*crossposted from notabrownbag - I have delayed posting this here due to having a sad week last week . It DOES close Monday, so if you’re interested, get clicking NOW!

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In conjunction with the fabulous girls from Culture Vultures ; THE local cultural & art website right here in Leeds, UK ; I am running a bento competition!!! Unfortunately it is only available for entry by denziens living and working in Leeds – but the gifts are definately fabulous as they’re handpicked by me!

The selected winner will be getting a specially made bento from my kitchen (yes, made from scratch!) in an adorable bento box that they get to keep and treasure. I have hand-picked a selection of envy-inducing ‘bento-gear’ for the winner to make their own bento lunches, as well as a how-to handbook on making superbly kawaii bento lunches and being the envy of all your colleagues!

It is my hope that this will start a lunch-volution, and the end of the sloppy sandwich on dry, stale bread that I see so many people stuff their mouths with during lunch time. To be able to go into a working lunch and not served a selection of sandwiches with unidentifiable fillings would be absolutely amazing. Having lived in blue-skies California, winters here in the north gets me depressed – but the thought of opening up a box of sunshine halfway through the work day brightens up my day to no end. Hey, maybe if everyone packs a bento, there will be no crime, peace on earth….and all that jazz…:D

…..my mock-interview, which was posted on their website:

What is a bento box?
“Portion control meets nutritionally complete work of art”.
Bento box is basically a box that you put your food in. If you’ve ever been to a Japanese restaurant, you would be familiar with the plastic mock-lacquer box with compartments that your dinner arrived in. In my opinion (and many others) the hinomaru is the classic bento, freshly cooked white short grained rice with an umeboshi (red pickled plum) in the centre – representing the Japanese flag.

In Japan, bentos are as widely available as Mcdonalds for the lunch-on-the-run, from vending machines to convenience stores (kombini) and railway stations. The credit-crunched version of assembling lunch at home and bringing it with you to eat at work/school has long been part and parcel of the Japanese culture – just as a brownbagged sandwich is to the Western culture.

However, the style of bento that is gaining somewhat of a cult status worldwide are the bentos made for children. This is instantly striking, from the rice molded into adorable shapes like rabbits and penguins. Go a step further and you’ll find great charaben/kyraben (character bento) practitioners recreating whole scenes of computer games into boxes of edible goodness – from a scene out of Mario to Professor Layton! There are competitions in Japan where accomplished charaben artists churn out their most adorably cute creations; from anime characters made out of ham to a whole zoo and Hello Kitty disguised as a penguin!

What do you put in it? Does it have to be Japanese food?
Two words; ANYTHING GOES! There are no hard and fast rules on this – I ensure I incorporate all food groups packed tightly in a box . Traditional bentos usually follow the rule of 4 parts starch, 1 parts fruit/veg and 2 part protein – but this is by no means a be all and end all. I generally try to lower my carbs intake whilst upping my fruit/veg intake, making it more 1:1:1. A bento for me has to tickle my tastebuds and fill me up enough so I do not succumb to a packet of crisps or a bar of chocolate. Fabulous bento practitioner-turned-author advises JUST NO JUNK, whilst another accomplished bento practitioner advises that nothing raw should be packed, and always ensure you use an icepack in summer….nobody wants a spoiled lunch!

Japanese food definitely helps, especially those that are designed to be eaten at room temperature, i.e. rice balls. Again, no hard and fast rules, I have previously packed hummus & crudites. Olives works well, so does cherry tomatoes and mini cheeses (think babybel) Some of the more refined bentoists have turned plain cheese and ham sandwiches into magnificent work of art. The key is to keep each individual item small, that way you are able to add a wider variety of foodstuff.

Is it for one greedy person or for two to share?
That’s the beauty with bentos – and the addiction that many bento makers face with purchasing as many bento boxes as they can possibly find! The variety of shapes and sizes of bento boxes available is astounding, from plain flat plastic containers (i.e. tupperware style) to elaborate cedarwoor crafted ovals and Hello Kitty shaped plastic boxes. Personally, my burger-shaped bento box gets the most laughter when I reveal it at lunchtime .There are boxes out there designed for all appetites, from tiny 350ml containers for toddlers or a snack to giant picnic boxes (kouraku) catering for a family picnic.

