The Seven Dishes in Ryuji's Mountaintop Bento for a Hike, and How He Adapted Them for a Packed Lunch

The morning after filming, a car is coming at 6 to pick them up. Ryuji says he canceled a drinking party that day, turning it down with "I can't go because I have to make a bento." There was apparently a serious discussion within the company about who would go on the hike. The staff laugh that, honestly, they don't want to go either. On the other hand, Ryuji also recounts how Kuwata gave him about 200,000 yen worth of hiking gear for his birthday.

One staff member is scheduled to take charge of the bento and head up to the summit ahead of time by ropeway. Hearing that the ropeway takes 4 minutes while walking takes about 2 hours, Ryuji grumbles, "Let's just take the ropeway."

Ryuji describes Kuwata as someone who eats a lot, which makes him a pleasure to share a meal with. He also notes that because Kuwata is in a position of recommending good things to people, he studies delicious food closely, down to where the shrimp or the meat comes from. This is the first time Ryuji has seriously made a bento for a picnic, and he takes it positively, saying you could say Kuwata "gave me content."

First, he cooks 3 cups of rice. He went with plain salt onigiri, with no filling, because there are already plenty of other dishes like karaage and tamagoyaki, so he figured the rice didn't need any.

Ryuji's method for rice meant for onigiri is to add about 2 teaspoons of rice bran oil before cooking. He explains that this gives the rice a sheen and makes it taste good even when cold. He also adds about 3 shakes of umami seasoning. It would actually taste better if the rice were soaked before cooking, but there wasn't time, so he cooked it as is. The rice, from Fukushima Prefecture, comes out slightly firm because of the oil. Ryuji says salt onigiri taste better when the rice is cooked with oil. He spreads the rice in a tray to cool a little and shapes the onigiri using only Ajishio. This is Ryuji's favorite onigiri, which he calls "the best in the world."

Since karaage is a bento classic, he makes a version that doesn't require marinating. The base is one chicken thigh, but since that seems like it won't be enough, he adds one chicken breast and prepares them together.

For bento karaage, Ryuji prefers to leave out garlic and use only ginger. About 15 g of ginger. He adds 1½ tablespoons of soy sauce, ⅔ teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of Hymie, seasoning firmly with salt, soy sauce, and umami. No sake, either. Ryuji explains that adding sake means you need marinating time, but if you build the seasoning only from salty ingredients—salt and soy sauce—the flavor soaks in quickly. That way, it tastes good without a long marinade.

The coating is potato starch only, about 8 tablespoons mixed directly into the meat. He used to coat the pieces separately, but that meant the extra hassle of preparing a tray, and the coating came out thick. Mixing it in directly gives a thin coating, and Ryuji says a thick coating doesn't suit a bento. He pours rice bran oil about 1 cm deep in the pot and fries on high heat on an induction cooktop. It uses oil, but everything can be fried in one batch, so it isn't much trouble.

Because it's for a bento, the coating won't stay crunchy. Even so, Ryuji says, "You could even say bento karaage is good because it's a bit soft." He adds that it tastes better if you drain the oil and let the pieces cool slightly before packing.

The tamagoyaki is also adapted for the bento. The dashimaki Ryuji usually makes has a lot of liquid. Putting it in a bento as is would make things soggy, so he reduces the water for a firmer result. 30 cc of water for 6 eggs. When making a large batch, he says it's fine to just mix with a whisk. For seasoning, he simply adds one whole packet of Higashimaru udon soup.

He uses a spatula rather than chopsticks to cook it, the idea being that as long as you can roll and spread it, that's enough. He says it's totally fine if the first roll is a mess, and he shapes the finished omelet while it's still warm and sets it aside. He says rolling is easy because there's little liquid. When a staff member says, "I couldn't roll it well, so I mixed potato starch into the egg," Ryuji responds, "That works too." It also comes up that using a squeeze bottle with a nozzle to oil the pan is easier than a wadded paper towel.

To be honest, salt onigiri, karaage, and tamagoyaki alone would have been plenty. Still, Ryuji says having a side dish like this lifts the mood, and he adds some vegetable dishes.

He boils the spinach in water salted to 1%, adding the stems first, for about 1½ to 2 minutes. He cools it and squeezes it all the way to the roots. Ideally, he says, you should drizzle a little soy sauce on before squeezing. The reason is that it has an effect similar to salting and squeezing, and it also picks up the aroma of soy sauce. This time he just gave it a quick swirl of soy sauce.

For seasoning: a handful of crumbled nori (about 3 g), 1½ teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 pinches of sugar, and 2 shakes of umami seasoning. The crumbled nori combines nicely with the spinach's moisture, so it's less likely to get watery even in a bento. Ryuji says a slightly sweet soy sauce flavor tastes better. The staff member who tasted it also said it was delicious.

Next up is carrots. He starts cutting without deciding what to make and settles on something kinpira-style. To about 160 g of carrots he adds 1½ tablespoons of ground sesame and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. He stir-fries it with ⅔ teaspoon of iriko dashi, which he says is his current favorite. Hondashi would work too, but iriko gives it a more authentic flavor, he says. To finish, he adds 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and 1½ teaspoons of mirin for gloss and sweetness, plus a pinch of salt. He stir-fries it well to cook off the moisture and lets it cool slightly in a tray.

