Today, we visit Saitama,

a prefecture near Tokyo that's rich in agricultural products.

They are edamame, young green soy beans.

Saitama is home to around 210,000 foreign residents.

We'll meet some avid local bento-makers.

Wow!

Marc and Maki make Saitama-themed bentos.

Marc prepares miso-glazed pork,

while Maki makes "korokke"

with Saitama's famed sweet potatoes.

We love bento!

(The Global Lunchbox 8-13, Saitama Special)

Fukaya is home to a local brand of Japanese leek

called "Fukaya negi."

Sweet without a sharp bite,

they're a staple in Japanese cuisine.

We visit two Indonesian workers who have been in Fukaya for three months.

Apri and Ikka are learning how to grow Fukaya negi

under the guidance of their supervisor, Nao.

Could you water here?

Here, they prepare a nursery bed.

Make sure the negi are standing straight up.

Okay, Nao.

They're enthusiastic and a pleasure to teach.

After their time in Fukaya,

they're planning on working in agriculture back in Indonesia.

Today, they're cooking Indonesian dishes with Fukaya negi

to make a bento for their coworkers.

Nice chopping.

What are you making?

"Bakwan Goren."

Mix well...

Bakwan Goren are Indonesian vegetable fritters.

These ones are loaded with Fukaya negi.

The negi are so sweet.

Apri, negi boy!

Nice nickname.

Apri fries the bite-sized fritters

until both sides are golden brown.

Looks good!

Negi boy!

Bakwan Goren with Fukaya negi.

Negi girl?

Ikka kneads ground chicken,

potato starch, and Fukaya negi together.

"Sempol" is a famous Indonesian street food.

She fills a piping bag with the creamy filling

and squeezes it onto bamboo skewers.

These are boiled before being fried to a golden brown.

Looks good!

This is Indonesia's Sempol.

Both bentos are ready to be served.

We hope you enjoy our bento!

Have a sempol.

So tasty! Nice chewy texture.

Delicious!

Negi boy!

Very, very good!

I made something too.

Kimura often brings food for his coworkers.

Simmered "konnyaku" noodles and negi.

Thank you!

You're welcome.

Yum!

The team enjoys sharing bentos.

We love bento!

Now to Kamikawa,

at the foot of the Chichibu mountains.

We meet Nancy Singleton Hachisu and her son, Andrew.

Nancy is originally from the US.

She arrived in Japan 35 years ago,

and settled in her husband's hometown of Kamikawa.

She's published five cookbooks on Japanese farm cooking.

This is Suka, a pioneer in organic farming.

He and Nancy have been friends for 30 years.

Suka-san's family are the best farmers in Japan.

His family has been doing natural farming for over 60 years.

Nancy has come for some seasonal "komatsuna" greens.

Nancy likes to munch on them.

Very nice.

Today, she'll make a bento with her son Andrew.

After spending some time in the US,

he's craving homemade food and local specialties.

Next, they visit a 120-year-old brewery

that uses organic soybeans to produce miso and soy sauce.

Some of their products are fermented and aged in 100-year-old cedar barrels.

It's going to be like wine,

developing all of the beautiful flavors from the barrels.

All of this area seems to attract

great food, people, artisans.

And that's why I'm here.

The soybeans used to make the miso and soy sauce come from this field.

These are edamame, young green soybeans.

We are going to put it into rice for the bento.

They return home with the ingredients.

They'll make a variety of dishes using local vegetables

as well as "konbu dashi."

The edamame will feature in a rice dish.

I'm boiling the edamame in the konbu dashi.

And then, I'm going to save this simmering water.

It's going to be used for cooking the rice.

Nancy boils and shells the freshly picked edamame,

and will combine the water with konbu dashi to cook the rice.

Andrew loves konbu,

so they'll add the konbu itself to the rice, too.

It gives umami.

Good to eat, good texture and flavor.

The finely-cut konbu and the broth are added to the rice.

After the rice is cooked, Nancy stirs in the edamame.

So vibrant!

The rice smell is prominent.

Just very slightly salty.

It has its own depth of flavor.

She mixes local miso with "tororo konbu" and ume paste.

It's going to be a little dipper.

The rich and tangy miso is for boiled asparagus.

The komatsuna picked in the morning is seasoned in konbu dashi and soy sauce,

and topped with sesame sauce.

Shredded carrots are stir-fried in sesame oil.

And finally, sweet simmered kabocha pumpkin and azuki beans.

A bento packed with local flavors.

So, these are your Kamikawa food.

- That I missed.
- That you missed, yeah.

That looks good.

How's the fresh komatsuna?

Komatsuna's really good, perfect.

Now for the edamame and konbu rice.

The overall seasonal vegetables, it's in my blood.

I need good food. It's great, I love it!

So, getting the life-blood back.

We love bento!

All the bentos looked so delicious,

packed with a lot of veggies in Saitama.

Yeah, they did, didn't they?

