Mothering Corner

I hardly blog about politic turbulence in Thailand. Firstly, I don’t know much about it previously, and secondly, it’s too sensitive. But today, I feel like sharing my feelings and anger here as this blog has quite a good number of readers from other part of the globe.

If most of you are watching CNN, you will probably still think that it’s a non-violence and peaceful protest all the time. But then, think again after you see these videos. Scroll down to the video on how they got paid.

And how should we feel with this farang who threatened to burn down a shopping mall and loot? And how do you feel knowing that their leader asked the protesters to burn down the city with gasoline? It may just be promoted as non-violence and peaceful, but they were armed and they have snipers. There are more photos here, if you are interested to see how they have destroyed the city by burning 3 dozens of buildings, caused thousands of people unemployed, and billions of lost to their own country.

Being a tax payer on this land, I felt sick and frustrated with the whole situation. You may ask why the army didn’t invade earlier, bear in mind that there were thousands of women and children in the camp. I guess most have seen the video clip of an insane protester using a toddler as human shield too. The death toll won’t be so low, if the army was meant to harm their own people.

Most of these protesters were sent home yesterday, despite being charged with their “crime”. There was a written news that some of them carried along looted goods worth more than THB10000 each, and you tell me, how these poor farmers managed to get the stuffs? They still think that they are warriors but oh please, the real warriors don’t paralyzed their own capital and cause the people originated from their hometown (the north of Thailand) jobless and others despair.

Some didn’t leave the city and will probably cause more harm and danger than it had, so curfew is extended until Sunday morning. Some of their leaders surrendered, but others fled. They were the first to flee!!! And the mastermind behind this is still having a nice time in Europe. When things got out of control, he tried to act innocent. Oh please…

The authorities are trying their best to clean the city. Restoration will probably be done once the city is declared safe. Even if most of us can eat and sleep in our own home, but it won’t feel the same anymore. There is a void in our hearts, and it takes time to heal.

Some of you may be wondering why I don’t fly out of this country, oh well, we could, but for how long? We moved here almost 2 years ago to start our biz and new life here, we really treat this new land as our home.

This is what I fixed for my kids today, who are tagging along to my office because schools are closed for safety precaution.

Bangkok is my home bento

It’s their simple lunch with rice, broccoli, tonkatsu and salmon. I fixed a small little house (which symbolized our home) from ham, artificial crab meat, carrot and kamaboko.

I hope that all arson will be stopped and peace and order can be restored soon. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support any Thai political party. It’s just that I don’t support terrorism and arson, or movements that create chaos and affect people’s lives.

Edited: If you are in Thailand and if you are interested in helping to restore the beautiful city of Bangkok, please check this out. I’m so gonna shop in CTW once it’s restored after 6 months. Pray for Bangkok and Peace in Thailand. Thanks.

Ok, the title sounds a bit weird, but it should fit today’s bentos.

Just take a look…

My boy’s “Piggy Says Hi” Bento with some blanched veggie, edamame (hidden beneath), baby carrot, a small piece of teriyaki salmon and fried buffalo wing.

I used 2 rice molds to form the pig and the bunny. Their bodies were formed with a bunny rice mold, and the heads were formed by a cat-shaped and rabbit-shaped rice molds respectively. The round rice balls were manually done by using food wrap.

My gal’s Bunny.

I think the tail on bunny’s back is way too big. I should have formed a smaller rice ball for her.

Before I start blogging about today’s lunch bentos, I would like to let some of my friends know that we are doing fine here, despite the bombing incidents, and chaotic situation in Bangkok. Things are not getting any better, and I believe more violence might be going on soon if the protesters refuse to leave the most populated commercial area of the city. Anyway, we are hardly affected as we stay in the outskirt of Bangkok, and we don’t use the trains.

I really feel sorry and bad for the victims of the bombing incident that happened days ago because they are just normal civilians. On all the clashes that happened in Bangkok, I think this is the first time civilians were targeted, ever since our stay here.  The Majesties would pay for the medical fees and funeral costs of the victims, but still, a great loss is still a great loss.

