Bento! #267: Tonkatsu meshi from the neighborhood bentou-ya

It's large and it's yum. Comes with a bunch of stuff as well -- potato/ham salad, some seaweeds, and a cabbage bedding.

And tonkatsu sauce and mustard, of course! Forgot how much this was, but it was totally worth it. I think it was around 600 yen.

Bento! #266: Cafeteria Tan-Tan Men + Gyoza

Thanks to Okada san for the photo.

I actually ordered this again on another day because I forgot to take a photo of it when I ate it with the tantanmen.

Perfect combination. Forgot the prices though, but I'm sure this is all around 500 yen only. 

Also, I forgot if they call the ramen as tantanmen or "Taiwan ramen."

Incidentally, today is also a "perfect combination" : 13.4.4 (April 4, 2013). 1+3 = four / 4 / 四 / よん / yon, which is sometimes pronounced as shi, as in "April" / 四月 / しがつ / shigatsu, which is the same pronunciation as for "death" in both Chinese and Japanese and so... it's an unlucky number in Chinese (like they don't have floors with the number 4 in their buildings). But it's not so much like that for Japanese (like they have 4th, 14th, 24th, 34th, and 40th to 49th floors, etc.).

Bento! #262: Gyuu Suki？ Bentou

"New!!" From 3F.

牛 / gyuu = beef. And... you know sukiyaki, right? This is that except it's not yaki because it's not heated in a metal pan. I forgot how to read the 2nd kanji (4th character above)!

Yummy!

Bento! #253: Tori Tatsutaage Bentou + Hakusai Kimuchi

鳥竜田揚げ弁当

498 yen from 3F. They say it's "new," but I feel like I've had this (and blogged about it) before. I did eat it with hakusai (literally, "white vegetable," or Chinese cabbage) kimuchi (Korean kimchi), 158 yen also from 3F. Here's the inside of the kimchi cup:

白菜キムチ

I like kimchi. :D  Meanwhile, here's the "new" fried chicken bento, ready to be devoured by yours truly:

It came with black & white sesame seed sprinkled rice, and a carrot-tofu-spinach (mini) side salad.

Bento! #252: Ebi Tendon

Or 海老天丼 / Shrimp Tempura Rice Bowl. From 3F. Pretty good. There's just two pieces of ebi tenpura though, and the rest are veggie tempura like nasu / eggplant, renkon / lotus root, and kabocha / pumpkin tempura. Oh and I think there's a squid tempura in there too.

Bento! #251: Salmon Roe / Caviar and Clam Onigiri

From 3F. Pretty good. Comes with matching orange-colored pickled radish. いくら / ikura = salmon roe (or caviar). しじみ / shijimi = clam?

Note that ikura also means "how much."

Bento! #250: Dinner from the nearby bentou-ya

I've seen this place many, many times before. And now, after almost 3 years, is the only time I ever tried to order here. Bentou-ya / 弁当屋 means "bento (lunch box / packed lunch) shop." This is almost the equivalent of the "carenderia" and "turo-turo" (small mom-and-pop or hole-in-the-wall restaurants) in the Philippines.

This exact bentou-ya, more specifically, is ほかほか弁当 / hokahoka bentou, which literally translates to "warm lunch."

6 more photos below!

Bento! #249: Okura to Nameko no Okakaae + Updated Photo: Demi Chiizu Chikin Katsu

I posted a photo at http://japan.ronjie.com/2012/11/bento-161-demi-chiizu-chikin-bentou.html of my squished bento box from 3F. Here's a better photo:

And I had this as for my dose of vegetables:

オクラ = okra / lady fingers. なめこ = a type of mushroom. おかか和え = that fish flake "sauce" thing. Pretty good.

Bento! #248: Corn and Potato Salad

It's the one on the lower right, which you can see I ate with sanma yaki which I've blogged about earlier. You can also probably see that there's volumetrically more cabbage in there than either corn or potato. :D  It's コーンとポテトサラダ / koon to poteto sarada in Japanese, by the way.

Bento! #247: Buta Roosu Tonkatsu Bentou

Or 豚ロースとんかつ弁当, literally Pork Roast Pork Cutlets Lunch Box. You know what it is. Only 498 yen and big and yummy, from the supermarket.