And I loved how they shared their bentos with the people around them.

Yes.

So, Marc, what's your Saitama-inspired bento going to be?

Well, I'm going to be using these pork chops and this miso

to make a specialty of Chichibu City called "butamisodon"

or miso-glazed pork bowl.

Sounds delicious!

As we saw in the video,

miso is a fermented soybean paste that Saitama is known for.

Butamisodon is a modern classic hailing from the city of Chichibu,

nestled in the mountains of Saitama,

where miso was traditionally used to preserve boar meat.

To prepare the pork,

I start by cutting shallow slits in both sides of the pork to tenderize the meat

and create more surface area for the miso marinade to soak into.

OK, I've got my miso here, and I'm going to go ahead

and add mirin to this, along with sugar and grated ginger.

And mix it up.

It smells nutty and sweet. I like it.

Yeah, that sweetness is coming from mirin

which is a fermented rice wine.

And it also gives our marinade a ton of umami.

Spread the marinade over both sides of the pork,

and let it marinate overnight in the fridge.

To cook the pork, just scrape off the excess marinade

and brown both sides of the meat as if you are char-grilling it.

So, let's go ahead and flip this over.

The charred fat looks so good.

Yeah, those charred edges around the pork,

that's where that miso has caramelized. And it's going to add a ton of flavor.

When the pork's cooked through...

So, it's ready to go.

Looks so delicious.

Now we just need to serve it over rice.

Itadakimasu!

The miso enhances the pork's natural sweetness.

You can eat it alone or with rice. It's great.

There are so many ways you can enjoy it.

I add shredded cabbage over a bowl of rice and place the sliced pork over it.

Then, I drizzle on some sauce made by boiling soy sauce and mirin,

and this helps season the cabbage and rice, and brings everything together.

So, Maki, what are you going to be making for your Saitama-inspired bento today?

I'm going to use these sweet potatoes

to make a sweet and a little spicy

sweet potato korokke bento.

That's a great combo.

Saitama is known for producing fluffy sweet potatoes,

and Maki's going to transform these tubers into crispy croquettes

that are loaded with nutty flavor.

Let's see how she does it.

She starts by cutting skin-on sweet potatoes into one-centimeter cubes.

Then she adds a bit of water and cooks them in a microwave oven

until they're soft enough to mash.

Maki also cooks some ground pork and chopped onions in the microwave

and adds them to the sweet potatoes, along with...

Some curry powder.

Such a great combo.

Yeah, I like it.

The curry powder boosts the flavor of the sweet potato.

This goes so well with rice.

But you know what, I can just eat that with a spoon!

Really?

Next, Maki divides the filling into bite-sized balls.

Now, I'm going to make a super tasty breading.

Sounds good!

She adds black sesame seeds to panko

to make a nutty mixture that she uses to bread her sweet potato balls.

Then, she deep fries her korokke until the breading is golden brown and crisp.

Let's flip them over.

I love the contrast of the black sesame seeds with the brown panko.

And I bet they add a really nice nutty flavor.

Yes, very crunchy.

OK, it's done.

And listen to this!

Marc, try my sweet potato korokke.

Itadakimasu!

The texture on the outside is crispy and poppy.

You've got that spicy flavor from the curry on the inside.

It's balanced out by the sweetness of the sweet potato.

Enjoy.

Maki packs her korokke with round "onigiri"

and then she decorates them with sweet potato flowers.

Both of our bentos today were inspired

by the many delicious bounties of Saitama Prefecture.

So we hope you'll...

give them a try!

Bento Topics.

This restaurant in Saitama City is famous for its unusual sushi.

Here you go.

Looks like tuna.

This is Saitama-style red bell pepper sushi.

Unbelievable! It looks just like tuna.

Ten years ago, Sekine began making sushi with local seasonal vegetables.

From grilled Fukaya negi to chewy wood ear mushrooms.

Saitama is far from the ocean.

But it's one of the top producers of vegetables.

So why not make vegetable sushi its specialty?

Let's observe his process.

He painstakingly cuts the bell pepper into bite-sized pieces.

I slice it to look like tuna.

The vegetables are simmered in konbu dashi with soy sauce and sugar.

They're also allowed to cool in the liquid,

absorbing the flavor in the process.

He presses the sushi in the same way as typical sushi.

Finally, he coats the vegetables with a glaze.

It adds a deep flavor.

Here's today's assortment of vegan sushi.

It features asparagus spears,

broccoli, okra, mushrooms, white yam,

and of course, red bell pepper.

I want to make Saitama-style vegetable sushi world-famous.

Today, he makes a delivery to one of his regular customers.

Wow! Looks so pretty.

She fell in love with this vegetable sushi ten years ago.

I first thought it was tuna.

I recommend vegetable sushi to the world.

From Saitama to the world!

We hope you enjoyed the Saitama Special

and we'll see you again here soon on BENTO EXPO.

- See you!
- Bye!