My worrying parents even asked us to move back. And by us, I mean my kids and I, but not hubby who has a job and business here. Of course, it’s a big decision, but we haven’t made up our minds yet. I still think Bangkok is a good place to stay, but a lot of other reasons might have changed our lives, besides the unstable political issue. Oh well, let’s see how things go. I haven’t paid for my kids’ new school fees, and the local insurance quote, so I guess we still have an option.

Ok, let’s get back to today’s bento.

I still have some B-herbs Herbal Coated Rice left on the shelf, so I steamed some for today’s bentos. I used this rice mold to form the shape by stacking different colored of rice layer by layer.

Square Rice Mold

I added 2 pieces of chicken nuggets, a piece of teriyako salmon and some blanched broccoli in the bentos too. The gap was filled with some lettuce, which I doubt my kids will eat because it’s kind of bitter. So, here are their lunch bentos:

My boy’s multi-colored rice bento. Nothing special about the decoration except some cute picks.

My gal has something slightly different. I added smiley faces on the rice.

My kids summer holiday ended last week, so they are tagging with me to the office, and everywhere I go. I might pack lunch for them daily this week, and then I’ll have a long Songkran break. We haven’t registered them to the new school term, so if they are not going for any new summer camp, they will be following mommy around.

I packed a simple lunch for them today. Just rice, blanched broccoli, deep fried buffalo wings, and some seafood tofu. To make their bentos more attractive, I decorated the tofu as toy soldiers. Here’s how I do it:

I prepared a blanched carrot, 2 artificial crab meat, and 4 tofu.

Hard tofu will be a better choice, or alternately, you can also use seafood tofu.

Cut the tofu into thinner slices.

Top some nori as hats and red artificial crab meat on the tofu as their red uniform.

Add stars and buttons on the hats and uniform.

Add cheeks (carrot), nose, and a thin strap of white artificial crab meat.

Punch some nori as eyes and lips, and that’s it! Here are my kids’ toy soldiers bento.

My gal’s toy soldiers, topped on her rice.

Here’s my boy’s bento.

Both kids polished the bentos clean. Yippie!

I didn’t do any grocery shopping this week since I was pretty busy, so my fridge is almost empty now. Nonetheless, I had to fix lunch for my kids today, so I could only come out with a minced pork stew dish. But to make their lunch slightly more attractive, I served their lunch in bentos.

My gal’s lunch with stew and a bunny rice ball. I added 2 cherry tomatoes in their meals too.

My boy had a monkey rice ball, with a small piece of minced pork as its nose.

The monkey was fixed with white jasmine rice and roselle rice by B-Herbs. I still need more practice in forming fancy rice balls. It took me a while in joining 2 different colors of rice together. But I guess, practice makes perfect.

I’m out of idea what to pack for my kids today, so I took out the leftover rice from the fridge, steamed it, mixed some corn kernels in the rice and formed some rice balls for my kids. I spread some butter and soy sauce on the rice ball before baking them for 10 minutes. Make sure that your rice balls are tightly formed as the rice grains might fall out after baking.

Paw rice mold

I wanted to use the paw rice mold, but too bad the corn kernels could not stick well with the rice. So in the end, I formed the rice balls manually with cling wrap. To me, it’s easier and faster to make rice balls manually, and most of my rice molds are bought for my kids.

I let the rice balls cool down before placing them in the bentos. Then, I proceeded to decoration the rice balls and packed a quail egg, strawberry, some blueberries and champagne grapes in each lunch box.

My boy’s bento with 2 smiley rice balls.

My gal has a smaller appetite, so she can only take a rice ball, if she’s hungry.

My rice is a mixed of white jasmine rice and red hom mali rice, so it’s brownish. The rice balls are slight darker after baking too.

