Of Bentos and Taiwan Night Markets

I did some last minute bentos for their dinner yesterday and today. Not much of a Charaben, I dunno what to call them. lol. :)

The boys are starting School next week, so I'll be making daily bentos on weekdays again. The boys have already given me tons of request on what bentos they want, will try to fulfil the easier ones first. :P


This was for yesterday. This was IT's box, he had mixed grained rice, braised pork, salt/pepper chicken and cabbage/carrots. There's mayo in the piggy container.


This one was for LT, exactly the same stuff as above.


My first attempt at making pork jerky or known locally as Bak Kwa here. Recipe from Munch Ministry. It's a site for Happycall pan users, really informative.


And they had some for their dinner today. This was for IT, he had mixed grained rice, tobiko tamago, teriyaki squid, pork chop alternate with pork jerky and strawberries.


This was for LT, he gets more strawberries and no squid, as he does not like them. The cheese are melting as I was in a hurry to finish off the bento and had no time to wait for the rice to cool down.

No trip to Taiwan is complete without a visit to their happening night markets. And so, just a few shots of their night markets.


Our first stop was the Shilin night market.


We had teppanyaki for dinner, the portion was huge and the price was cheap.


We were already very full after the teppanyaki dinner, but We were all craving for the famous Taiwanese crispy chicken cutlet. So Hubby bought one from the stall with a long queue.


This was at Tamsui, plenty of shops/stalls selling food again. We had some grilled scallops.



Our last night market was the Fengjia night market in Taichung. I think this one is my favorite out of the three.



Daddy bought furry hats for the boys. IT wanted tiger, it's his favourite animal.


LT wanted a lion but it was too big for him. He settled for this husky but......he insisted it was a wolf. -_-


We had fried chicken again. :)


We saw this cool automated prawns grilling machine, so We bought some prawns to eat.

Lastly, Happy New Year, I'll be back next Tuesday with my first bento for 2012. :)

Shaun the Sheep and Pig

I finally got a bigger bento box for the boys that can fit in their dinner. I made this bento for their dinner last nite. I wanted to do some bentos that will help to recall the memorable parts of our trip. I decided to start with Sheep and Piggy, two of the many animals they saw during our holiday. :)


That's Shaun the sheep for IT, in the box are mixed grained rice, braised wings, broccoli and salmon belly.


Pig for LT, he's having the same food as above. I accidentally used red coloring for the cheese, which explains why the top portion of piggy is red.


Their 2 bentos for last nite. :) I'm sharing about the sheep, goats and pigs we saw in this post.


We stayed at Leofoo resort Guanshi for 2 nites, more on that in another post next time. These goats were at the back of the resort.



This goat was very greedy, the boys refused to feed him. lol.


LT giving him a lecture on not snatching food from your fellow goats. :P



This was on another day, on our way up to the mountains. The driver uncle that took us around was really nice, he brought us here to feed the piggies. :) He even paid for the 2 bottles of milk.



You have to hold the bottle tight, coz the pigs will just pull them away.



LT was upset, coz the piggies pulled away his bottle! After some pacifying, he fed the pigs with IT's bottle. It was amusing watching the piggies fighting and biting one another.


LT teaching the pigs a lesson this time.


This is the place we stayed in the mountains. I'm in love with the sign boards in Taiwan, they are all so cutee! :)


The lovely place we stayed, the rooms were huge and comfy. It was foggy that day.


They provide congee breakfast every morning. Very simple fare, but extremely tasty and homely.



We went to the sheep farm for a visit. LT saying hello to the sheep.


They have such pretty eyelashes.


See, even the recycle bins are so cute! :)


There were lots of spider webs everywhere. So beautiful and delicate.

Bento Shopping in Taiwan

We are back from our holiday. :) I'm sharing the bento related bits of our shopping in this post. Hope you will find it useful if you are going over for a holiday in Taiwan. :)

You can find bento stuff in Daiso, Saiyukan and Hands Tailung. The stuff they carry are different, so I think the latter two are definitely worth a visit. You can probably give Daiso a miss if you already have one in your country.


I did not plan to go Daiso, but since We walked past one, I went in for a look. Spot the boys and me in the mirror. :P


Their bento stuff were the same as what we have in Singapore. But their goods were slightly cheaper, around $1.70 each.


More bento stuff that I saw at Daiso.


The next shop I went to was Saiyukan. They have quite a few branches, and most of their stuff are relatively cheap.


I went to three different branches, and the variety is slightly different.


Lots of lunch boxes, I did not get any coz my cupboard has no space. :(


Love their picks, it's cheap, most are priced at slightly over $2.


Nori punchers and rice molds.


These were from the baking rack.


And lastly, I went to Hands Tailung. This was opened by Tokyu Hands in Japan. For those who have been to Tokyu Hands, you will know that it spans 7 levels. But Hands Tailung in Taiwan is a lot smaller, it's only one level, and so the bento stuff are very limited.


These were from the shop above Taipei train station.


Sandwich cutters. :)


Sauce containers, picks, etc.


These were from Hands Tailung in Zhongli. I love the lego lunch boxes, but they were ex!


There was another rack of bento stuff, but the staff saw me and stopped me from taking photos after this shot. :P


These are my loots. I could not resist the picks coz they were cheap, though I hardly use them in my bentos. :P


Some foodstuff from their supermarket, and a bento book by a Japenese chef who is based in Taiwan. :)


And these will be for my 200th post bento giveaway. I'll probably add in a lunch box too then. :)

Santa Claus, Reindeer and Snowman Christmas Bento

A long title for my post today! This is likely to be my last bento for this year. I would love to make more Christmas bentos but unfortunately, I doubt I have time to do so. :( I need to do some spring cleaning and get off my butt to pack for our upcoming trip soon.


Dinner Bento for IT, in the box are pork nuggets, spinach tamago, quail eggs and chicken nugget. Santa's hat and snowman's scarf are made out of candies!


Dinner Bento for LT, same food as above. IT ate LT's quail eggs. Yah, the fussy fella hates eggs. :P


Christmas bentos for the boys. :)


This salmon was also part of their dinner, I served it in another plate. I just shallow fried it with the same oil that I did the pork nuggets and lightly drizzled with soya sauce.


We chanced upon a nice cafe, just at our neighbourhood library. There were lots of crafts available for the kids to do at the cafe. These mosaic tiles crafts were done by the boys there. I did help with the clipping of the titles and final tidying up. We will be paying the cafe a visit again this Friday, when we go down to the library to return our books. I'll share some photos of the place if I do remember to bring down my camera. :)