Bento! #246: Special Hamburg(er) Bento

スペシャルハンバーグ弁当 / supesharu hanbaagu bentou

I love burgers. And sausages. With egg and rice. And spaghetti with a tomato-based sauce! :D  398 yen from the supermarket.

Bento! #245: Chaa-Siu Yaki-Biifun

 

Or essentially Char Siu / Roast Pork Pan-Grilled Bihon/Bifun/Chinese noodles. 398 yen from 3F. If you're Filipino, you would be familiar with Bihon (noodles).

Surprisingly pretty good for 398 yen!

Bento! #244: Tuna Mayo Onigiri with lots of Mayo!

Or たっぷりマヨのツナマヨ / tappuri mayo no tsuna mayo. 125 yen from 3F. Yummy.

They weren't joking about this having lots of mayo! :D

Bento! #243: 八丁味噌ラーメン / hatchou miso raamen / Hatcho Miso Ramen

This was around 400 yen at the cafeteria.

It's... not something I'd order again. Actually, a (non-Japanese) friend of mine already tried this before I did and he didn't like it. When I tried it, it's fine. It's not so bad. But it's just not something I'd want. It does have egg, as you can see, some fried tofu strips, and even some chicken so, save for some veggies, it is quite a heavy noodle meal than usual.

Bento! #242: Tonjiru / 豚汁 / Pork soup

That's the one on the lower right. This is the first time I ever tried, and I only got the small one (小豚汁 / kotonjiru) for just a little over 70 yen from the cafeteria, to go along with my renkon (lotus roots) salad and chikin tatsuta don / fried chicken rice bowl. The soup was delicious. I'll probably try it as a standalone dish next time. :D

Bento! #241: Sausage Napolitan (Spaghetti)

460 yen from 3F.

And as opposed to just plain sausage (sooseeji / ソーセージ) slices in other versions of napolitan / ナポリタン spaghetti here, this has one full-length sausage! (Sausage here is normally just 1/3 this one.) Plus there's some ham! Plus, there's some egg! Plus, some green pepper slices! Yummy. I love carbonaramara and her carbonaras, but for spaghetti, I love red/tomato-based sauces! (Same is true with pizza. :D)

Bento! #240: Yaki Saba something something Gohan

Or 焼きさば。。。ごはん / rice with grilled mackerel. 350 yen from 3F. And yummy. There's a lot of other things in there, as you can see. But I don't eat the plum. :D

It is quite small though...

Bento! #239: Another kind of salad from 3F

298 yen, as you can, see. Quite expensive, though this one has some olives, a slice of tomato, some radish, some yellow bell peppers -- which are expensive -- on top of the usual suspects. Plus it comes with a really nice salad dressing that I like a lot. The only thing I can surmise from its taste is that there's onion and vinegar. And maybe some black pepper. Which is good enough for me. :D

But, underneath all those fancy colors is nothing but shredded cabbage. And thus my claim of this being expensive.

Bento! #238: Chikin Namban Bentou / チキン南蛮弁当

This is sort of becoming a fad here, it seems. This one is 498 yen from 3F:

It is yummy, but not something I'd desire to eat again. Forgive the presentation below, it got a little messed up during transport:

And you can see there's that karashi again on the rice, and what looks like salmon roe, but is actually plum, I guess. And some black & white sesame seed sprinkles. As it seems, chikin namban as a food basically means fried chicken with tartar sauce. There's also a side salad of some seaweed, soy beans, tofu shreds, and carrots.

Bento! #237: Karaage Bentou!

498 yen from the supermarket. I am only able to read the part with からあげグランプリ / karaage grand prix, meaning this is an entry to some sort of karaage preparation contest. And maybe it was a winner because this is one of the best karaage I've ever tasted in a bento / 弁当 / bentou.

As you can see, there's a potato salad to go with it, and rice sprinkled with some herbs. And the karaage itself is huge! By the way, note the difference between karaage and chikin katsu, even though this one is not the typical karaage cut and is more similar to the typical katsu cut (no pun intended).