BTW, I’ll slow down in fixing bento as my hubby is going for business trip again, and my kids might not be coming to the office frequently. Furthermore, I want to spend some time rushing my crochet poncho so that my hub can bring all my 99% completed knitting projects back to Malaysia and pass them over to the knitting shop. I’m going to be a night owl rushing my poncho! So, I don’t think I can wake up early in the morning. LOL! Luckily, I’m not crocheting anything as big as  adult halloween costumes, so I should be able to complete it in a few nights.

I bought a pack of B-herbs Herbal Coated Rice a few months ago, but I didn’t have time to try out the colored rice. I stumbled upon the rice at a Thai food fair which was held at Impact Muang Thong Thani. I love checking out the fairs at Impact because there are a lot of things to see, and not to mention, you might even find a few surprises!

Hubby and I will check the events held at Impact from time to time, and we will surely make a visit there if we are interested. We brought the kids to the National Science and Technology Fair yesterday, while I checked out the booths at Bangkok International Fashion Fair & Bangkok International Leather Fair 2009. I spent a lot at the fairs yesterday, and that explains why I stay at home on Sunday! LOL! *pokkai liao* Even if you are not interested in shopping, you can also watch the shows during some events, such as dog shows (go grab the pet supplements during the dog shows as they are a great bargain!), fashion shows, or just window shopping. I hope that I can make a trip to the annual gems and jewelry fair. I will be drooling over the items displayed at the booths! LOL!

Oops, I got too carried away! Let’s get back to my rice.

I was immediately attracted to the colored rice, especially since it’s dyed with natural herbs such as roselle, turmeric, pandanus (pandan in Malay) and butterfly pea. I bought a pack that comes with all 4 naturally colored rice.

I cooked all 4 colors of rice and thought of fixing some colorful rice balls with various rice molds. However, my boy wanted sushi so I fixed a sushi roll for their lunch. I didn’t have the right size of nori, and it’s a struggle to me to form the sushi roll! LOL!

My kids’ lunch with sushi rolls, salmon teriyaki, a piece of baked chicken wing and mixed veggies (hidden)

The dye faded off for roselle rice when I washed the rice, that’s why it turned out white. I wanted to do more with blue and green but my kids were anxious to have their lunch already. So, maybe I will “play” with the dyed rice again, if I don’t have any plan during the weekends.

My boy does not fancy fried rice, but I shall coax him to take his dinner. It’s easier to convince him to eat if his meal is served in bento, maybe he likes to have some decoration on his food. As for my gal, she hates omelet but I want to keep on introducing omelet to her, instead of giving up. Thus, I decorated the broccoli with sad and annoying expressions, as I think that’s how my kids react when they have their dinner. LOL!

My boy’s dinner bento with fried rice onigiri, a mini wiener cut into smaller pieces, a piece of omelet and broccoli.

If he’s willing to take the fried rice happily like the teddy bear baran, then he can watch TV or play with daddy’s golf training aids (especially the putting mat) and stay up later tonight. LOL! It’s Friday mah…

And here’s my gal’s bento. It will be tougher to coax my gal into trying the omelet, but I have a “secret weapon”….KETCHUP! LOL!

Hopefully, my kids are willing to co-operate, and we will have a fuss free dinner. Wish me luck…

I have a collection of rice molds, but I hardly use them. Some times, I let the kids fix the shape of their rice at dinner, but there are still a few more which we haven’t used before, such as these 2 rice molds from 100 Yen Shop.

I guess most of us are familiar with these rice molds, which you can easily place some furikake on the rice. I don’t have furikake at home, so I placed cheese on them. I know, not everyone can take the funny blend of cheese with rice, maybe it’s only my kids’ weird taste buds. LOL! So, maybe you can try egg sheets which go well with rice.

So here are their lunch bentos today…

My boy’s bento with teddy rice molds. I decorated them as kids wearing the teddy suits. There are fried chicken cubes, and mixed veggie, prepared by my mom. She insisted that I stay out of the kitchen for a week.

My gal’s bento with two flower girls and the same bento meal. Both of them had some soup too.

Pretty simple huh?