The rule of thumb is bento lunches are generally made for one – I keep my boxes tiny (below 600ml volume) to keep a strict tab on the portion size, but the husband gets a man-sized non-cute 1 litre box. Another note; bento boxes comes in all shape and sizes, but generally the cute ones are on the small side, catering to children and adolescent girls!

If you were making a bento box of beauty for your most beloved what key ingredients would you include and why?
Lots and lots of colours! There is nothing more stunning than opening up a box at lunchtime and having a riot of colours exploding from a deceptively simple box. Healthy bento euthusiasts live by the colour rule; Red, Green, Yellow and Orange. This means alot of fruit and vegetables…….but rest assured, I am a self-confessed carnivore, so you won’t be stuck with a vegan lunchbox – unless you want to!

To enter, please click here!

Its been amazing snowfall here in the UK, with chaos wrecked on transport links and such…however, if you stay closer to home its fabulous!!! Could you believe it all fell in a 6 hour timescale – I woke up at 6.15 and it wasn’t snowing…by 7.30 the snow was about 2 inches deep. By noon it was about 6.

So deep you can’t even see my snow angel!!

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Can’t really walk without wellies anymore..

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bacon pretending to be a snowman..

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Bacon shovelling our way into the house

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The farm enveloped by super deep snow

We’re usually away for Christmas, so it was refreshing this year that we decided to stay home. This meant that the cat have the pleasure of our company (hehe), I was able to have an actual Christmas dinner on Christmas day, and got actual presents to open up! I got some speakers, a new sewing machine and other assorted knick knacks – Your Shape Wii game for one, chocolates, books ect ect…yay!

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Not to mention the magnificent snowfall! My first White Christmas – but thinking about it..I have not actually spent that many Christmases in countries that actually snow, so one in five is not too bad! Yep, I made the above on Christmas morning…

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And bacon made this, which is supposed to be a snow-cat

Unlike alot of people, I do not tend to get stressed out with making Christmas dinner. In fact, I quite enjoy it. It’s really not that difficult as well….and I do love making Christmas dinner with all the trimmings..

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My beautifully golden brown turkey. Yumm. My secret recipe is to brine it, let it swim in salt water for 24hours ; it makes the turkey wonderfully moist and flavourful. And NEVER follow the cooking time on the packaging. I cooked this for less than 2 hours (4.2kg bird), whilst the packaging reccomended about a 3 hour + cooking time. Of course, ALWAYS check the thickest part of the bird is not bloody before taking it out of the oven. To be honest, my bird could’ve done with only 1 hr & 30 mins, as I let it brown (without the bacon) for about 30 mins at 220deg before wrapping bacon all over the turkey for the remaining time at 180 deg. This browns up the turkey beautifully, whilst the bacon wrapping keeps it wonderfully moist. Lovely.

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I also made my fave festive red cabbage; with port, red wine vineger, cranberries, orange juice & rind, onions, cinnamon, nutmeg & star anise.

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And of course, the lovely trimmings – roast potatoes & parsnips, stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, sprouts with chipped bacon and assorted roast vegetables. I do love the trimmings.

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My piece de resistance – traditional American candied yam. This is the first time ever that I’m making it, but it is a very traditional American dish not to be missed with Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners. Fairly unknown outside of the US, this came from the 3 Thanksgiving that I spent in California. I have not had a full American Thanksgiving dinner for so long….and sorely missed the candied yams. Slightly misleading name – this is not a candy nor is it made out of what the rest of the world call yam. It is sweet potato, cooked in a lovely sauce of butter, maple syrup, spices and orange juice, it is then topped with marshmallows (yes, MARSHMALLOWS!) and baked till the marshmallows starts to toast – about 15 mins.

Serve immediately – the marshmallow crust looks deceptively hard, but its all soft and gooey inside, perfect mixed in with the sauce. I added some crushed walnuts to my sauce, and it tastes absolutely magnificent. Delicious. I like. Suprisingly enough, so did bacon – he had been apprehensive ever since I bought the sweet potato (sweet potato with my Christmas dinner??!! Never!!) . He was won over by this wonderful dish, the marshmallows just melting perfectly into the sauce. Bliss. Definately something that I will be repeating, with bacon’s seal of approval.

