Tom's mom, my mother-in-law, is in Hawaii right now.
She usually makes sandwiches and eats them when she goes out.
But today, I'm going to make Japanese bento.
Tom is from the country side of Michigan.
There are some Asian restaurants, but he doesn't go there often.
I don't think Tom's mom has ever eaten Japanese bento.
So, I'm going to make Japanese bento and have lunch with everyone.
The bento is a simple bento that I usually make.
I hope you enjoy watching how Japanese bento looks like.
First, I'm going to make a meatball.
Japanese bento and American bento have different flavors.
I think that's fun, so I'm going to make a meatball this time.
Do you want onigiri? Let's make onigiri, too.
I'm going to make ketchup sauce.
I'm just going to mix it.
Are you going to mix the ketchup together?
Do you like mommy's bento, Roji?
I like it!
Was it a little big?
Wow! I want to eat fried shrimp.
You want to eat fried shrimp, don't you?
How was the fried shrimp I made?
It was delicious!
I want to eat fried shrimp, too.
Put the lid on and heat it up.
There may be a gap, so I'm going to add a little asparagus.
Asparagus bacon.
I don't know what it's called, but I'm going to make it just in case.
Roji, do you want to try this?
Yeah, I'll try it.
It's a shoo-shoo, isn't it?
Hold this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to put it here.
Ta-da!
Mommy became Roji.
That's right.
Roji is transforming!
Good boy.
Let's make Tamagoyaki.
Roji, you like Tamagoyaki, don't you?
Do you like Tamagoyaki, too?
Next, I'm going to make Tamagoyaki.
I think he'll be back soon.
Tomo likes Inari-san.
I think Tomo-mama will like it, too.
I want to make rice balls with Inari-san.
I want to make a lot of things for him.
I think it would be nice if I could make it.
It's done!
Hello!
Hello again!
How was everything?
Nice to meet you.
Yeah, travel is very long.
You know, that dress looks really cute on her.
Yeah, it's a perfect size, too.
Because you don't know, you know?
Yeah, because every piece has a different size.
Right, right.
Oh, it looks so cute on her.
Here you go.
I made curry the other day,
but I made curry croquette with the leftovers.
I'm going to bake it.
I thought small rice balls would be fun,
so I'm going to make small rice balls with the leftovers.
Croquette is done!
Now I'm going to put it in a lunch box.
I don't have a lunch box,
so I'm going to cover the lunch box with paper.
The meatball looks like this.
I don't know if you've seen this before,
but it's a pumpkin and cream cheese salad.
It has raisins in it.
My friends love it.
I make it every time I buy a pumpkin.
I'm going to use a bento box.
Hey, Japanese lunch box!
Hope you like it!
Let's go ahead and open!
It's a bunny and a leaf.
What did you get?
A bunny and a leaf.
I don't even know where to start.
We have a Japanese meatball,
a curry croquette with cheese inside,
asparagus bacon,
and a Japanese rolled egg.
Inari is a kind of sushi,
but it's a sweet sushi.
It's a regular rice ball with furikake.
How do you season it?
Just season it.
There are two kinds, so you can try.
Two different flavors.
Okay, Rose, you start eating.
She's hungry.
Inari and the rice ball,
I think it's easy to break,
so you can use a spoon to scoop it.
Just to clarify,
the croquette is potato.
Oh, no, it's not potato.
I use rice.
Rice, curry, and cheese.
Itadakimasu!
What did you try?
How is it?
I've watched your videos
cooking in there.
I get to finally eat one!
It's soft.
The flavor is different.
It's Japanese.
Maybe it's a little bit salty.
No, no, it's not salty.
It's delicious.
It is.
It's pumpkin with cream cheese.
Do you like it?
It's really good, isn't it?
It's kind of rare for Americans
to have pumpkin
like this much,
but you usually have squash,
but this is much more pumpkin.
This is better than anything I saw in downtown Waikiki.
It's so true, though.
It's very true.
I was saying that we were eating at restaurants together,
but my stomach never felt right
after eating it,
but these kinds of meals
are better quality.
It's homemade.
Bacon-wrapped asparagus.
This is Tom's favorite bacon.
That's true.
I really do like this bacon
because it's not cured.
You don't have that heavily salted flavor.
It's really good.
I'll fly over anytime you want me to
test your cooking.
That would be nice.
Come over and try this new dish.
This is delicious.
There's usually more than two dishes
with the rice.
Protein, with the veggies.
Japanese lunchbox is
bento.
How many different meals?
One, two,
three, four,
about six different things.
And then the vegetables as well.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I know.
So many different things.
Sometimes I cook ahead of time.
When I wake up, I don't need to rush
to make anything.
I use my lunchbox.
Meatballs are super good.
The glaze on them is really good.
They're really good.
I have to get the recipe from you.
Yeah, for sure.
Do you have a favorite?
Yeah, which food?
Tamago.
Tamago?
Rosy really likes tamago.
When you went to Japan for the first time,
how was that experience?
Yeah, it was fun.
Was it during the fall season?
It was Thanksgiving.
It was November.
How was the Japanese wedding ceremony?
Oh my goodness, beautiful.
I was part of that.
To have the kimono experience,
to have everything
and to be wrapped in the kimono,
that was special.
How was the kimono?
Was it too tight?
You knew that it was on,
but it was pretty special.
I liked the place that we stayed.
We had the bathhouse.
Oh, yeah.
How was the bath?
I loved it.
I think I did it backwards when I first went.
You went to the bath first?
Yeah, I went to the bath first.
And then I went,
okay, everybody's looking at me.
I go, I think I was supposed to shower first.
Because I did it twice.
So the next time I went,
I did the shower first.
And then no one looked.
That was delicious.
When you said, we're having lunch here,
I thought, okay, that's nice.
I figured a sandwich.
I didn't know I was going to be treated.
Do you remember which one is your favorite?
The meatballs were very, very good.
The meatball,
there was the fried rice that was curry flavor.
Then there was the
sweet rice
like wrap.
Then you had the
bacon wrapped asparagus.
And the pumpkin
pumpkin rice.
I think the meatball.
Meatball?
The bacon wrapped asparagus.
The rice that was
fried curry rice.
All of them were good.
It's hard to pick the best.
It's hard to pick the best because
they all went nice together.
Usually when you pick the best,
it's like a competition where
everybody has to make the same thing.
So we have a chili cook-off and everybody makes a chili.
And then you're like, well, this chili is what I call
the best chili.
But here, all of these are separate dishes.
But at that point, it's just
what you want to eat more.
But what I want to eat more
is the meatballs.
Yay, meatballs!
Teach her how to say
gochisousama deshita.
When you're done
eating the food,
then you say
gochisousama deshita.
It's very long.
Can you
shorten it down to gochisousama?
No.
Can you say it
slowly?
It's like
learning the names of the streets
in Hawaii.
So, three words.
Gochi
Sou
Sama
Gochisousama
And then, deshita.
Deshita.
It was good.
Thank you!