Bento days

Sometimes after a long working day, cooking in the kitchen can be a bit of a chore. I love  cooking days when I have the whole day to myself, the kitchen to myself  and all the time in the world to prepare my lunch bentos.

I also love cute bento boxes. When I was in Japan, they had so many pretty bento boxes of different shapes and sizes. I wanted to bring them all home.

Lunch bento with ossobuco and belachan kangkung with rice.

Stir fried chicken with basil, cashew nuts and button mushrooms.

Added with kailan and steamed rice, tomorrow’s simple lunch bento.

It’s been a while since I last made tamagoyaki so they look a bit wonky (^__^).

Teriyaki beef and tamagoyaki rolls with rice lunch bento.

Hooray for bento days!

Xinchen’s bday + Mahjong +Beethoven = (*___*)

I had a really lovely weekend! Too bad it only lasted till Saturday since Sunday was black assignment Sunday again (T____T).

But the weekend started early on Friday night when we celebrated Xinchen’s belated birthday. Recognize the handwriting on the cake? I made the birthday signs myself, haha, very DIY right?

Can you guess what Xinchen is wishing for? I hope he struck the lottery this weekend.

He didn’t win any money at our mahjong game though, because we don’t play with money. But it was still fun learning the rules, chatting, drinking sweet wine and playing round after round. The night wrapped up around 3am! Our latest mahjong night yet!

Saturday ramen at Arigataya. This ramen store just isn’t very consistent, we had some good ramen before on a Wednesday, but this time their broth wasn’t as flavourful, weekend diluted effect?

My first time at a German restaurant in Perth. I’ve passed by Beethoven many times and remarked ‘we should try this place some day’. And so we did on Saturday. The pretty lights at the restaurant were very welcoming and felt like it was beaconing to us  a good night ahead.

I was pleasantly surprised at the cosy and warm atmosphere inside the restaurant, the mid circle booths were comfy and the candles romantically lit.  I could already imagine coming here with friends and family.

My veal wiener schnitzel with mash, braised red cabbage and mushroom sauce. With a squeeze of lemon, this schnitzel was surprisingly tasty with crispy breadcrumbs, tender veal mopped up with a yummy mushroom sauce. This gently spiced vinegary red cabbage gave the whole dish an acidic touch and lifted the oiliness of the dish. It felt like comforting, homecooked food. I’m not sure whether that’s what German food is like, but it was nice.

This Schweinebraten was pot roasted pork leg served in a pepper corn gravy with sauerkraut and mash. The slices of pork leg were tender and flavourful, not too rich and delicious.  Another meat dish with a home cooked feel to it.

My favourite part of most meals, dessert! I don’t usually like apple strudel but this one was yummy and easy to polish off with vanilla icecream.

I really liked Beethoven, it was such a pleasant surprise and I would recommend the place to friends who like hearty, homemade, slowcooked food (Wendy and J, it’s buy one main get one main free on the Entertainment card!). I overhead a  girl who had the whole lamb rack exclaiming that she was eating so fast because it was delicious, I’m going to try that next!

Beethovens
4 Sleat Rd
Applecross, 6153

It wasn’t all eating out during the weekend. It wasn’t bulk cooking because I didn’t have time, but it was my first attempt at cooking Ossobuco, which is braised veal shanks with vegetables, white wine and chicken stock. Ligament King liked it.

I’ll cook more bentos today and blog about it next time.