Bash Bento

[Hayashi Yuki]

I have a Baronial Bash coming up this weekend. Along with feast I will be packing a period bento. Does anyone have any ideas as to what would be a good period food from late Momoyama? Rice balls are totally in, I might just make them plain though. I am also considering a shrimp dish of some sort.

I am going to need a lot of help, I have this huge fear of the kitchen and cooking, and I can't make anything without a recipe. Well mostly. I can make rice. *luvs her rice cooker*

So if anyone has had anything that worked for them in the past I am all ears.

[Saionji Shonagon]

I admit to being spoiled by the availability of good Asian markets in my area. Standard bento procedure for me is rice with pickled vegetables.

You can do a simple salad with thinly sliced cucumbers and a dressing of rice vinegar with a splash of soy sauce and a little sugar - this is insanely easy. www.food.com/recipe/japanese-cucumber-salad-sunomono-256445 has a recipe that also includes ginger, but the key to this is mixing your dressing to what tastes good to you. I like mine less sugary than most of the online versions call for. You could add carrot for color to make it pretty. You can even use this dressing on cold shrimp, if you like.

90% of competent cooking is paying attention to what you are doing. If you can follow a recipe to the letter, you're most of the way there. Take your time, taste as you go, you can do it!

I'm also a big fan of green tea - I'll make a pot, decant it into an old sake flask I have and cork it. It's good cold and travels reasonably well as long as it's consumed the same day.

(I was extremely anachronistic about a week ago. I decided to make some simple onigiri with furikake seasoning and discovered that I had an open bag of bacon crumbles I ought to consume reasonably soon, so it was added to the topping. COMPLETELY not period, but darned tasty!)

[Hayashi Yuki]

Thank you! I was wondering what other vegetable dish I should add to the food list. This sounds perfect though I hate cucumbers, I'll probably change it out for cabbage or something. Hmm... Good on shrimp you say? Well that just adds to my seafood list. Here is what I have so far.

Grilled Onigiri /w crab topping
ong choi
Salmon /w Rice Sprinkles (furikake) (probably not period but I can't pass up a chance to eat salmon)
Vegetables or fruit

Now I'm going to put the carrots and cabbage mix along with shrimp into the veggie slot.

[Saionji Shonagon]

Wrong season for it, but chilled soba noodles with sauce are great in the summer.

[Deleted]

That's not stopping me here. I am still bottling my own kaeshi (Soba broth/dipping sauce) and eating soba cold. But I only do this because I can't find and katsuo-bushi around here to make any blasted broth! Might as well keep dreming of summer to come, and slurp on soba...

[Sō Haruko]

You can make dashi with tiny dried sardines, or with dried shiitake. Don't feel limited to katsuo-bushi. (: (Dang it, I forget which parts of Japan prefer the sardine broth, but it's not uncommon.)

Also, katsuo-bushi is shelf-stable. You could order some and have it sent to you.