Ryuji explains that kinpira keeps well, feels nutritious, and is less likely to spoil because it has little moisture. It's also mentioned here that, as a rule, low-moisture foods are considered best for bento.

This leads into a discussion of how a bento you eat yourself differs from one you give to others. For his own, anything goes. Ryuji has also published a recipe book called Bento to Live By, but he laughs that it's based on a for-yourself mindset. He then says, "Cooking for other people is nice, isn't it," and "I bet they'll be happy with this."

There was leftover thinly sliced pork, so figuring one more meat dish would be welcome, he adds shogayaki. Ryuji usually uses both grated and minced ginger. This time, since the karaage also has ginger, he uses only about 20 g of grated ginger. The pork is already sliced, so he doesn't season it beforehand.

He uses onions from Awaji Island. These are onions someone pitched to him, and according to Ryuji, the young influencer who made the pitch didn't convey their appeal at all. But the onions themselves were delicious, so he "pushed them through anyway." They're high in sugar and sweet even without much cooking. He says he heard they're sweet because they're grown on dry land. He also mentions that some growing areas apparently water them with seawater. Adding these will also give Kuwata's channel something to talk about, he says, jokingly praising himself for "even thinking about the footage for someone else's channel."

For seasoning: 1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, sake, and mirin, plus 3 shakes of Ajinomoto. He then adds potato starch dissolved in sake to thicken it. The conversation turns to how convenience store bento shogayaki is also thickened. Adding potato starch holds the moisture in instead of letting it evaporate, and no water leaks out of the ingredients, so the bento doesn't dry out. Judging it a bit lacking, he adds 1 teaspoon each of soy sauce and mirin. Since the karaage is on the salty side, he makes this one a little sweet with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Any more, he says, and it would get too sweet. Showing that no liquid seeps out even after transferring it to a tray, Ryuji says, "I think this is a pretty useful video."

Finally, he makes one more vegetable dish. A staff member suggested something sour, so they decided on stir-frying with umeboshi. The thinking was simply that it might be good for fatigue. 200 g of eggplant and 170 g of zucchini. Ryuji says zucchini is easy to cut.

He sprinkles the eggplant lightly with salt and lets it sit. Wiping off the water that comes out keeps it from absorbing oil, he says. He stir-fries in 1 tablespoon of rice bran oil, adds the pitted flesh of 3 umeboshi, and finishes the seasoning with 1 teaspoon of kombu dashi. It's a light, salty flavor. He explains that since zucchini can be eaten raw with a nice crunch, it's done once the eggplant is cooked through. After tasting it, Ryuji repeated, "This ume stir-fry is good."

When the staff were surprised that he'd made this much while the rice was cooking, Ryuji replied that homemakers and anyone else who cooks have to be good at planning their workflow.

Once he packed the onigiri first, the box was nearly full. So he fit the karaage and thickly sliced tamagoyaki into the gaps, and divided the remaining dishes into a separate container. The saucy shogayaki was partitioned off with aluminum foil to keep the flavors from mixing. Watching everything fit snugly into the container, the staff were delighted: "It fits perfectly."

For containers without lids, Ryuji explains that if you wrap them round and round with plastic wrap both lengthwise and crosswise, nothing will leak or spill. The finished bento is stored in the refrigerator and taken along the next day. The whole thing took a little over an hour.

While working, Ryuji let slip that this is much harder than shooting a regular video. He says people always count on him to cook on camping trips and the like, but he doesn't mind being relied on. He also says he was able to push through because Kuwata said he was looking forward to it. Making a bento uses a variety of techniques, and you have to plan the workflow in your head. He recalled that his grandparents used to make bento for his school sports days, and that it must have been hard work. His honest feelings also came out: people who don't cook casually ask you to make them a bento, but it's tough. Ryuji called the finished bento "the culmination of my cooking skills."

The next day, the group reaches the summit and opens the bento. Ryuji explained the contents one by one: salt onigiri cooked with rice bran oil, karaage made from both breast and thigh, a six-egg tamagoyaki, thickened shogayaki, spinach with nori, carrot and sesame kinpira, and eggplant and zucchini stir-fried with umeboshi. He had added salt to the karaage as a finishing touch. He also said he seasoned everything on the strong side, figuring they'd be sweating.

The people eating it said things like the tamagoyaki is salty and delicious, the onion seems like the star of the shogayaki, and the carrots and zucchini are good too. Someone also remarked that everything is well seasoned. Another reaction was that it's great to have a summit meal with vegetables, since the summit restaurant mainly serves curry, soba, and udon. The bento was finished off in no time.

Ryuji reflected that it was fun to cook while picturing the faces of the people who would eat it and the place where they'd eat it. When Kuwata's side said, "We want you to come every time" and "It's official, this is a series," he replied, "I'm not making it" and "I don't need to climb anything, right?", which got a laugh. Even so, Ryuji says there actually are quite a few requests for him to make a proper bento to take outdoors. He suggests that this lineup could work as a set for people who don't know what to make for a sports day or picnic. He also said that it was a hassle at first, but he got into it partway through.

The video wraps up with the bento's good reception confirmed at the summit. Footage of Ryuji struggling during the climb is available on Kuwata's channel.