The whole spread – with homemade giblet gravy…. yummz.

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Until next year!!

Thanks to the girls at The Culture Vulture ,I blagged myself a free goodie bag from tonight’s event at my local Urban Outfitters!! Love it, love it! Urban Outfitters had been one of my very favourite brand since I first stumbled across it in Santa Monica in 2000. I remember the day when I spotted this guy overloaded with Urban Outfitters bags in central Leeds…if I did not spot the shop ten meters down the road, I would’ve chased after him to ask where did the bags come from! The edgy fashions, the quirky household stuff, lomography cameras and mad bags (remember my speakers clutch?).

Tonight was their christmas special – with 20% discounts throughout the whole store, the place was HEAVING. I couldn’t even buy anything…as I could hardly move to the queue. Sigh. Anyway – as promised, here’s my goodies!

From left-right: leopard print linen scarf, Levis’ 501 cutoffs, set of 3 headbands, two pairs of pseudo Raybans, patchwork dress, purple thighs, LEE 120 years anniversary bag and salt-and-pepper shakers

Sooooo fab! The only glitch is that the cutoffs are way too tiny, and the thighs are definately not my size – I am not very tall, but it’s made to fit girls up to 5ft 3! So I’m going to have to figure out what to do with them – I see a giveaway coming up! I squeezed into the pretty patchwork dress that only came in one size….loved the salt&pepper shaker. Incidentally, I purchased the exact same salt and pepper shaker in Sydney back in 2006 as a gift . The pseudo-Raybans are cute – not something that I would ordinarily purhcase for myself, but I do think its cute. So is the scarf – I so really needed something like this but had just not gotten around to buying one.

Definately very random – but I love it nonetheless!

@LadyRach was kind enough to send a me an invite for the press launch of Sesame; Leeds’ premier Urban Farm Deli. If you’ve been reading this blog for a few years, you would know that I had sadly but correctly predicted the demise of a few sushi/noodle places in Leeds…like Nooshi . I have a take-no-prisoners view on badly made sushi and imitation ingreddients, and nooshi was so far off the bat – so it was risky in my view to invite me to the press launch of Sesame! I decided that I would just not write about Sesame if it was as dissapointing as the others .So the fact that you are actually reading this now should give you an idea of things to come in this post.

Located in the haven of blood suckers lawyers in Leeds at St Paul’s Street, Sesame is an unassuming place from the outside. If you are looking for it and get kinda lost, it is not precisely opposite of Starbucks, but fairly close. Nothing showy or loud, high ceillings, airy and light, this is definately my sort of place. Just like one of the delis in Little Italy that I used to frequent in San Francisco…I like.

After saying hi to the lovely LadyRach and handed some champagne complete with pretty ribbons, I headed straight to…..what else, but the counter overflowing with these…

Cate’s Cupcakes are made by the lovely ‘cupcake fairy’ Cate…who suprisingly, is crazy about Tiffany jewelry as well. We had a natter over her delicious cupcakes and Tiffany’s suprisingly expensive enamel cupcakes.

Don’t you just love her cupcake tee!! She’s holding up a platter of her bite-size vanilla cupcakes in pink frosting, which I had a piece (would have just run off with the whole platter if she wasn’t there watching over her cake…very shrewd move indeed) . Very moist buttery sponge topped by the prettiest sparkly pink frosting. Yummz. Bacon even went as far as proclaiming this to be way better than @hummingbbakery’s (sorry, I can’t seem to stop using twitter speak) lovely cupcakes. Hmm. I shall reserve judgement until I try her version of red velvet…

The next person that I gravitated towards was this charming young lad who obliged my request for a photo

And just look at what he’s carrying!! Yay!! Salmon nigiri, New York Roto (smoked salmon, cream cheese & cucumber), California Roto (Whitby crab, avocado & cucumber), tuna maki….this is like my idea of heaven. The only thing I regret is not whipping out my own chopsticks (yes, I travel with chopsticks, so sue me) or the brains to ask for a disposable pair – eating sushi with fingers is a new experience for me.

