Hungry Little Fishies

These Bentos were inspired by the Bento Challenge blogsite. This blog eggs on the aspiring bento artist by posting a topic and inviting the public to post pictures of bento based on the theme. The topic this week was Under the Sea.

Here are my bento boxes made with this theme. Mini orange peppers stuffed with Hummus make up the hungry fishes. A small dollop of mayonaise with a dot of soy sauce make up the fish eye. Fresh Parsley plays the part of the tasty coral. The seabed is made of Cous-Cous with a rock Feta floor. Purple and yellow tomatoes are nestled in the sand. Mini green grapes from the farmer's market bubble up the Muenster sea. Muenster also is the root for the String Beans which grow up tall along the side.

Back to School

Here's some food news worth writing about; Colbert University, the online school for all things Stephen Colbert related, has listed a new course,
Colbert University GAST 101 - Gastronomic Adventures.

It's a frighteningly comprehensive collection of Stephen Colbert's adventures with FOOD!

There are links to everything from Dorito’s Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage from Chili-Delphia—The City of Brotherly Crunch to the classic Cooking with Feminists.

Our Family of Food loves Stephen Colbert and you know we love Food... It may just be time to curl up with a pint of Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream and catch up on our studies.

Day Two Bentō

For the Second Day of Daycare I made the twins these Bento Boxes.

They are inspired by the sun rising over the mountains.

The sun is made of an orange slice with orange pepper for the rays. Feta acts as clouds surrounding the sun.
carrot rays extend over roast beef on a bed of spinach. Fields of green grapes line the foothills below the bagel mountain. Meunster cheese brings those sun rays down to meet the Earth.

First Day Bento

The twins start daycare tomorrow, a special occasion, indeed. This is their first packed lunch and my first Bento Boxes.

The fancy details are strawberries cut like hearts over a bed of raisins, bunny crackers hopping along in a green bean patch, slices of cheese aside roast beef, and cut grape tomatoes. Click on the picture for a bigger image.

I don't know if I am doing it right, but the meal is balanced, healthy, and definitely made with love.

Thanks to the Bento Love blog for inspiration.

Sorrento Italian Market

My five dollar lunch from Sorrento

I've mentioned Sorrento Italian Market before. This is an example of why I love them. For lunch I got a large turkey and provolone sub with Sorrento's delectable tomato sauce at the sandwich counter. That was $3.95. Near the checkout I picked up a bag of about 16 plums for a dollar. Delicious, nutritious, and cheap; what more could you want from a lunch?


Sorrento Italian Market
5518 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230
(310) 391-7654

Frozen Fish from Trader Joe's

I'm usually a bit dubious about the idea of frozen fish, but I noticed that one of our new Trader Joe's stores here out east had some interesting selections of mostly wild caught fish that looked good in the packages and was very reasonably priced, so I thought I'd sample a few--mahi mahi, swordfish, Dover sole, and coho salmon. Modern "individually quick frozen" (IQF) processes that use vacuum packaging and flash freezing have greatly improved upon the frozen fish of yesteryear. The fish seems to be glazed with ice, which is probably part of the secret. I defrosted the fish overnight in the refrigerator, and all the selections I tried smelled fresh and had good texture when I took them out of the package, and all were very neatly cut and filleted.

I've grilled the Trader Joe's wild Coho salmon in a very hot cast iron grill pan twice now, once with garlic butter, once with a teriyaki style marinade. This kind of salmon has a good flavor, but it tends to be a bit on the dry side, so it needs to be just barely cooked through--about two and a half minutes on a side--and a marinade to add to the moisture doesn't hurt. I've had plank roasted Scottish wild salmon that was like this in England. It's very easy to overcook, but if you get it right, it's perfect.

The Dover sole was the least freezable fish of those we tried. Even though the texture was good in general, the thin frozen fillets had evidently cracked in shipping and storage. It held together well enough to roll and bake with a crab and spinach stuffing, but it would have fallen apart, if I'd tried to broil it.

The swordfish was a success--maybe not as high a fat content as the best swordfish I've had, but that kind of swordfish is hard to find in general. 4 minutes on a side in the cast iron grill pan with garlic butter and a little lemon zest was perfect.

