Bento

I love bento. It's super cute, convenient, time-saving, and for me it brings back memories of Japan. So, I was excited when I recently discovered this website (here) that sells bento lunch boxes big enough for American appetites.

A good site for buying authentic Japanese bento boxes and accessories is jbox (here). Though, I don't think I've actually ever bought anything from there. Discover picks, punches, cups (they look like tiny paper cupcake cups), shapers, bottles, etc.

An awesome blog for bento ideas is Vegan Lunch Box (here). If you are scared off by the word "vegan" you can always get ideas from the site and make whatever dietary changes are necessary - or you can use this site for your Meat Free Monday lunch!

I'd better go pack my lunch for tomorrow! :)

(The photo above is from luckysundae's Flickr page. Yay for creative commons)!

Hole to Feed

This is the fourth in a series of blog entries about songs picked at random from my itunes library. For the post on the last song, "Every Little Thing" go (here). For "No Surprises" go (here). For "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Love Version)" go (here).

"Hole to Feed" is a song that is still pretty new to me. It's the second song of of Depeche Mode's latest album, Sounds of the Universe, and it's a Dave song. Yes, Dave writes songs now. And then he feels compelled to sing them in concert. So, yeah, that happens.

I went to see DM at the Hollywood Bowl last week. It was a good show, but not the livliest Depeche show I've been to, and it was honestly songs like "Hole to Feed" (which is an OK song, really, it just drags a bit) which kind of slowed things down. I understand that they had to cancel their show in San Diego a few days before on doctor's orders so Dave could rest his voice, so I guess it makes sense that they would need to lower the energy level a little.

The big problem was that Dave didn't even take his shirt off! He was wearing a scarf around his neck the whole time (again, probably for his voice?) but my friend who was really looking forward to the shirtless spinning around during "A Question of Time" was disappointed (as were we all). Still, wishes of good health for Dave (and Mart and Fletch)!

The song I really like from SotU so far is "Peace." It's written by Martin (as most songs should be) and they did not do it in concert.

By the way, watch the video for "Wrong", the first single from SotU, on YouTube (here). It is messed up! People wearing people masks are freaky, the shot of the guys walking by is cool, and the fact that the car is going backwards is just, well, wrong.

Fruits and Veggies

Since I wrote about coffee and donuts in the last post...

I recently found these two websites while reading an article about how to save money at the grocery store.

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides (here) has a list (here) of which vegetables and fruits are the worst when it comes to pesticides. How does this save you money? You buy organic for the worst offenders on the list (#2 is apples) but for those lower on the list you don't need to spend the extra money. They also have an iPhone app! Search "Dirty Produce" in the app store.

Fruits & Veggies: More Matters (here) is a site that, among other things, tells you what kinds of produce are in season when (here). Fruits and Vegetables that are out of season cost more.

The fruit you should probably always buy organic, or at least skin before you eat it? Peaches. Something you probably never have to buy organic? Onions. And what about grapes? Domestic grapes are fine, but if they are imported you should go organic.

Speaking of fruit, if you haven't seen it yet you MUST watch this video on how to open a banana like a monkey (here) on YouTube - it will either change your life or reinforce how awesome you already are. (I just noticed that the guy in the video is wearing monkey pajama pants).

(The photo above is from tornatore's Flickr page. Yay for creative commons)!

Coffee and a Donut

So, I used to live in Japan.

I was just thinking about a donut chain there called Mr. Donut. They are everywhere. There was one by my apartment and I used to go there sometimes and get the pink donut - it's called "strawberry milk ring."

You can see the donuts at the website (here). The site's in Japanese, but donuts are a universal language.

Another chain seen everywhere is the coffee shop Doutor. My friends and I pronounced it "do tour" but someone once said it was really "doe - tore" though in Japanese it's "doe too ru," I remember making plans to meet a friend of mine downtown and she told me to meet at some place that was "right next to Doutor." I was like an hour and a half late. In my defense, those were pretty weak directions.

Right now the Doutor website features a video of a crazy flying hotdog, so it's not as exciting as, say, Mr. Donut, but you can visit it (here) also in Japanese. The names of the menu items are in English, though - go (here).

I used to get iced coffee. I never get just plain iced coffee here. :(

This website reminded me of a word I had forgotten - osusume. It means "recommendation" sort of. Ah! I distinctly recall asking for osusumes at tea shops, etc. Nostalgia!

Anyway, go ahead - Japanese websites are not going to bite you!

(The photo above is from ffg's Flickr page. Yay for creative commons)!

Dibs

It's summer, so I just wanted to say a few quick things about frozen snacks.

I would like to acknowledge Dibs (the bite-sized ice cream snack) for doing something I don't think I've ever seen before - having a serving size that was actually larger than most people would eat! I bought some Dibs and had a few when I started to wonder how bad they are for you - when I turned the package over I expected to see a ridiculous serving size like 2 - to my surprise it was 29! That's half a box! I seriously doubt I could eat half a box of dibs in one sitting - even if I wanted to.

As a comparison, flaming hot Cheetos, which are famously eaten by elementary school children one family-sized bag at a time, suggest you eat only 13 at a time. When have you seen a child who could only eat 13 hot Cheetos? Those things are covered in some kind of red crack for kids.

How much exercise does it take to work off 13 hot Cheetos? One website suggests...

• Doing light housework (such as dusting) for 46 minutes
• Operating a snowblower for 35 minutes or
• Playing 13 minutes of Jai Alai

So kudos to Dreyers, the makers of Dibs, for not trying to put one past the average American consumer and Happy Summer!

Orange

I used to take a lot of photographs. I would sometimes do photo challenges on Flickr. These are pictures I took when the challenge was "orange."