Nori Bento or Nori Ben is a Bento lunch box filled with Steamed Rice, Nori roasted seaweed, fried fish, and other side dishes. It’s been one of the most widely known and loved Bento for a long time in Japan. Nori Bento is nothing complicated or fancy, but it’s just a comforting kind of Bento any time.
When a Bento chain store started selling warm take-out Bento in the 1970s, they created Nori Bento and it was instantly popular. The original Nori Ben from the store consisted of deep-fried white fish such as cod, Chikuwa Tempura (a kind of fish cake), and steamed rice topped with soy sauce-flavored Katsuo bonito flakes and covered with a sheet of Nori. Nori Ben is tasty and filling, and it’s usually the cheapest one on the menu. Today other stores like convenience stores and supermarkets make Nori Bento too, though their versions vary a little. Some Nori Ben add some kind of egg dish such as Tamagoyaki or fried egg, Karaage, Kinpira Gobo, and so on, but the rice with Katsuo and Nori, fried fish, and Chikuwa Tempura are most always in Nori Bento from any store.
Our Nori Ben includes a strip of Deep-Fried Cod with tartar sauce, Chikuwa Isobeage Tempura, and easy Kinpira Gobo. All of them are on top of the traditional rice, Katsuo flakes, and Nori seaweed. We cut the sheet of Nori into squares to make it easier to eat – cutting Nori with chopsticks takes some practice! Even though each dish is not hard to make (rather easy at commercial kitchens), it’ll be time consuming if you make everything from scratch yourself. You may want to tackle this for a weekend lunch or dinner, not trying to make it for lunch in a busy weekday morning. Besides, Nori Ben is better warm, and fun to eat Bento at home too. Find cute Bento boxes for you and your family, and have Nori Bento lunch or dinner at home!
Nori Bento
*Links may contain ad. #CommissionsEarned
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Katsuobushi bonito flakes
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 3 cups Steamed Rice
- 2 sheets Nori roasted seaweed
Deep-Fried Cod
- 2 pieces Deep-Fried Cod with tartar sauce
Kinpira Gobo
Chikuwa Isobeage
- 1 Tbsp cake flour
- 1 Tbsp Katakuriko potato starch
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Aonori dried green seaweed
- 2 Tbsp water
- 1 Sticks Chikuwa fish cake
- deep-frying oil
Instructions
- Make Kinpira Gobo. Slice the Gobo thinly and diagonally. Cut into thin matchsticks. Do the same for the carrot. Heat oil in a frying-pan, and stir-fry the Gobo and carrot for a couple of minutes. Add water, cover, and cook for 5-6 minutes until almost all the water is gone. Season with Mirin, Sake, and soy sauce. Cook until the liquid is gone.
- Make Chikuwa Isobeage. Heat oil at medium heat to 350 F (175 C). Mix first 5 ingredients well in a medium bowl to make a batter. Cut Chikuwa vertically in half. Add Chikuwa to the batter and coat. Deep-fry until lightly browned and floating in the oil.
- Assemble Bento. Mix bonito flakes and soy sauce. In a sizable Bento box, put 1 1/2 cups steamed rice covering the whole bottom. Spread half of the bonito flake mixture over the rice. Cut the Nori sheet into smaller squares. Place Nori on the bonito flakes. Then top with one Deep-Fried Cod with tartar sauce, half of the Kinpira Gobo, and one Chikuwa Isobeage. Make another Bento.
Video
