Monday, September 27, 2010

you eat what?

There have been some questions about the food in my bento, so I will attempt an explanation.
First of all, I steam all my veggies. It's a PCP thing; chop up everything into bite-sized chunks, dump into steamer. Boiler water in the bottom half, steam cooks the veggies until they are softer but not too limp.
I get all my veggies and fruit from the grocery co-op. We order online and deliveries come every Wednesday. They have mainly locally (for Tokyo that usually means Chiba/Ibaraki/Tochigi) grown veggies and caught sea creatures. Sometimes stuff comes from farther away, like crab from up north, or grapes from down south. I think the bell peppers are imported, too.
Anyway I get whatever is available and in season, so recently it's been cabbage, pumpkin, eggplant, carrots, onions...got a bunch of potatoes in the fridge from my wife's parents' farm, too. Also sweet potatoes, though technically they are different from both yams and sweet potatoes that I've seen in the USA.
Fruits we've got apples, grapes, figs (my favorite) and bananas which probably come from the islands south, or Taiwan. Soon we'll get mikan (little oranges, I think they're called clementine in English?)
I like fruit variety, so besides my famous bananacinnamush (perfect replacement for cream cheese or any other bagel schmear, seriously!) I like to chop up my fruit parts and dump them into a big ziploc bag. Then when I need a fruit snack I ladle out the appropriate quantity of parts and place into a small plastic container for easy munchin' later.
When I'm not on a program, I probably ate too much fruit. Like in one day I'd kill a couple of apples, a couple of bananas, at least a fig or two, probably a pear, too...I guess it's better than snacking on cookies, or chocolate, or potato chips. And fruit is a dam fine sugar high! Plus all the fiber is lovely too. I don't  peel the apples or pears or figs or grapes. I DO peel the bananas and oranges and mikan, duh. Although if I am blending everything into a super-smoothie, I don't peel anything. Also drop in a carrot for good measure; goes really well with apples, actually.
For protein, I have variations of the great surimi. Which is basically processed white fish parts. It is squished and formed and baked and fried into every imaginable shape, from the tubes of chikuwa to the globs of satsuma-age. And who can forget my magical fish sausage? I know this stuff is basically Not Cool; it's heavily processed, has lots of additives, and is often fried. But is So. Good. Sometimes I'll go  for something simple like a can of tuna, but sometimes one must indulge in one's fish sausage. It got me through PCP OK, so I'm not too worried. Besides most of it comes from the co-op, so it's organic, 100% local, sustainably raised and cooked, environmentally safe...processed fried fish bits!

4 comments:

  1. thank you heir renfield! I was very curious... alas while I may have the ambition and drive to seek out a steamer... I do not have the funds at this time to partake in such a transaction.

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  2. If you can't afford a steamer, throw veggies in a bowl, cover with saran wrap, and microwave for a few minutes. The water inside the veggies gets cooked first, basically steaming your veggies from the inside out. Seriously delicious. Try this: slice half-way into the top of an onion a few times, place in bowl, cover, and nuke for several minutes, until the onion is nearly translucent but still aldente. Magically the onion is now REALLY sweet. I am serious; this got me through PCP! Try it.

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  3. No money for a steamer? You just need 8 bucks for a UFO steamer basket type thing!

    http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=10164354

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  4. I don't have a grocery co-op, but we have lots of CSAs here in Gainesville. I get my first delivery of veggies and flowers first week of November. Exciting!

    And, that surimi stuff sound AWESOME!

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