Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Veal Meatloaf, Sangria French Press, Peanut Butter Banana Oat Pancakes [This Week’s Weekend Eats]

Posted Aug 21, 2012 by Jeff Houck

Updated Aug 21, 2012 at 11:00 AM

I love cool-looking food.

I love Asian food.

Therefore, I love cool-looking Asian food.

How fun is a bento box, for goodness sake? Especially that one above done by Twitter friend @ohaybento.

What’s in it?

“This weekend was my very first taste of preserved sakura. Made a sakura onigiri bento.”

I’m not exactly sure what that is. So I went to my old friend the Information Superhighway for answers.

Wiki Answers says:

A “sakura” is a Japanese cherry blossom tree that sprouts pink flowers around the spring time. You often here the name sakura for Japanese manga characters, such as Sakura from tsubasa or naruto. When used as a name, sakura just means cherry blossom.

More? Why certainly.

An onigiri is a savory (salty) compressed ball of rice. It often has a filling or a coating of something savory, but there are also onigiri made of pre-flavored/mixed rice, as well as plain rice onigiri simply made with salt.

Very cool. More than I’d be able to pull off at home. Then again, I suck at making soup. That’s the culinary equivalent of missing the water when you fall out of a boat.

Congrats to @ohaybento, who wins this week’s Weekend Eats and, for her effort, goes into the Weekend Eats Hall of Fame on Pinterest and wins a most excellent new book:

“Cooking Off The Clock; Recipes From My Downtime,” by Elizabeth Falkner.

It’s available wherever fine books are sold. Me? I don’t believe the title. I’m unconvinced that with all of her TV work and bakeries and writings and appearances that Falkner actually sleeps, much less has down time.

One more special prize:

I saw this film at the Tampa Theatre earlier this year. Fantastic documentary for anyone who loves sushi.

Here is the trailer:

Who did she beat out for the grand prizes? Take a look at this week’s gallery of goodies. As you can see, it was a difficult week to pick a winner. Lots of drool-worthy objects of affection.

Click on each photo to read a description: