From Maki, a delicious one-pan tomato sukiyaki.

From Marc, pan-fried salmon and simmered daikon

glazed with a sweet and savory sauce.

And from Taiwan,

a festive onigiri bento depicting a traditional new year's lion dance.

Yummy.

We love bento!

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 7-16)

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

you submit through BENTO EXPO's website.

They are so inspiring too.

So, let's start by checking a few of them out.

Okay.

First, from Taiwan, a gorgeous bento packed with a festive motif.

She is my niece.

Today, I am going to make a new year bento.

Lion dance is a traditional dance

that's performed for celebrations such as Lunar New Year.

It's said to bring good luck and fortune.

She's using these colorful sheets made of fish paste,

and cuts them into strips before placing them on a bed of white noodles.

Kiki wraps an onigiri with spinach, and makes a face

using carrots and fish cake colored with natural ingredients.

Then she places it over the colorful background

and, wow, it looks exactly like a dancing lion!

Next, she uses mashed potato to make a cute bunny.

To celebrate the year of the rabbit.

It looks like it's dancing with the lion.

For the side, she makes a fragrant broth with shaoxing wine and red dates,

and marinates shrimp, a symbol of longevity.

Its red color looks so auspicious.

With the colorful medley of fruits and veggies,

Kiki's festive new year bento is done.

Happy new year, Sophie!

- Like it?
- Yummy, it's just right!

We love bento!

Next, we have a bento influenced by two culinary cultures.

Hey, everybody. My name is Chris Kanakis,

and today, let me show you how to make my gyro McMuffin

Greek American-style bento.

Gyros is meat that's been grilled on a vertical rotisserie.

It's a popular dish in Greece as well as amongst the Greek diaspora in the US.

Chris heats the slices in a microwave oven covered with a paper towel.

This helps to crisp them up.

He adds a bunch of eggs to a frying pan,

and then he scrambles them up.

Flip it over, and he's got an omelet that's ready to sandwich.

To put it together, Chris tops the omelet

with white cheddar and gyros slices,

and his breakfast sandwich is done!

Next, Chris is going to cook gyros with rice.

And my secret ingredient, some kind of citrus.

I always include some kind of citrus in my rice.

He simmers mandarin oranges, carrots, chopped gyros,

onions, turmeric and beef stock to make a fragrant broth,

and then he adds rice and Greek olive oil to it.

A boil, a simmer, and a steam!

Yup, that's how you do it.

I bet the fragrant citrus and spices go great with that savory meat.

And I love the message on the sandwich.

Chris made this bento for his mom.

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'll help cheer you up

while powering you through a dreary winter day.

So, Maki, what are you going to be making for us today?

I'm going to make tomato sukiyaki using just one pan.

Ooh, that sounds delicious.

Sukiyaki is a hot pot dish cooked in a savory sweet sauce.

It's a popular dish during the colder months of the year.

Let's see how Maki works tomatoes into her version.

Maki starts by slicing cherry tomatoes in half,

and then thinly slices some onion.

And that's it for the prep!

Okay, let's make tomato sukiyaki using just one pan.

Okay.

I start by frying the beef.

Nice sizzle!

Yeah, and it smells amazing already.

Sukiyaki is a traditional hot pot dish, so it's made in one pot.

And I guess that's what you're going for here?

Yeah, right.

Once the beef is brown, add sliced onion.

So, onion adds great texture and sweetness to sukiyaki.

- It's such a great combination.
- Yeah, I love it.

So the onion turns a little soft. Add some cherry tomatoes.

We don't usually add tomatoes to sukiyaki.

But the flavor goes well with beef.

And it's going to add a bunch of umami too.

Yeah, exactly.

Maki stir fries the tomatoes until they start to soften. And then...

Let's season this with

sugar, soy sauce and sake.

Then bring it to a boil.

I love this sweet and savory combination.

- Yeah. This is the smell of sukiyaki.
- Exactly.

Now she reduces the glaze.

Okay, my tomato sukiyaki is done!

That was so quick.

So, Marc, try my tomato sukiyaki.

Itadakimasu. All right, let me get some beef

with some onion and tomato here.

The tangy tomatoes are such a good contrast

to that savory beef and the sweet onions.

You can kind of go back and forth between the two forever.

So, you can make it in one pan.

Maki packs her sukiyaki with boiled greens and a boiled egg.

For kids, she skewers a piece of carrot with a few quail eggs

and turns it into a cute snowman.

Despite the winter theme,

Maki's tomato sukiyaki is an easy way to warm up,

so give it a try.

Wow, Marc, you have a big daikon here.

What are you going to make with this?

I'm going to simmer this daikon until it's nice and tender,

and glaze it with a sweet and savory sauce with salmon

to make salmon daikon bento.

