Today, energizing bentos!

From Marc, pork belly on rice.

From Maki, a colorful combination of salmon and avocado.

And a bento maker from New Zealand based in Japan

makes a fried fish sandwich for her son.

Yummy!

We love bento!

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 7-12)

Welcome to BENTO EXPO,

your guide to the wonderful delicious world of bento.

Thank you for joining us.

We love seeing the delicious looking bentos

submitted from around the world through BENTO EXPO's website.

They are so inspiring, too.

So let's start by taking a look at how a few of them were made.

Okay!

First, a unique sandwich bento made with whole fried fish.

Hello. My name is Jayne.

I'm from New Zealand, and today I'm making a bento for my son.

Jayne lives in Iwaki City in Fukushima, Japan with her family.

The main ingredient for her bento today is this fish.

This is "mehikari."

"Mehikari" means "glowing eyes" in Japanese,

and they're called greeneyes in English.

Jayne fries them whole after dusting them with salt, pepper and potato starch

which makes the whole fish edible.

Then she slices a loaf of homemade wholewheat bread for her sandwiches.

This Japanese sauce and mayo go great with fried foods,

and shredded cabbage adds a crisp texture.

Then she lines up the fish,

and Jayne's calcium-rich fried fish sandwich is done!

The crispy fried fish and brown tasty bread

are a really great combination.

Next, she's using manuka honey,

which is produced by honeybees that forage the nectar from manuka flowers.

It's a specialty of New Zealand.

We love to have manuka honey. It's really good for you.

A delicious and nutritious sandwich bento!

Yeah! Yummy, yummy, yum.

Jayne's son plays baseball in the local league,

and this bento is the perfect way to charge up before a game!

Yummy!

I love bento!

Next, from Australia,

a bento that reflects a family's identity.

I'm originally from Indonesia,

but I've lived in Sydney for 25 years with my husband

from Hong Kong and our son.

Yennita started making bento when her son started preschool.

She packs them with food from Indonesia and Hong Kong

to teach her son about their family's roots.

Chunks of beef are the main ingredient for her bento today

which she's going to use to make an Indonesian stew called "semur."

She starts by browning the meat and nutmeg with aromatics.

This is ketchup manis.

Ketchup manis is a sweet dark soy sauce

that's a staple of the Indonesian pantry.

The rich molasses notes are going to go great with the nutmeg and beef.

You can just smell the blend of nutmeg and ketchup manis,

which makes semur unique.

Some potatoes and bean thread noodles finish off her Indonesian stew,

and wow, that looks good!

For her side, Yennita makes a tomato and egg stir fry.

It's one of her husband's favorite dishes.

She rounds out her bento with a trio of cute onigiri,

and her bento packed with foods from both mom and dad's homelands is done!

Yummy!

We love bento!

It's time to get started on our bentos.

Okay.

Today, both Maki and I are going to be making bentos that will charge you up

when you're feeling a little tired or worn out.

I'm using salmon and avocado to make salmon avocado bento

that's very nutritious and goes well with rice.

That sounds perfect.

Salmon and avocado are a great pairing regardless of how you prepare them,

and today, Maki is taking inspiration

from both Japanese and Western cuisines.

Maki starts by salting the salmon the night before.

Salting seasons and draws out the water.

This also makes the salmon easier to flake once it's cooked.

I will show you a super easy way to cook the salmon tender.

Sounds good.

Maki brings a pan of water to a boil.

Then she coats a sheet of aluminum foil with oil

before wrapping her salted salmon.

And then, put them in boiling water for about 30 seconds.

Just 30 seconds?

Yes, turn off the heat and cook in residual heat for 5 min.

Let's see how it turned out.

Ooh, look at this color!

It looks so juicy!

You wrap it in the foil so the salmon doesn't lose its juices

- and stays nice and moist.
- Yes.

Maki removes any skin and bones,

and then she's ready to flake the salmon.

Flake the salmon in the pan as you heat.

It looks so tender and flakey.

It flakes easily.

Maki seasons the salmon with sugar, sake and soy sauce.

That smells so good. I can eat a whole bowl of rice with that on top.

You have to wait.

Once all the liquid has evaporated,

Maki mixes in some sesame seeds to finish off her salmon flakes.

Then, she moves on to the avocado.

She cuts the avocado into bite sized pieces

and coats them with potato starch.

This'll create a crust that will absorb the butter she's using to saute them.

That's a great combo.

Avocado is loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber,

and it's a great source of energy.

And it's called the "butter of the forest."

- You've got double butter in the pan.
- Yes!

Season them with salt and pepper, and...

It's done!

Heat deactivates the enzymes that cause avocado to discolor,

so this is a great way to prepare it for bento.

Marc, try my salmon avocado rice.

All right. Here we go!

How is it?

It's such a nice combination.

You've got that savory sweet salmon

with that creamy avocado, and it's buttery.

You know, the avocado half tastes kind of western,

and the salmon half tastes very Japanese.

It goes so well with the rice.

It makes a great onigiri.

