I’ve discovered and become a big fan of Shinzi Katoh’s work recently. When I saw this Shinzi Katoh bento box featuring a cute little cat, I just had to buy it! It’s a two-tier box with a lid that has clips to hold the tiers together, so no bento belt is necessary.
Jac didn’t need lunch, so I just had to worry about myself. It was probably a good thing I only needed to rustle up grub for one – we were running low on most things! For vegetables I had sugar snap peas, cucumber, lettuce and snow pea sprouts. To add a little colour I made carrot flowers using my vegetable cutter, and then added corn kernels. I quickly fried up some SPAM, which I cut into squares. I hadn’t thought to cook rice beforehand and we didn’t have any fresh bread, so I used the edible but-not-soft-enough-to-eat-fresh bread to make French toast. I cut the bread into squares (to match the SPAM) and dipped them in a mixture of egg, a splash of soy milk and a good pinch of raw sugar, then fried the squares in a pan in a little butter. I packed myself a sauce bottle of maple syrup for the French toast – even with a funnel, it was quite tricky and a little messy getting the syrup into the bottle because it was so thick – that’s why I didn’t fill the bottle up as full as I’d have liked. I waited until the SPAM and the French toast had cooled down completely before packing them in the bento box to avoid condensation and sogginess issues. And in the SPAM compartment I squeezed in a piece of Dutch cheddar cheese – sorry, I can’t remember exactly what it’s called.
Although it’s got two tiers, be warned – it’s a very small bento box. Its dimensions are 14 cm(length) x 9 cm (width) x 8 cm (height), capacity top 280 mL, bottom 260 mL – good for portion control. :)
I believe the French text on the bento box means “You can come if you like”, or “You can come if you want”. Something like that (any French-speaking readers wish to correct or clarify, feel free). Isn’t the little cat cute? I also love the little cat silhouette on the bento box clips.
The new bento box came with a bento bag. I prefer my red bag though, as it has handles. This new one is quite roomy but only has drawstrings, no handles.
I ate some of the French toast and SPAM as mini square sandwiches, yum. I ate some of the French toast with a little maple syrup. And then I ate some SPAM with maple syrup. Maple syrup goes so well with so many things!
Read about the controversy surrounding this lunch:
Utterly ridiculous part 1
Utterly ridiculous part 2
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re almost right on the translation. It actually means: “You can come whenever you like”. “Quand” means when.
The french sentence means “You can come whenever you want to” ;-)
That looks like such a delicious lunch! The dimensions of the box are so small though – were you full? I am having a hard time finding boxes that are big enough but not men’s size. 650ml would be perfect! Instead, I use two 300ml Ichiban Kan food storage containers stacked on top of one another. They are pretty cute when bound with a bento belt.
i’ve been eying the shinzi katoh boxes all week! they’re so cute! but i was a little worried they were a bit too small…did that lunch fill you up?
yum! french toast for lunch and how appropriate in your french worded bento…
SPAM and french toast! Now that’s a junky good idea. I love french toast with sausage or ham, and since I do like SPAM, i think this would be a great combi to try (of course I would have to go for a long run after that).
Nice bento, lots of food there!
This is so much better than my typical Dutch broodje (sandwich)
My Chinese wife and I also follow this Chinese food blog, we love you both!
http://plum.blog.sohu.com/
Rudi
Thanks for the link to Shinzi Katoh – now there’s lots of things I want! Lovely stuff!
I finally found the Shinzi Katoh stuff in Toronto! I have my own itsy bitsy bento!!!
Thanks, Dallya and Plume!
Elaine,
I’ll admit I wasn’t really that full after this lunch, but I didn’t feel really hungry when I was finished, either. I tried to eat fairly slowly too. I had an orange and a banana and a cuppa afterwards and felt pretty good.
Happy J,
As per my reply to Elaine above, I wasn’t really full, but I felt quite satisfied afterwards. With a little fruit and a hot drink I felt pretty happy.
Bryan,
You know, I hadn’t even thought of the “French connection”! Heh.
dea,
Oh yeh, French toast and SPAM was a great combo. I’m sure I’ll do that again sometime – if not for work bento, maybe as a snack at home.
Ms.______2 be!
Ta. I did enjoy it.
Rudi,
Cool. Lovely pictures at that Chinese blog. Shame I can’t read Chinese!
Su-Lin,
I really love it. There are so many more items I’d like to buy.
dynagrrl,
Excellent! Will we see bento lunches at your site soon? Which design did you buy?
I’m getting really jealous of your packed lunches in the bento boxes! :) It all looks so good and all the thought you put into them. The closest I get to a packed lunch is dumping last night’s leftovers into a spare plastic takeaway container.
I did buy myself a non-leak container a few weeks ago though… ooo I got so excited! Hehe
LusciousTemptations,
Heheheh. Sometimes Jac will just want to take leftovers “dumped” in a container without all the extra bits. I don’t take photos then, as it’s not that food porny. :) I think if I didn’t have this blog I probably wouldn’t be so keen to spend the time planning and putting together the bento lunches. And Jac would be just as happy with non-bento lunch boxes.
I’ve been carrying Shinzi Katoh in my shop for a few years now and have noticed that the translations to English have become more accurate- which is kind of a bummer since the wording is so cute.