Today's bentos make the most of pantry staples.

Marc uses soy meat to make a vegan "shogayaki"

that tastes just as good as pork.

Maki uses cans of tuna and corn to make a Japanese-style pasta.

From Indonesia, a mom makes a bento for her daughter,

an aspiring dancer.

It's filled with sweet fried fish and "onigiri."

We love bento!

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 8-7)

Welcome to BENTO EXPO,

where we share bentos from Japan and around the world.

Thank you for joining us.

We love seeing the delicious looking bentos

you submit through BENTO EXPO's website.

They are packed with wonderful ideas.

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

OK!

First, a bento expressing the beauty of spring.

Hello, this is Lisa from Canada.

Today I'm going to make a spring bouquet bento.

Lisa uses salmon and an array of colorful vegetables to create her bouquet.

After chopping up some garlic, celery and peppers,

she sautees them in a pot.

Then she adds quinoa, a super food rich in vitamins and minerals,

along with water, and salted salmon.

Then, she cooks everything together for 30 minutes.

Let's take a look.

Wow, a one-pot-meal!

To pack her bouquet, Lisa makes a bed of quinoa as the background,

and places a piece of salmon towards the bottom.

Then she adds broccoli to make the stems and leaves for her flowers,

and wedges of tomato to make the flowers.

And look, tulips!

This bento was inspired by the arrival of spring after a long, cold winter.

Lisa shares her beautiful bento outdoors with her cousin.

Itadakimasu.

Oishii.

We love bento!

Next from Indonesia, a dancing onigiri bento.

Today, she is going to have her dancing class.

Still, I am going to make her bento

so that she can have her lunch on time after the class.

Looks like fun.

And Made's planned a bento packed with protein

for her daughter's growing body.

She starts by frying battered white meat fish.

The fish is ready.

This color.

Then she makes the sauce with sauteed onions, ketchup

and sweet Indonesian soy sauce.

Then she adds...

Diced cucumber.

Wow, I bet that adds a nice refreshing flavor to the dish.

Then she glazes her fried fish with the sweet and savory sauce.

There it is.

That looks delicious!

Next, she mixes this popular sweet beef floss with rice

to make a flavorful onigiri.

She wraps them with nori and uses picks to give them some character.

And look. They're dancing to their own beat.

It's such a fun and flavor-packed bento.

I'm so tired... Bento time!

Raina enjoys her bento with her dance teacher.

We love bento!

It's time to get started on our bentos.

OK!

Today, both Maki and I are going to be making bento items that are easy to make

using items that you have in your pantry and fridge.

Yes, and Marc, what do you have there?

Well, this is soy meat.

And as you can see, it's pretty dry,

which is why I always have some on hand.

And today, I'm going to be using this to make vegan shogayaki bento.

That's a great idea.

Soy meat is a type of texturized vegetable protein made from soybeans

and it typically comes dried in various shapes and sizes.

Today, we're going to be using the large cutlet-shaped ones.

"Shoga" means ginger in Japanese

and shogayaki is made with thin slices of pork

seasoned with a sweet and savory ginger sauce.

It's one of the most popular bento items

and I'm going to make a tasty vegan version by using a few tricks.

First, I'm going to rehydrate the soy meat in hot water

according to the package directions.

You want them nice and soft like this.

Alright, so we're going to go ahead and move on to our first trick,

which is going to happen over here in the sink.

Drain off this water here.

And then I'm going to rinse this off in cold water,

to get rid of that sort of soy bean cereal smell,

so we are going to be able to make this taste more like meat.

Keep squeezing and washing until the water runs clear.

And look, that water is so clear.

And it doesn't smell like soybeans anymore.

And then, give it a light squeeze.

And then just line it up.

My second trick is to grate tons of fresh ginger

for our shogayaki sauce.

I add extra soy sauce

to our sweet and savory 3S (Soy sauce+Sake+Sugar) sauce

along with a generous amount of grated ginger.

The ginger's not only going to give this a nice zing,

but it's also going to help cover up that taste of the soybeans,

and it's going to make it taste like shogayaki.

Great tip!

My third trick is to coat the soy meat with a thin layer of potato starch

before pan-frying them.

Now I'm going to brown one side,

and then flip them over.

Nice color!

- Nice and meaty, right?
- Yeah.

While we're letting this brown on the second side,

I'm going to go ahead and add some sliced onions

just around the soy meat here.

The taste and sweetness of the onions helps give

our plant-based protein a meaty flavor.

When the second side has browned, stir-fry everything together.

And then...

It's time for the shogayaki sauce.

So we just need to glaze the outside,

and our shogayaki is done.

Well-coated!

Okay, let's have Maki try this.

Itadakimasu!

You don't get any soy-like flavors. It's just like meat.

The crispy coating tastes like fried pork fat.

Soy meat is delicious with a little prep work.

- And it's packed with a ton of protein.
- Yeah!

I packed my bento with a medley of vibrant veggies

to complement our vegan shogayaki.

This is a tasty satisfying bento regardless of whether you're vegan or not.

And it's a great way to introduce soy meat into your pantry.

