Obento

Onigirazu

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Onigirazu

    By Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT  APRIL 07, 2015 In Japan, food fads come and go. They can be as fleeting as the cherry blossom petals that bloom and fall to the ground just days later. The latest is a stuffed, roasted seaweed and rice sandwich called onigirazu. It is actually an old fad enjoying a …

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Bento Bash for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

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Bento Bash for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

How do you prepare bento for 150 people? With a lot of help! Make twenty tamagoyaki (Japanese egg omelet)  rolls cut each into 8 pieces! With a sakura shaped vegetable cutter, stamp out  150 cherry blossom daikon flowers! Take 40 pounds of soy sauce braised chicken thighs made for us by Ben Lin of B.Lin …

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Spam goes glam

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Spam goes glam

By Debra Samuels, Globe Correspondent WELLESLEY — Those who know Susumu “Sus” Ito, 93, know that he is a Nisei (second-generation Japanese-American), a Congressional Gold Medal recipient from World War II’s legendary all-Japanese-American 442d Regimental Combat Team, an emeritus professor at Harvard Medical School, a furniture maker, photographer, dad, and grandfather.   (Sus is second …

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Cooking (and dining) from Japan

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Cooking (and dining) from Japan

We have lived here for a total of 11 years and this month, I wrote about all my culinary experiences in “My Japanese Table,’’ beginning with a breakfast of grilled fish, rice, pickles, and miso soup from our very first home stay in a rural area on the southern island, Kyushu.

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Put a little life in a child’s lunchbox

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Put a little life in a child’s lunchbox

I have been bonkers for obento for more than 25 years. On one of our year-long stays in Japan my son Brad, went to fa local elementary school. Like any mom, I prepared lunch for him–American style. I soon learned that wasn’t going to cut the mustard — or wasabi as it were. So I …

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Bento: Build a Better Lunch

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Bento: Build a Better Lunch

Debra Samuels, bestselling author, food writer and cooking instructor, wants to give the American lunchbox a makeover. In the chapter on “bento,” the traditional Japanese lunch box, in her upcoming book, My Japanese Table, Debra encourages the use of color, texture and taste to create healthier and more visually appealing meals. Debra moved to Japan …

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