- Can I try it?
- Sure!

Itadakimasu.

How was that?

So good! It's a match made in heaven.

I'm glad you like it.

Maki packs her salmon and avocado over rice

with a cabbage salad and cherry tomatoes.

For kids, Maki makes little fish using carrots and nori,

swimming through a beautiful coral reef.

It's such a colorful bento that's packed full of energy.

So, Marc, what are you going to make for your bento today?

Well, mine is going to be made with this pork belly on rice,

and it's called "stamina donburi," or stamina rice bowl.

Sounds powerful too!

Stamina donburi is a Japanese comfort food

made with thinly sliced pork glazed with a garlicky sauce and served with an egg.

Piled on a bowl of rice, it's loaded with energy to power you through your day.

Pork is rich in B vitamins which helps your body turn food into energy,

which is why this rice bowl is said to give you stamina.

Let's start by parboiling the pork.

Okay, I've got a pot of boiling water here.

So, I'm going to go ahead and add pork belly,

and we're just going to swish this around.

- Like "shabu-shabu."
- Exactly!

Shabu-shabu is an onomatopoeia that means "swish swish" in Japanese.

So let's swish swish this a few times, take it out of the water...

into our cold water here to stop the cooking and chill it quickly.

Once the pork has chilled, drain it well,

and we're ready to make the stamina sauce.

The dashi-based sauce has a savory sweet taste,

and it's loaded with aromatics like ginger, scallions...

And for our final ingredient, it's the trademark ingredient of stamina donburi,

- garlic.
- I love garlic.

Yeah, it's known to perk you up when you're tired.

Sweet and savory with a kick.

Yeah, it's a good combo, isn't it?

Once the sauce comes to a boil,

add the pork belly and glaze it with the stamina sauce.

I'm getting stamina already!

Wait till you try this.

Okay, our pork is done, but to turn this into donburi,

you have to serve this over rice,

along with a drizzle of the sauce.

So, Maki, try out my stamina donburi.

Itadakimasu!

(This food was prepared in a separate, hygienically controlled environment.)

So good!

It's tender and not at all greasy.

Goes so well with the sweet and savory garlic sauce.

- It boosts my appetite.
- So, are you feeling recharged?

Yes, fully charged! 100 percent!

For the bento, I pack the pork and rice separately

in a two-tier bento box

so the sauce doesn't make the rice soggy before you eat it.

Then you can put the two together at lunch time.

Stamina donburi is often served with an egg,

so I packed mine with a fried egg for a little extra protein.

Today, both Maki and I made energy-packed bentos

that will help power you through the day, so we hope you'll...

Give them a try!

Bento Topics.

Today, from Kawagoe, a historic merchant town.

Today, it's a popular tourist spot.

How about a tasty "yaki-imo"?

It's famous for its yaki-imo,

hot, stone-baked sweet potatoes.

Sweet and fluffy, they're a popular snack in Japan.

Let's hear from a customer.

So sweet and tender. I could eat this forever.

It's comfort food.

We visit a sweet potato farmer.

Sweet potato cultivation in Kawagoe

began about 200 years ago in the Edo period.

At the time, yaki-imo made from Kawagoe's sweet potatoes

were very much in demand as a delicious sweet.

Here's what made Kawagoe famous for its sweet potatoes.

It's a variety called "beni-aka."

Beni-aka sweet potatoes have been grown in Kawagoe

for over a century.

It's a rare variety that's difficult to cultivate.

What makes it special is its fluffy, delicate texture.

It's almost velvety.

The texture is incredibly fluffy. The taste can't be beat.

This local sweet potato restaurant offers a specialty beni-aka bento.

Beni-aka are the best in terms of taste and appearance.

The key lies in the boiling technique.

As soon as the potatoes turn yellow,

they are drained and cooked through with residual heat.

You don't want to boil it through.

It needs to be slightly firm.

This enhances the unique texture of beni-aka.

The cubed beni-aka is scattered over rice and covered with more rice.

When it's time to eat, it's almost like digging up potatoes from the ground.

The beni-aka rice is paired with another Kawagoe specialty,

"unagi,"

broiled eel with a sweet soy-based sauce.

The merchants of old Kawagoe ate protein-rich unagi to give them a boost.

The sweet and savory sauce is drizzled over the beni-aka rice

which is then covered with the fragrant eel.

A delectable harmony of sweet beni-aka potatoes

and umami-rich unagi.

Tucked underneath the unagi

are the sweet potatoes infused with sauce.

A regular customer shares their thoughts.

It's so fluffy.

The sweet and savory sauce goes so well with the potato. Delicious.

A tasty Kawagoe sweet potato bento.

That sweet potato looked so fluffy and delicious.

Yeah, it did, didn't it?

Maki and I love seeing your bentos you share with us

through the BENTO EXPO website,

and we're looking forward to seeing your holiday season-themed submissions!

Well, that's all the time we have for today,

but we hope you'll join us again here soon on BENTO EXPO.

- See you soon!
- Bye!

Bye!