B is for BAON!

Baon - Tagalog word for which there is no direct English translation. The most common term used is "packed lunch" but then again, it could be breakfast, dinner, snacks or even just a bottle of water and a few pieces of candy. Baon can be anything and everything an average Filipino brings when venturing outside their homes (and away from their primary food sources).

Without further ado, let me present our baon for the week. Again, busy as hell so we weren't able to bring baon a lot... just a couple of days' worth:

This is asado siopao (store-bought by Jeni's dad). Asado is a sweet pork dish while siopao is literally translated as hot bread. This is just half (it was massive!) of the behemoth so that made breakfast happy for Jeni and myself. Jeni fried up some home-made chicken nuggets (which I marinated with - surprise! - sinigang sa sampalok mix) which we both dipped in some Bulldog tonkatsu sauce (in red-capped squeeze bottle). In my box (I forgot to take a picture of Jeni's), I squished in some Japanese rice crackers (one is toasted sesame and the other is some sort of sweet-salty flavor I couldn't identify) and a package of instant miso soup from the said J-grocery raid. Both flavors of the rice crackers and the soup are from Choto Stop in Little Tokyo along Pasong Tamo (now Chino Roces) - across from Herald Suites.

Two days later, I had slept enough the night before that getting up early was no problem. Jeni put in some rice to cook (we used Japanese short-grain rice) in the cooker and fried the tonkatsuwhile I punched some pretty flowers from luncheon meat. Cookie cutters are the cutest things! Using my egg molds, we made a couple of stars and a couple of hearts stuffed with the fried remnants of the luncheon meat. I then sprinkled them all over with the fried "flower" luncheon meat. This was breakfast, albeit non-bento in its empty spaces and skewed proportions - not to mention to glaring absence of any vegetables! Jeni is not very fond of nori so her stars and hearts were naked. Harhar...

I, on the other hand, am a nori monster. A rice ball and a smattering of shredded seaweed goodness is lunch for me! Not today though... I had these cute stuffed rice balls to wrap nori around... I also topped mine with the flowery luncheon meat. Using a raw cabbage leaf to cordon them off, I put in a packet of the instant miso soup! Good, good good! Yes, they were good for breakfast, though I managed only two of them. Beth has taken one of the hearts and my tummy was on strike yesterday... too bad! They were really nice too! Next time, though, I would take the time to pick up either Spam (which I love) or Ma-Ling (which Jeni prefers) for this. And I will do a more proper bento too!

But wait, we're not done yet! Remember than Jeni was frying up some tonkatsu earlier that morning? Here it is, for lunch. Jeni and I had an identical container, though mine contained more of the cabbage sauteed in Bulldog tonkatsu sauce (weird but nice) while Jeni's had more rice. It was rewarding to see the tonkatsu as I made it from scratch over the weekend (pork + salt/pepper + flour + beaten egg + panko) then thrown in the freezer. It was a shame that I only finished less than half of my food. My stomach wasn't being cooperative and my digestion left much to be desired. Anyway, Nikka got to finish my leftovers in the evening.

Next week, we'll be making California maki, as we scored some ebiko from Choto Stop. We also hope to score some sashimi-grade fish in the market over the weekend. I can't wait!

Today, I'm on sick leave >_< since the tummy has grown from uncooperative to outright hostile! So no baon for today. Next week, hopefully, will be another story altogether!

Happy eating!