Innie or Outie

This convenience store version of bento had a distinct sense of East meets West. Included in the meal were German-style potato with onion and bacon, steamed string beans and corn niblets, meat sauce spaghetti, deep fried chicken, hamburger pattie with grated daikon (radish) and julienned nori (seaweed) on an iceberg lettuce bed, and rice sprinkled with dried parsley flakes.

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This convenience store version of bento had somen with tuna, tofu/goya chanpuru, potato croquette, deep fried chicken with mystery sauce, mashed potatoes with ketchup, deep fried shrimp and white fish with tartar sauce, rice, and pickled eggplant.

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This grocery store version of bento was less-filling then what is usually seen. The meal included two types of sautéed vegetables, hot dog, potato croquette, tofu, tenpura, kamaboko, pickled ginger, mackerel, and rice.

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This convenience store dish is very popular at this time of year on island, grilled unagi (eel) with sauce on a bed of rice with pickled radish. Accompanying the dish is a bowl of nitsuke (a broth soup with items such as potatoes, carrots, string beans, pork slices, konyaku, and mushrooms.

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Here is another supermarket version of bento that was a sampler-style and had almost everything two types of rice, chicken, scrambled egg, two types of shrimp, mushroom, kamaboko, carrot, seaweed, sushi, green beans, tofu, pickled ginger, pickled plum, konyaku, and mackerel. (But no noodles or kitchen sink….)

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This is another of a local supermarket’s take-out riceballs (onigiri) that had julienned konbu (seaweed) and deep-fried shrimp with rice wrapped in a sheet of nori (another seaweed product).

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This local take-out chain store version of bento included fried soybean spouts with spam, yakisoba, potato croquette, chicken, and shrimp tenpura with rice and pickled radish.

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This supermarket version of onigiri (riceball) had pork luncheon meat, scrambled egg, and rice wrapped in nori (seaweed).

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Some brown sugar donuts, a very popular snack, from a local tenpura vendor.

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This option in the local convenience store bento boxes contained a myriad of edibles: mountain vegetables, seaweed, potatoes, potato croquette, chicken, hamburger, deep-freied pork luncheon meat in an herbed batter, deep-fried shrimp, hard-boiled egg, and rice sprinkled with herb.

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