Bentos Through The Seasons

I haven't been updating my blog with pictures of my bento lunches since February. Here is a collection of 14 of my favourite ones in the past 6 months. 

5.2.2014: First bento for the Lunar Year of the Horse. The pretzel rods spell out the Chinese character for 'horse', while the pineapples and pomelo add a festive touch.

3.3.2014: A star onigiri bento for lunch. 

24.3.2014: Vegan schnitzel salad bento, with green apple slices and 2 mango plums for dessert. 

31.3.2014: A bento to honour a certain club which rose to the top of the league table on 31 March ;) The letters were cut out of Quorn vegetarian bacon, while the Liverpool FC pick was one of the cupcake picks I made for Aravind's birthday. 

14.4.2014: A confused bento.

This started off as an Easter bento, which explains the nests of grapes and cherry tomatoes. Then I thought, heck, I don't have any particular feelings about Easter. What I do care about is football, and LFC, so I changed the theme halfway and made onigiri to commemorate Liverpool's 3-2 victory over Manchester City. 

22.4.2014: Earth Day bento in garish technicolour, with the most frightful onigiri in the history of mankind.

Oh well. Happy Earth Day! 

Remember, it's never too late to learn, take action and make a difference! 

5.5.2014: Not too late for a Star Wars bento. Star Wars Day i.e. May the Fourth was the previous day. 

5.6.2014: Show the trees some love this World Environment Day!

May we all tread gently on the good Earth and be mindful of the impact of our actions, choices and purchases on the environment. 

23.6.2014: A chimpanzee-themed bento, inspired by my encounter with Dr Jane Goodall in early June. 

22.7.2014: Missing Türkiye and seeing too many reminders of that beautiful country this Ramadan, hence a Türkiye-themed bento. 

30.7.2014: July 29 was World Tiger Conservation Day (at least that's what I think it's called) so I made this last-minute bento in observance of this cause. 

12.8.2014: World Elephant Day bento. Complete with ElephANTS on a Log, geddit? 

May we strive to protect elephants and their habitats. 

May we see a worldwide ban on ivory within our lifetime. 

May all captive elephants be granted the freedom and dignity they deserve. 

19.8.2014: So guess who was happy with the great start to the season? Go, Liverpool FC! 

25.8.2014: An early National Day bento. With a Kool-Aid fruit salad that went wrong.

Football Victory Commemorative Bento

I made a football-themed bento in honour of Liverpool's 5-0 victory over Norwich City on Saturday.

The top left compartment holds organic carnival salad (purple cabbage, lettuce, red and yellow peppers, and diced carrots).

 The top right compartment holds 5 slices of starfruit, raisins, and 2 sauce bottles for the salad dressing. The bunny bottle holds apple cider vinegar while the lion bottle holds olive oil.

The main compartment holds 3 football onigiris on a field of lettuce. I wanted to put 5 footballs there but they wouldn't fit. Besides, there's no way I could eat all 5 in a day.

Plus, it wouldn't be compatible with the principles of mindful eating as advocated by Dr. Jane Goodall in "Harvest For Hope", one of the books I ordered from Better World Books using a gift voucher I received on my birthday from my good friend Amanda C.

The onigiri isn't filled, I'm having them together with vegan Japanese curry, stored in a separate spill-proof Lock & Lock container.

It's going to be a good week.

Football's Coming Home

Despite the events I had written about in my previous blogpost, the Liverpool FC vs Malaysia XI match on July 16 was still one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had.

Over 34,800 fans turned up for the training session on Thurs, July 14. Audrey Q and I took half the day off to go to the National Stadium to watch Liverpool train. It was exciting for me to finally get to see my childhood heroes, Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, in the flesh.



Watching the training session on a sweltering Thursday evening. We made new friends, did the Mexican Wave, caused injury to others with our vuvuzelas and cheered ourselves hoarse.



Over 34,800 fans turned up just to watch Liverpool train.



Rushie waved at us!!!!



Even watching our team warm up was fun.



It's Phil Thompson AND Kenny Dalglish! What LEGENDS!!!

Saturday was the day of the match proper. I went to the SPCA in the morning to attend to some shelter work and have breakfast with Kitties-From-Sydney's Mama and left by afternoon to pick Audrey Q up. We loaded the Battletank with a cooler full of cold drinks and potato chips and went on our way to the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.



A sea of red greeted us on the match day.



Two super excited fans. Audrey was tired and in some pain by then (see previous blogpost) but she is one tough cookie and mustered enough energy and enthusiasm to cheer and yell. Thankfully, she didn't have to stand much and didn't have to jostle for standing room, as we sat in the designated seating area for the differently-abled area. When the shoving and blocking got too much, we used our vuvuzelas to scare the able-bodied ruffians away. HONK!!!



Man on! Man on!



Liverpool FC vs Malaysian XI, July 16.



GOAAAAAL!!!!! I snapped this right before the ball went in!!!



Okay, he dribbled it through, so he's not offside, see?



6th goal from Liverpool, scored by Kuyt! Got this right after the ball went in! See how dejected the Malaysian team looks! The Malaysian goalie looked like he didn't want to get up off the ground anytime soon!




... and the crowd goes WIIIIIIILD!



Thanks for the memories! You'll never walk alone!



A sweaty, stinky and triumphant fan after the match.