Okinawan Shoyu Pork Bento

I’ve been going through a lot of stress lately that’s related to the nasty behavior of my children. It’s like I’m riding on this freakish roller coaster where one second my heart is melting from a darling moment with one of them and the next I’m shrieking about a 2″ Sharpie line on my barely-a-year-old couch. One morning Buddy will get fully dressed all by himself and the next morning, he’ll be shrieking and screaming on the ground when I tell him he has to go get his own socks. My only hope is that it’s just a phase and he grows out of it.

I find it so hard to believe that it’s mid-November already. I usually don’t remember where the year went but this year seemed to go by especially quickly. I’m obviously still in a bento rut and it’s gotten worse now that I typically wake up at 7:15 instead of 6:45 like I used to.

I made this bento a couple of weeks ago but never got around to posting it. I used leftover Okinawan style shoyu pork, a recipe that I was trying out for the first time. I was using my Maui Cookbook, which is the only real cookbook without photos that I use, since it’s like, contributed by tons of aunty-like ladies on Maui. Who can’t have at least a little faith in that? 🙂

Anyway, having never tried this recipe before, I didn’t document any of the cooking. I will say that it tasted fantastic and that I will definitely be making it again, only more bento friendly, by cutting the meat into small pieces instead of leaving it as a ginormous pork butt. Once I do that, I’ll feel better about posting the recipe, as I’m not sure if cutting up the meat will affect the texture of the meat or something.

I’ve been a broccoli tormentor lately, only remembering the poor crowns when they’ve yellowed and become decrepit sad things that can’t be used in bentos, so I’ve been using pickled veggies, which I buy from the market. One of these days I’ll actually use my Easy Japanese Pickling book again, which I only used once… In fact, maybe I should get off my lazy butt and use it today!