The 19th Ichigo Ichie was held at Mukunoki Center on September 2nd, Sunday. 48 participants (26 adults and 22 children) from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan had fun together.
Do You Make a Bento in Your Country?
The day's theme was "Let's Make a Bento". Bento, a box lunch, is popular in Japan. In autumn, Japanese kids have opportunities to take bentos their parents make, when they have school events such as sports festivals and excursions. Then, is it a bento popular in foreign countries? We asked mothers from foreign countries, "Do you make a bento in your country?" And some of them said, "No...” We learned that making a bento might be a custom unique to Japan.
Let's Learn How to Make a Bento.
Ms.Hsinyi Nitta was the day’s cooking instructor. She is from Taiwan, but she learned how to make “chara-ben (a shorten word of character bento)” by herself in Japan. The day’s chara-ben was to contain three different animal-shaped onigiris (rice balls); a bird, a pig, and a bear. She gave a demonstration of making each part on the animal’s faces; for example, cutting a sausage into ear shapes and attaching them to the head with toasted pastas; cutting seaweed into eye shapes and sticking them with mayonnaise. Then, she showed how to make two kinds of flower shapes with hum and fish sausage, and also how to make “tamago-yaki (Japanese rolled omelet)”, which is one of the most common side dishes of bento. (Here is the link to the recipe of bento.)
Let’s Make It!
“How long will it take to make the chara-ben…?” Some of the mothers were worried when Ms. Nitta was giving a demonstration. But once they started, they found it not as difficult as they had expected. Mothers as well as fathers made small parts such as ears, noses, eyes…, while sometime viewing the recipe written by Ms. Nitta. At the same time, their kids put those parts on the onigiris to be made into the animal faces.
Lunch Time
Finally the time had come when kids were waiting. The parents and kids enjoyed eating the chara-ben together. Kids may have felt satisfied more than usual, not only because it looked cute, but because they made the chara-ben with their parents.
Upcoming Meeting
Next Ichigo Ichie is to be held at Café Kokoraku on December 2, Sunday. The theme is “How to spend winter in Japan / Let’s enjoy Christmas games!”. See you at next Ichigo ichie!
(Reported by Naoko, Photos by Shin-ichiro)
