Yellow rice bento

Yellow rice or we call it Nasi Kuning, is a traditional Indonesian dish served with many variety of side dishes like pickled cucumber and carrots, traditional fried chicken, perkedel kentang (fried potato dough), egg omelete sliced into a thin noodle like, tempe kering ( a sweet fried tempeh with peanuts and salted dried anchovy), sambal (a chillie condiment just like ketchup here), and garnished with fresh cucumber and lemon basil leaves.

The rice it self is cooked in coconut milk with some lemon grass, indonesian bay leaves and some other spices, the color yellow comes from the turmeric, if you use a powder type of turmeric just a lil dash would do.

Many food vendors sell it only in the morning, most of the time the rice is already packed and ready for grab. It's very popular among Indonesians as breakfast on the go.
My version of nasi kuning is not always have to be served with all those yummy side dishes because to me the rice alone is alraedy yummy as it is, but eggs, sambal, and cucumber are always my top choice! simply because this is easy to prepare.
As for my kids I like to combine it with some dishes that are familiar for most kids like chicken nuggets and whatever vegetables I have in the fridge.

For this bento, instead of making an omelete I decided to made a marbled egg, its super easy to make and I know the boys love it, I normaly make a whole lot at a time, store them in an air tight food container and then put it in the fridge. It would be good for up to 4 - 5 days, but I know mine would be gone before that.


I shaped the rice with a bear and star rice mold, then I put nori for the face, off course did not cut the nori by myself, instead I am using a nori puncher. It's available at most online bento stores. I got mine from eBay. Next to the rice is a marbled egg, chicken nuggets and steamed broccoli. On the next tier I packed fresh kiwi and apples. Next to the bento box is gold fish crackers for snack, packed in a lil cute gold fish container that I got from my local fred myer last month.

This picture below is one of my old bentos I made with yellow rice :

Okay, got to go now ... have to pick up the boys from school!