So, Maki, I see you've got some pantry staples here.

You've got some pasta and corn and canned tuna and pickles.

What are you going to make for us today?

I'm going to make a super tasty and easy,

Japanese-style tuna pasta bento.

That sounds great.

Canned tuna and corn are in most pantries

and along with a few seasonings, Maki's going to show us how to transform them

into a bento-friendly Japanese-style pasta.

She starts by boiling fusilli pasta along with salt and oil.

For bento, use short twisted pasta.

It's easy to eat and holds the sauce well.

Also, boil two minutes less than specified

to preserve the texture.

Great idea.

Now Maki preps the sauce.

She starts by sauteeing sliced garlic in olive oil.

And then, guess what I have here.

- Mushrooms?
- Yes.

Yes, it's frozen mushroom that I made.

Add this to the pan and fry until it gets soft.

That's a great idea, Maki.

Freezing them makes it so much easier to make your bento.

Freezing breaks down the cells, so you get more umami.

It's a good idea to freeze mushrooms when you have the time!

That should speed things up.

Once the mushrooms have released their juices,

Maki adds black pepper, canned tuna and soy sauce.

Add some soy sauce.

Now it's Japanese style.

Boil down the soy sauce to enhance the aroma.

When it looks like this, the sauce is done.

So, Maki adds the canned corn and boiled pasta to finish this up.

Mix a little bit.

Ah, that soy sauce smells so nice and toasty.

OK, my Japanese-style tuna pasta is done.

- It's so quick.
- Yeah!

And now the moment I've been waiting for.

Itadakimasu.

Wow, it's got so much flavor.

It's that umami from the mushrooms, that flavor of the canned tuna.

And it's got that crispy texture of the corn.

And then the pasta has absorbed all those juices from the mushrooms.

It's so good.

All you need is canned tuna and pasta.

Yup!

Maki also makes a cute skewered side dish

using quail eggs, luncheon meat and cherry tomatoes.

Add a cute face,

and these birds look right at home on her their nest of pasta.

It's quick, easy and transforms the basic ingredients.

Today both Maki and I made our bentos using pantry staples,

but they are packed with flavors.

So we hope you'll... give them a try!

Bento Topics.

Today, from Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

The 600-year-old Gyeongbokgung Palace.

There's a reenactment of the changing of the palace guards.

It looks just like a movie set.

Tourists can rent costumes and explore the palace grounds.

Hi!

Nearby is Tongin Market.

The 300-meter-long arcade is packed with shops and stalls

selling all kinds of Korean foods and ingredients.

It's a feast for the senses.

This is "sundae,"

a sausage filled with pork blood and glutinous rice.

It's a popular comfort food.

And don't forget the must-have kimchi.

My kimchi is delicious. Come try it.

Tongin Market has set up a unique system called the "Lunchbox Cafe"

that enables visitors to sample a variety of foods.

For about four dollars, visitors receive ten tokens

made to look like old coins.

If you buy coins, you can get a bento box.

You can buy food at various shops with these coins.

At lunchtime, the market is crowded with shoppers with lunchboxes in hand.

The entire market becomes a huge cafeteria.

It's fun!

You can eat lots of different things.

Saerom and Jaeyong run a shared office in Seoul.

They've decided to try the Lunchbox Cafe.

- How much is the "tteokbokki"?
- Four coins.

I'll have the tteokbokki and "kimbap."

Tteokbokki are thin rice cakes

stir-fried in a sweet and spicy chili sauce called gochujang.

It's a popular comfort food.

People like to eat the tteokbokki sauce with other foods, too.

This mom-and-pop store prepares over 20 dishes a day for the Lunchbox Cafe.

The couple has worked side by side for 18 years.

It has ups and downs. But we get by.

Jaeyong buys the sweet and spicy Korean-style fried chicken

to go with his tteokbokki and kimbap.

A total of three items.

Running out of money.

And what about Saerom?

"Gujeolpan," please.

Gujeolpan is a traditional royal court dish

of various ingredients folded into thin wraps.

This restaurant makes wraps that are one of a kind.

I used beetroot and spinach to make the wraps colorful.

What about the sauce?

Honey mustard.

The owner says the inspiration for the sauce came from living in the States.

Saerom buys another wrapped food called "yeonnipbap."

Steamed rice wrapped in lotus leaves,

it contains nearly ten different grains and nuts, including chestnuts.

It's a nutritious vegetarian dish.

What kind of bento is Saerom aiming for?

Healthy, traditional Korean food.

Very colorful.

And what's Jaeyong aiming for?

Totally different.

Red, fried, sweet, spicy.

Tteokbokki and fried chicken smothered with Korean chili sauce,

plus kimbap.

An array of Korean comfort foods.

They go to a nearby park to eat.

Gujeolpan, they're really good.

I found out that you can have some diversity with the coin system.

I want to do it again.

Hear, hear.

We love bento!

I'm so excited to see all the delicious looking bento items in the market.

Yeah, it's such a mouth-watering variety, isn't it?

We're looking forward to seeing your animal character bentos on our website,

but just remember, they need to be your own original characters.

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.
- Bye!