First use of my bentos

Made from dinner's leftovers:

It's not the healthiest but we had people over for dinner and I didn't have a vote on the matter (the deep fried thingies).  This is my box and on the picture it does look huge to me, not in real life. Most people whom I've shown the boxes to say "it's so small!" and  "you'll be hungry!" and many other related things to small and not enough food. Bento boxes are not known in my country (at least not by 98% of the population) and portuguese, the most traditional, don't rely on food measurements but on making sure no one at their table will get hungry. This is a reason why when I'm with my grandparents (and having been taught to always clean the plate) I put on weight. It's not that the food is unhealthy; they just put too much food on the plate and then we "can't leave anything to waste"

My love's lunch box. He didn't want eggplant so he got some empty space on the bottom tier. We'll see if he gets hungry eating this, I doubt I'll be hungry with mine.

From now on I will post only 1 of the 2 bento boxes depending on how good they look, (if they both look good, I'll put them both :D) some things fit better on the rectangular, others on the oval bento box, simply the rectangular one belongs to my love, the oval one to me.

I'll leave you with a scenery of Portugal - Setúbal, Arrábida.

Cooking Spree

It's been a while since I had that feeling of wanting to cook something new!

Korokke! I used a youtube's recipe ( i love cookingwithdog) and made some soboro for emergencies (Recipe from AnnaTheRed)

This should be enough for 3/4 good lunches. Everything worked perfectly in the kitchen! The soboro's sauce evaporated nicely, the korokke got golden brown and i managed to make about 18 of them, for rushed evenings/mornings. Here they are just before being frozen:

I had never tried panko before and I must say it was wonderfully crunchy! Something you can't get with normal breadcrumbs, or at least me. I'm not a fan of deep fried things, specially the smell of hot oil and mushy, greasy food, but most of the oil was gone from these and none of it got inside. I was so pleased with this, specially because it fills me up quite fast, and I've got a bit stomach.

We went for a walk on a different place, the tide was very high, cold but sunny. I miss seeing the sea everyday like in Madeira, this was the best I could get (it's Tejo river).

For dinner, we ate out and I took a picture because most people out of portugal have no idea you can cook this "thing" like this:

Can you guess what it is?

Fried eel! How does that sound to you? These weren't the best ones I've eaten but when well fried they're really good. Not so good for health but I eat them once a year, if lucky. Usually is eaten with tomato rice and saute'd bell pepper salad.

Do you know some unique foods from your country?