Sweet Sixteen

I'm finally 16! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday this year and everyone who's been so supportive of me. To those who spent time with me today, I want to express all my love and thanks ; w;
I had so much fun at the beach and recieved all sorts of great presents (and so much Rilakkuma DDD: <333) Also hoped everyone had fun too!

Almost bento

A friend of mine recently purchased a bunny-shaped onigiri mold for me.
Making use of my new onigiri mold and egg mold...

Recent Bento finds with photos

Kam Man (Chinatown) :
Rice molds, egg molds, sushi molds, grass sushi dividers, takoyaki pick $3-5 range




















Takoyaki Pan $20




















Various imported Japanese bento $10-20 range




















Pearl River Mart (Soho):
Hello Kitty 2-tier bento, deer bento, rabbit bento, matching utensil set $3.75








































Vegetable cutters $4 range




















Imported Cram Cream bento $15 range

Oh finally a bento update- Kam Man Foods

Or store location rather. All my years that I've lived and grown up around Chinatown, the one store I forgot to check was Kam Man (or Golden Door lit translated), a long standing supermarket on Canal St. On their window display, they have the typical Japanese dishwares and chopsticks that were located in the basement. Little did I know their basement also had a crapton of cookware, sushi supplies, and most importantly Japanese bento. These aren't those cheapy Natural Lunch boxes, but uh.. better and much cuter. Most of them are two-tiered with some sort of plastic seal that keeps light oils and a bit of sauce from leaking; roughly $15 for most bentos. The only downside is that everything here is covered in a layer of dust, which is a shame speaking that they have such great items.
*Note they also stock the small rectangular $6? and heavy square tamagoyaki pans $15?, takoyaki pans $20, japanese fish grills, and some other bento supplies that I haven't had a good look at. I'll be near there tomorrow so if I remember, I'll have some photos as well. Stay tuned~

Turnovers and Pizza

Another invite-a-friend-over-to-bake session some weeks ago. :)
Struggling to find a quick and easy to prepare recipe, we finally decided on a Cherry Turnover recipe I found in my FOOD magazine. I've finally come to appreciate the existence of premade puff pastry as my last attempt to make it was an outright failure. But admittedly, the overall taste of the turnover was mediocre and bland, speaking that we only used puff pastry and pie filling. At least it looks quite nice :D















My Independence Day was spent stuck at home with my mom and brother since everyone else was busy with their own barbecues and whatnot. Another internet search led to my first homemade whole wheat pizza dough and several hours later, a slightly overbaked pizza. The dough was definitely too thick and the pizza lacked a bit of everything. There's a first time for everything...

new

To make up for a lack of recent posts, here's a pic of the avacado plant we're growing. It's actually a lot bigger at the moment as this photo was taken weeks ago. Someday we'll have avacados at home :)

Recently

For whatever reason, my mom decided to make a bucketload of red bean paste, causing a slight overflow of items in the fridge. I decided to use some of it up by making some sort of bread and I came across a recipe for Dou Sha Bao (red bean buns). Resulting in *drumroll*
















So they're not the prettiest things and the tops are supposed to be completely sealed, but you can ignore that. The dough was mediocre so hopefully I can improve it. Overall it was pretty tasty. Props to mom for making the bean paste better than I can.

In my Spanish class, mi profesor allows for us to earn extra credit for our grade by preparing a Spanish dish and then presenting to the class. I grouped together with a few of my classmates on Monday to make Salsa and Magdalenas. The salsa turned out really well; would make again ;o The taste of the magdalenas was pretty good too. This goes to show that making food with other people is fun and makes things taste better. Posts following this one will probably be with friends again. Stay tuned~

Baking Day at Aya's House

Our story of a failcaek. Enjoy















Yum... slightly burnt chocolate cake
















Covering mistakes with chocolate frosting and bananas































Strawberries save the day :D

Bonus: crepes!

:< sad news

Japan Home Center has shut down for good.
I bought my first bento there, walked around the store every week in middle school, and always came back to see what new items they had in stock.
Were they doing so badly that they had to close down? I wish I had taken photos of it before everything was gone.
I hope they sprout out again somewhere in NY or somehow reopens again.