A couple of Saturdays ago, Jac dropped me off at the shops while she went to a dental appointment. I was hungry; I grabbed myself a chicken teriyaki bento box (AU$13.90) for brunch from Nagano Sushi (Carousel Shopping Centre food hall). Jac and I have shared one of these before. I was in the mood for vegetable tempura and teriyaki chicken and was looking forward to tackling this delicious combo. You get teriyaki chicken with cooked vegetables (cabbage and carrot) on rice, mixed tempura (eggplant; broccoli; prawn; and an enormous mixed vegetable bunch with carrot, sweet potato, green beans and onion), with sauce for dipping, two pieces of sushi (California roll and prawn), and a cup of miso soup. They told me I’d have to wait round 10 minutes for my meal as it was very early (9:40am!) and the chef had to cook it from scratch, which was fine with me.
The chicken was moist and saucy. The cabbage and carrot were underneath the chicken. The tender cooked vegetables and rice soaked up the teriyaki sauce beautifully.
I ate all of the California roll except for the crabstick. The mayo in the centre of the rice had toasted sesame seeds through it, which tasted delicious. Such a shame about the crabstick. :)
The tempura batter was fresh, light and crisp.
My only criticism of this meal is that they don’t give you soy sauce for the sushi. Sure, you can dip the sushi in the tempura dipping sauce (which is what I did), but the tempura dipping sauce is just too thin and weak as a sauce for sushi. I could’ve gone back and asked for a packet of soy sauce, but by the time I thought of doing this 1) I didn’t fancy leaving my meal unattended on the table in food hall and 2) I didn’t feel like carrying it back to the counter just to get the soy sauce. Anyway, the lack of soy sauce didn’t affect my enjoyment of my meal that much.
I polished it all off and really enjoyed it. A tasty and decent-sized meal for a hungry shopper like me. Some of the other food hall diners probably had a laugh watching me tucking into this meal, as all around me people were eating more standard breakfast fare, like Bacon and Egg McMuffins – such is the beauty of food hall dining. :)
I'm TFP, a food blogger from Perth, Western Australia.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
That looks really really good. I haven’t eaten from Jaws in a while, must go back there this week.
PS, Munch Terrace has a “fried hor fun” which i tried today. It’s kinda like hor fun cooked mee goreng style. Have to say it’s quite nice. Oh and you can ask for their crispy chicken rice with noodles as well – comes with wantan mee type noodles. My colleague had the crispy chicken rice noodles. Will need to try it myself. Looks quite appetising
I love non-breakfast food for breakfast. It drives my husband insane, which is an added bonus. :)
Yum! I can’t believe you ate that at not-even 10am, but it still looks yummy. I love that you get all those little tastes of different things together. The tempura looks especially good.
What a perfect box – The tempura looks awesome!
Sometimes my hb doesnt understand why I can eat almost anything for breakkie while he’s having boring breakkie. I think we Asian can eat almost anything at anytime.
Oh and I love sushi.
C,
I haven’t had Jaws for ages either. Now that the weather’s getting warmer and finer it may be time to go for more walks at lunch time, including to Jaws. Yum, crispy chicken with the wantan mee noodles! I’ll have to do that soon.
Brandi,
Jac has grown used to me eating anything and everything at any time. She doesn’t bat an eyelid, and in fact, she often joins me in eating non breakfasty food for breakfast. It’s great!
The Home Cook,
The tempura was really lovely. It tasted so fresh. I love deep-fried food most of the time, but this tasted especially great.
Bryan,
Oh yeah. It was fantastic. They also do a teriyaki fish bento box and a teriyaki tofu bento box. I’ve had the fish and the chicken, next I must try the tofu.
flower,
Yes, it’s an asian thing, I think. I crave savoury/hot meals for breakfast. I can’t eat cereal too often, just not satisfying enough.
I honestly think having hot, savoury and full breakfasts like these with rice/noodles and protein is truly an Asian thing! Visiting family and friends in Singapore means lots of yummy but calorie-laden breakfasts…think dry-style wonton noodles, nasi lemak and steamed pao. Yummmmm. I’m missing it already now that I’m back down under. Japanese for breakfast is a great idea though! :)
Hey there,
I’ve been reading your site for a while and finally decided to post a comment. This bento box looks fantastic! I don’t care for cabbage and carrot but I can imagine it in those thin strips with the chicken, sauce and rice and it does sound yummy!
The tempura looks so good. There’s a sushi and Japanese food place next to where I live and they have tempura veggies, too. I had never had them before this place and it’s so good!
My only complaint about this entry is the small amount of sushi ;)
dea,
I’d happily eat three cooked meals (and dinner-sized meals – asian or western doesn;t matter) everyday if I could. But lately, lack of time in the morning means I’ve been eating toast for breaky. It keeps me going till lunch time, but it’s just not as enjoyable!
Lil Sushi,
Oh yeah, it was great. I’d like to eat it again soon. I love the range of tempura vegies they include – and I love that they do eggplant that way, eggplant is one of my favourite vegies, cooked ANY way. Heheh. Yes, this meal doesn’t feature much sushi. This place does tasty sushi, but they tend to make them a little too large – which may seem like a weird complaint, but I like sushi to me nicely mouth-sized so I can comfortably eat it in one mouthful.
I’ve never had eggplant that way before. Maybe I should request this ;)
I know what you mean and I feel the same way! While it can be fun to try and fit a larger sushi roll into your mouth all at once (while making a complete fool of yourself no doubt!), more regular-sized rolls (is there such a thing as a ‘regular’ sized roll? I used to know so much more about this sort but my brain isn’t working right now) are so much more enjoyable to actually eat and relax with! Which is odd for me to think because I tend to love the more complicated rolls…huh.
Lil Sushi,
Oh, tempura eggplant is fantastic! Hope you get to try it. I just hate having a mouth that’s so full of food that it’s hard to actually taste the food properly, and I hate having to eat the sushi in two or more bites as bits of the filling end up falling out. :)