Went Shopping!

We went shopping! And we had a lot of fun.

First we went to Kamei, and didn't buy anything. We wanted to see what was up in Japantown first, and come back if we needed to. We didn't, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't anything to get! They had plenty of tupperware type bentos, and stuff, and lots of cooking things. They also had a few more laquered looking bentos, but they were too big for my taste.

The other thing with Kamei is that I go there very often, so I can always stop by on another trip.

After that we stopped by Green Apple, of course, and there my husband found me a cookbook (enabler!) it's called Secrets from a Healthy Asian Kitchen, by Ying Chang Compestine.

After Green Apple, we took off for Japantown.

First we stopped at Soko Hardware. They had a good selection of rice cooker there at very reasonable prices. I didn't buy one cause the one I needed was still out of my budget (I'm waiting for a paycheck!!) but I might just stop by again soon. I looked around real quick, but decided to go to Ichiban Kan first, and then come back to Soko.

We went to the mall and found Moritaya first. We didn't find anything there. They had a few small and very overpriced boxes. Really I wouldn't waste any time there anymore.

Finally we made it to Ichiban Kan. Oh my, it's like a candy store! We bought 2 small bentos, eggs molds, small containers (4 round and 4 rectangular), a mini microwave steamer, decorated plastic toothpicks (with seacritters at the end, too cute), elastic band to hold the bentos (2 packs of 2) and onigiri molds (triangles, and cute shapes). All of that, plus a little bag to hold my husband's contact lense stuff and his glasses for $18!

After that we went back to Soko Hardware, and I bought another bento (2 tiers, bigger then the ones from Ichiban Kan) and I found mini sauce bottles! I couldn't find them, but I asked the lady and there they were! I want to mention that the staff at Soko Hardware is absolutely wonderful. They answered my million of questions about rice cooker (I want one to make brown rice) and found the tiny sauce bottle for me and everything! I'll stop there again for sure!

This is everything that we bought! All of this for about 40$! I love San Francisco.

Mini steamer, I wanted this to be able to steam veggies real quick in the morning.. also it's big enough for steamed buns and for potstickers!

Mini containers, mini sauce bottles to carry to goodies along!

Egg molds and Onigiri molds! I can't wait to try them out!!!!!

And finally, my bento boxes, the two smaller ones were from Ichiban Kan, $1.50 each!!!! The other one, the bigger quare one, was from Soko and was about $10.

There they are opened:

There you have it! My Bento shopping expedition. I found pretty much everything I was looking for. A few things I figured weren't worth getting, others I'll get later online.

We had a lot of fun really, and now I'm all the more optimistic about the whole thing!

Happy Bento everybody!