Sakura 3-Tier Bento #14

Nectarine slices, green and red grapes, chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds in the silicone cup, a bottle of soy sauce, broccoli salad, sushi rice topped with crumbled wasabi-flavored nori snacks, tamagoyaki with green onions, and a couple of pork shumai turned sideways to fit into the box.

If you've visited many bento blogs--real ones, where people do really fancy food, like dosirakbento or Bento Days--you will have seen many slices of tamagoyaki (rolled Japanese omelet) before. Although that isn't my usual style (and I think if I were going for that sort of style, I would have failed here), I did have an epiphany after watching the tutorial video Japanese Cooking 101 made: I have a small, square cast iron skillet! Maybe I could make this thing! And wouldn't you know it--I can and it's pretty easy and it tastes amazing at room temperature. It's like a whole world of new possibilities opened at once. I think this is much easier to deal with than the French-style omelets of the Western world.

I modified this recipe for the broccoli salad. I left out the raisins (the one dried fruit I will not eat) and sunflower kernels, and cut it down to size to fit my one-person household. I know it may look odd to serve this salad with Japanese food, but the flavors actually complemented each other really, really well. Most of it had a slightly sweet, savory thing going on anyway. I really liked this recipe, primarily because I don't care for raw broccoli, and this is slightly cooked broccoli.

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