Okay, now for the taste test. Fish is very fresh, no smelly fishmonger feel….rice has just the right amount of stickiness, and not too much rice to ‘pad it out’. All together very well made sushi – I had like 4 of these salmon nigiri in a space of 5 minutes…they were definately very delicious. I love the Whitby crab in the California roto as well, the sesame (obviously) were lightly toasted, giving it the extra nutty kick that most rotos need. I LIKE!

To be honest, I was relived to find that the sushi passed my taste test. I was dreading for another deluge of immitation wannabe sushi restaurant/store. Too many places sell pseudo sushi; instead of fresh fish, fried chicken & tuna sweetcorn ect are used. I guess it’s to cater to the British palate – I know of too many people who are terrified of raw fish. It’s nice enough, but just don’t try to pass it off as authentic sushi! I love the freshly made COLD rice (had salmon nigiri served on HOT rice before!). And the good folks at sesame are not afraid to flex their creative muscles as well….

No idea what this is called and it’s not on their takeaway menu, but it is smoked salmon and cream cheese rolled in thinly sliced cucumber,held together by a strip of nori. Okay, fine, this is not traditionally sushi, but bacon promptly declared this was his absolute fave. It was definately very delicious, a twist on the New York roto. Love it love it!

This wonderful platter wandered up to me as well – tuna pate atop a slice of cucumber topped with a spiral of mooli and sprig of mint. Definately more canapes than sushi, but this place is definately not proclaiming itself as a traditional Japanese deli – soups, pies, cupcakes, noodles, rice salads…..so they defiantely have earned the creative license to go crazy and create. Again, fabulously presented lovely fresh fish; it contrasts beautifully with the fresh crisp cucumber and sprig of mint & mooli spiral. Just what the doctor ordered. (PS: those were my fingers going in for the kill..hehe)

I let bacon loose with the camera whilst I chatted with the charming Louise who owns Sesame. Bacon naturally gravitated towards the other heartier options on sale – those that were not doing the rounds as canapes.

The seared local beef carpaccio on fresh salad and sushi rice. I absolutely love carpaccio…and this beef carpaccio looks so lovely in pink…can you tell I love undercooked/uncooked food? I feel hungry just looking at this. Wonder how it would taste like with wagyu beef?

Their selection of yummilicious noodles. Large cartons go for £4.90, small cartons start at £3.50. Beef wonton, salmon teriyaki, chargilled chicken, spicy vegetable & spicy chicken are the varieties available. Bacon’s been going on and on about them since we left…I think I might need to make a side trip to the deli to stock up on my way back from work.

i’s Pies, made in Ripon by Anthony. Like everything else in the deli, all fresh local ingredients, no preservatives and all that E-numbered variety stuff found in retail pies.

The collection of takeaway sushi boxes. All freshly made on the day. I can just imagine sitting there all day just picking on all of it…

The lovely LadyRach with Louise, the founder of Sesame.

We left with cute little takeaway bags, filled with discount cards, takeaway menus, a bag of matcha (will be turning that into matcha cupcakes this weekend!) and most importantly, a small sampling of the sushi selection and a pack of the yummiest wasabi peas..

I think my favourite is the California roto – fresh Whitby crabs is just so damned good in a sushi (did I already say that?). The good people of Sesame definately know what to do with their sesame – what lovely nutty flavours!!! (hmm…repeating myself again I think..)

Sigh. Now I have to go back and spend all my money before I go home tonight. Actually, that is not exactly true. Louise have priced the selection very well – and I told her that. Prices are extremely reasonable, with my favourite cream cheese stuffed pepper going for £1.50 a pot. It is about £2 at Tescos. Okay, Tesco vs Sesame….no prizes for guessing the winner. Miso soup goes for £1.50 for a pretty big carton – I would be happy to have one of these for lunch. Or a sushi pack for £4 for lunch – miles better than the hard-as-bricks variety stocked in supermarkets with ‘fake’ raw fish. Sounds too good to be true, there’s gotta be something wrong with Sesame right?

yep

IT IS TOO FAR FOR ME TO WALK THERE FOR LUNCH!!

Sesame Urban Farm Deli
Enterprise House
16 St Paul’s Street
Leeds, LS1 2LE
www.ilovesesame.co.uk