Mother Hen Project

From the email I sent my co-workers:
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Omakase in Japanese means to "entrust". In Japanese restaurants, to order an omakase means to leave it to the chef's hands. You'll never know what you're going to get because everything you eat is up to the chef.

Bento, or obento, is also a Japanese word that essentially means a "home-packed meal". In Japan, there are bentoyas (ya means "store") near the train stations so that salarymen can pick them up on their way to work. Japanese moms also make them for their children to take with them to school.

This is an experiment right now and I'm charging $5 per bento. I'm calling it OMAKASE BENTO. It would be a challenge to keep meals warm, so I'll start with cold and easy-to-microwave lunches first. Since it's omakase, you won't find out what's for lunch until, well, lunch time :)

I'll be cooking a lot of veggies, and once in a while seafood, because those are easier to make, plus they're healthier. (I tried to work out a plan where I only use organic Northeast ingredients, but that didn't help with keeping the price below $5 so I have to wait before I can roll that out.) I think $5 is a good deal considering you usually pay $8 for a cold sandwich. Plus, everything will be made with Cia-love! I'll be eating the same lunches, too, so if I don't keel over, you don't keel over.

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I'm only doing it every Monday for now so that I'm not cooking all the time. But a lot of people have already signed up until end of May. Click each set for photos; recipes are linked.