2022 Year of the Tiger Wagyu Tartare Quilt Bento

Well that’s a mouthful… quite literally! Today is Chinese New Years Eve and since my parents and sister are in Costa Rica, I won’t have as much to do (nor as much to eat)—so I decided to treat us and make a quilt bento. I have some gorgeous wagyu short rib trimmings in my freezer, so what better way to use it up than tartare? (My 8 year old agrees too as tartare is one of her favorite things.) Quilt bentos are quite lovely, to both look at and to eat—the main point is to make it colorful in a checkered pattern, so each bite is a different experience. I do nine checkered squares, but you can easily do more if you’d like.

• You will need some white sushi rice placed on the bottom of a square bento box, use a knife to score the top of it as a guide.
• Prepare the toppings first: Wagyu tartare (frozen wagyu beef, chopped finely, with sesame oil to taste, soy sauce to taste, salt and pepper to taste, scallion garnish, yuzu zest if using.), spinach (blanched spinach with sesame oil, salt, and pepper), cucumber radish karasumi (cucumber slices, radish slices, sesame seed, and thinly sliced cured mullet roe), omelette with kombu or seaweed (egg omelette cooked low and slow in a square pan, or shredded, with strips of kombu or seaweed to look like tiger stripes.)
• Arrange them in a checkered pattern filling up each square. Serve immediately.
• You can also use imitation crab, shrimp, fish cake, asparagus, smoked salmon, roe or caviar, quail eggs, etc. Whatever your heart desires!