Sounds delicious.

Although it's available all year these days,

daikon is a giant radish that's traditionally a winter vegetable.

When it's cooked, it becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender,

and absorbs all the flavors of the ingredients around it.

My salmon daikon was inspired by a traditional Japanese wintertime

fish and daikon dish, and it works great with salmon.

Let's start by preparing the daikon.

Cut this in half to make it easier to work with.

And you can see it's nice and white on the inside.

Slice the daikon into 1cm-thick rounds,

and then peel a thick layer off the outside.

Daikon is crisp when it's raw,

but after it's cooked, it becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Add the dashi and salt to a pan, and place the daikon in a single layer.

I love daikon simmering with dashi.

Yeah, the daikon absorbs flavors like a sponge,

so it's going to take all of that umami from the dashi and get it into the daikon.

I use a sheet of parchment paper as a drop lid

to keep the daikon submerged, and then I let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

Once the daikon is soft enough to be skewered,

turn off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Next, let's work on the salmon.

Cut them into 2 1/2-cm thick slices,

and dust them with potato starch.

The salmon is so rich in fat.

Yeah. Using salmon that's rich in fat

is the key to making this dish tender and flavorful.

Then I'm going to pan fry the salmon until it's golden brown on both sides.

Transfer them out of the pan,

and we're ready to glaze the two components.

So, I'm going to go ahead and add some 3S sauce (Soy sauce+Sugar+Sake)

and some of this dashi from the daikon.

Boil the mixture until it starts to thicken.

So, add our daikon into here to glaze them.

Daikon is like a blank canvas.

It's a great way to add flavor to the dish.

Wow!

Once the daikon has absorbed some of the sauce, remove them from the pan

and glaze the salmon with the remaining sauce.

Okay, you only need to glaze the salmon for a few seconds.

- So, this is done!
- I can eat a lot.

By cooking and glazing them separately,

you can keep the salmon from getting overcooked

and the daikon from breaking apart.

So, Maki, try my salmon daikon.

Itadakimasu.

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

The daikon is so tender!

It's soaked up all the umami flavors.

I'll try it with the salmon.

Match made in heaven!

- Yeah, it's a good combo, isn't it?
- Yes.

And here's a fun tip.

You can use cookie cutters to cut out the daikon before you glaze it

to add fun shapes to your bento.

By cooking and glazing the ingredients separately,

it won't get soggy and works perfect for bento.

Today both Maki and I made bentos

that'll power you up on a cold winter day,

give them a try!

Bento Topics.

Today from the pottery town of Arita.

Fired at temperatures of over 1,200 degrees Celsius,

Arita ware has a history of more than four centuries.

Arita is world famous for its translucent white porcelain

that showcases delicate and colorful designs.

The town features a unique porcelain shrine gate,

as well as streets lined with walls built with scraps from the kilns.

This station has a specialty "ekiben"

or train station bento.

Over 100,000 are sold each year.

It comes in an Arita ware dish.

Curry rice topped with cheese, baked in a porcelain bowl.

The porcelain bowls come in various designs.

These are the dishes we've used for our bentos since 2007.

The designs include flowers and zodiac signs.

There are also special custom items made to order.

Because Arita ware is fired at over

1,200 degrees Celsius,

it's heat resistant, perfect for baked curry.

Hear this metallic sound?

Arita ware is extremely durable.

The Arita ware curry bento was developed to help revitalize the town,

so it showcases local ingredients.

We use Saga beef.

Saga beef is a premium-grade Japanese beef

characterized by its rich flavor.

This goes into the secret bouillon.

Next, lots of sauteed minced onions.

Saga is one of the largest producers of onions in Japan.

The combination of beef and onions makes a rich base.

This is our curry powder.

It's an original blend of 28 spices.

The spices include purple turmeric which improves circulation,

and fragrant local lemongrass.

After adding the spices as well as roux to thicken the sauce,

the curry is simmered for a week.

After a week of simmering, the beef is tender enough to melt.

An ample amount of rich curry is

poured over local rice and topped with cheese.

It's then baked in an oven at 300 degrees Celsius.

Baking reduces moisture, making it suitable for bentos.

The bowls come out in perfect shape.

The Arita ware curry bento is done.

Itadakimasu.

Cheese and curry go so well together.

But the spices are making me sweat!

We love bento!

That baked curry looked so rich in flavors and aroma.

Yeah, it did, didn't it? And it's great that they packed it

in a beautiful Arita ware bowl that you can bring home with you.

Maki and I love seeing the delicious looking bentos

you share with us through BENTO EXPO website.

It's a chance to exchange ideas with fellow bento makers from around the world,

so head over and send us a photo of a recent bento.

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.