Burger and what they were trying to achieve. This particular store was a complete Green build and he has applied for a Silver LEED Certification . (I know I had find a link to figure out what that meant too) Elevation Burger specializes in grass fed organic burgers while running an environmentally friendly and eco-sustainable business. The burgers themselves are lower in calorie and fat than your regular corn fed burger due to the fact that the meat tends to be leaner. They feature a bun that is...

Very exciting week this week. I turned out we didn't have many folks at my wife's office so I offered a bento to someone at my workplace. A new eater! Always nice to cook for new people, but I go thru great pains to keep my worlds separated so it's hard to put my food (specifically the stuff I post about) on display for the people I work with. I'm not sure when I developed this weird phobia. At my last job I was all about bringing in food, heck I even setup an omelette station and cooked for everyone. Maybe it's because there are so many more people here that haven't been over and tried my food *and* are foodies. It's like going to the judges table. It's irrational, I'll get over it. This box is actually a requested "hey can you go figure this thing out" bento. I was asked to re-create a Vietnamese bbq pork sandwich called a Banh Mi. Apparently it's a big favorite around here at my work and my wife loves them too. The trick I had to get...

Gumbo's has always been a favorite for me only because I frequented the bar next door. When I was working downtown we would always head over to the Brown Bar and order off the Gumbo's appetizer menu. I'm very glad we had an opportunity to sample some of Chef Chad Jones' offerings that included some of the items I never got to order. And yes like his picture suggests he's a super nice guy that took the time to meet and greet all of us, always a pleasure to meet someone down to earth and all about his food. I'm just a blogger and not a critic, so I'm always grateful when the chef takes the time to meet with us "little people". I'm also thankful to the folks that put on these events for inviting me. It's fun and a great chance to see my blogger friends and really get to experience what the restaurant is about. Ok onto the food: First up: Crab Cake with chipotle aioli and jicama slaw, I will say the number one thing that stood out to me was the...

AustinOtaku Posts the second part of his interview with me. Go have a read. Thanks for the interview @austinotaku . And go check out his blog. See two posts down for a brief description. This section focused more on some tips and hints that I focus on to produce my lunches. Again great and thoughtful questions. I enjoyed responding to them.

Hi all, welcome to another Italian bento. Sorry for the late post, got really busy for me. I'm on a trip to Dallas and I have to say, I feel like I'm in a foodie wasteland. I need a proper food guide to steer me away from all the big box restaurants and grocery stories that look at me funny when I ask for various things. One of the questions I got previously was how many of the recipes are ones that I follow versus create. That is not an easy answer, where is the line between synthesis and copying? From the one end clearly there are instances where I lifted whole menus straight out of a magazine (like when Martha Stewart invaded). Somewhere in the middle is where I typically stay, whenever I cook, (especially when it's something I've not done before) I tend to collect five to seven recipe versions of the same dish. I try to analyze what the common thread is in technique to understand the origins of a dish and see where others have taken it. I'm a guy that likes to ...

Austin Otaku did an interview on me and posted part one. Go take a look ! It's a great summary and he was kind enough to show case some of my bentos. He asked some very interesting questions which I happily went on and on to answer :) you know me, there's a reason "yammering" is a tag. Austin Otaku's site is a wonderful collection articles about Japan, being a "Japanophile" stuck in Austin and all thing related that's found both here in Austin and on the web. Great stuff!