We're used to fresh caught local mahi-mahi when we're in Hawai'i, but even with that as a point of reference, Trader Joe's Peruvian wild caught mahi-mahi made a very respectable showing, grilled about three minutes on a side with garlic butter and lemon in the hot cast iron grill pan. It's not fresh from the shores of Moloka'i, but for what we can get in New York, it's excellent.

We're fortunate to live close enough to water to find fresh local fish in the markets and from the Greenmarkets around the city, but for fish that aren't local to our waters and the convenience of being able to have fish of good quality on hand in the freezer Trader Joe's gets a thumbs up.

Update (14 May 2009): A couple others we've tried since this post are the sockeye salmon, wild halibut steaks and the Alaskan wild cod. The halibut grilled very nicely. The cod had a good flavor but was maybe a bit chewy for a grilled fish; however, it seemed to have enough substance to hold up well braised or in a stew, so we might try it again that way. The sockeye salmon was first rate.

Free Pie in Vegas

This message was left in our comments from a previous post. I'll help this PR guy out, why? Because a Friend of Food likes the show and... you might get some pie.

"Hi , I apologize for leaving this in your comments section but I could not find a way to contact you directly! :) I’m working with ABC to spread the word about their Mobile Pie Hole – a truck that’s traveling the country this month, giving away free pie for to kick off the second season of Pushing Daisies. The Pie Hole will be in Las Vegas this Friday, September 12th, at Fashion Show Mall (3200 Las Vegas Blvd.). As an local Las Vegas foodie and blogger, I thought you and your readers might want to stop by for some free pie! You can read more about the Pie Hole tour at Pushingdaisiestour.com.If you have any questions or would like additional information, event photos, etc, from ABC, please let me know! All the best, Miguel C. mcancino@reprisemedia.com "

Send Miguel a thanks, too.

Daughter of Food

Now You Know

The studious reader of Family of Food may have noticed that many references to Weight Watchers for the last several months. I am the one on the diet. This is the second time I have seriously and successfully embarked upon weight loss in my life. I am a lover of food after all and I have never been skinny. When I was a child I tried every diet on the planet, fairly unsuccessfully, and it was not until I was an adult did I ever find the knowledge and the will to really slim down. The first time I tried Weight Watchers (as an adult), I lost over 40 pounds.


After that first time I used this program, I was for the first time in my life, within the normal range of body size. I enjoyed a period of time where I was not seen or treated as fat. Although I was the same person, others did treat me quite differently. There was a guy I worked with who had never spoken to me before the weight loss and then after was friendly. I would have never guessed that my size was the reason he shunned me previously, but another told me that this was the change that caused him to want to interact with me. This person probably did not even realize he had done this. Fat prejudice is ingrained into the American psyche. After the weight loss, I was flirted with a lot more, I got a raise (maybe a coincidence), people touched me more... that was hard to get used to. Then, I got pregnant.


I carried twins in my body and had to adjust my eating habits to the needs of two growing babies. Even pregnant, the very day before I gave birth to my twins, I weighed less than when I started Weight Watchers for the first time. After the birth, the twins needed to be fed so, I supported the needs of my nursing babies. Producing milk for two takes a tremendous amount of energy, so I was free to eat without the much worry of weight gain. I even tried getting back on Weight Watchers at that time to lose the pregnancy weight, but they could not give me enough points to fuel my milk production. After the nursing was done, however, I was still very hungry all the time, and the weight started to creep back on. At this time, the needs of my twins do not dictate my caloric intake, so I am attempting to get back down to my pre baby/post weight loss weight and perhaps get even a few pounds thinner.


When I first joined Weight Watchers, I was terrified to go to a meeting, because If I saw someone I knew, then they would know I was fat. Silly right? It wasn't top secret information. Everyone knew I was overweight, it was right there for everyone to see. At my first meeting I did see several people I knew and had always admired... the last people I would have wanted to see at a meeting. I was mortified. It turned out that they were nice and encouraging and if they even cared, would have already known that I was heavy. Going to the meetings meant that I had to recognise the flaw in myself. Up until now, I had not wanted to write much about my Weight Watchers experience, because it exposes my not-so-secret secret. My friends read this blog, my family reads this blog, you read this blog. So, I have written it and now, you know.