Bento Bonanza!

I recently received correspondance from my dear Krafty1, which read in part:

What can you tell us about bento boxes? Special K and I take our lunches to school/work each day. We'd like to get something fun to carry and be able to pack without having to use plastic bags. Do you use one? What do you find useful? (What are "must-haves" as far as the actual box goes?) And if you use one, what is/are your favortite thing/s to pack?

What excellent questions! I myself have recently been acquainted, thanks to Hostie, with the wonders of the bento, and am happy to impart my knowledge!

A bento is like a Japanese lunchbox. It is either a homepacked meal, or a meal in a box ready to eat that can be purchased at places such as a bento shop or a convenience store. Although bentos can easily be bought, mothers still labor over their childrens' bentos every morning. I do occasionally use a bento myself, packed by Hostie--thank you Hostie! I find that I like a bento that has lots of compartments to keep the various pieces of my meal separate, and I like an air-tight seal, which keeps things fresh. I also like to have some kind of bag to put my box in so that it is easy to carry around. Some of my favorite bento food staples are onigiri (rice balls), fresh cut vegetables and fruit, edamame, and tsukemono (Japanese pickles).

Some bento history:

This site explains:

The word bento is said to have originated from a 16th Century military commander called Odo Nobunaga (1584-1632) who fed the large numbers of people that inhabited his castle by handing out simple meals to each individual. The word was created to describe the small convenient meal.

However, Nobunaga did not begin the trend, he just seemed to make it more solid as a feature in Japanese culture. Bento can be traced as far back into Japanese history as the 5th Century, when people who spent all day working away from the home(hunting, farming, fishing or fighting) needed something nutritious that they could prepare quickly to take with them as they travelled.

Today schools sometimes do not provide school lunch and children must bring their own. These are usually prepared by the children's mothers. Husbands also often take bentos prepared for them by their wives to work for lunch.

A traditional bento is made in a 4:3:2:1 ratio: 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of the side dish (either meat or fish), 2 parts of vegetables, and 1 part of a serving of pickled vegetables or a dessert. The idea behind it is of a balanced healthy meal. This ratio promotes healthy eating and makes sure the meal is balanced and filling. The person who makes the bento, such as the mother of the household, often prepares the box lunches as she is cooking the side dishes for the family's regular meals. She considers which dishes would not go bad quickly and sets some aside for the following day's bento. Dinner is often planned around items that will make good leftovers to go into the next day's bento. These days anything can go into a bento, but one of the important things to note is that one of the purposes of a bento is that "the eye also eats"--apart from being nourishing, the food should also be visually appealing. Part of the fun of making a bento is creating a visually appealing arrangement that will whet the appetite.

Because bento are usually eaten some time after they have been prepared, cooked foods must be well done to prevent changes in flavor or color, items that go bad easily are not used, and excess liquid is eliminated before placing the food in a bento box.

Making your own:
You may ask, well this is all fine and dandy, but how do I go about making my own bento? Well my friend, first you need a bento box. This will influence your portions, your shapes, and even what types of food you use. Here are a whole slew of ideas and options that you might consider:



- Very traditional elegant box: http://www.asianartmall.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=bento


- Traditional Japanese school box: http://www.jbox.com/SEARCH/bento/1/


- More flexible/modern alternatives:
(1) http://www.lunchboxes.com/bento.html

(2) http://flickr.com/photos/lunchinabox/430895005/in/set-72157594150632817/

(3) http://cache.lionbrand.com/patterns/70518AD.html?noImages (scroll down to see the bento idea on this one)
** Some of these options are very nice because they come with individual removable dividers and they lock completely air tight.


As for other equipment that you might consider using:


Cupcake forms and dividers are very useful when keeping flavors from mingling. Skewers or toothpicks are useful to include for skewering small bits of vegetables, fruit, or meat. A pair of chopsticks are always included in a bento set, and depending on what you pack, a spoon and fork can be included as well. Many people keep an assortment of small cookie cutters around to cut bits of colorful food into shapes to decorate their bentos. You will also need to find some way of transporting sauces and dressings separately in your bento. In Japan you can buy little individual one serving size disposable/reusable bottles for this purpose. If you do not have access to something of this nature, consider looking at the travel size containers available at stores like your local Walmart for suitable alternatives.


For a discussion of some bento equipment: http://www.airandangels.com/bentobox/equipment.html


Now for filling that bento! There are so many options, so I am just going to throw way too much information at you!


For some bento recipes: http://hubpages.com/hub/Bento_Box_Recipes

For some Japanese pickle recipes: http://www.theblackmoon.com/Jfood/ftsuke.html and http://www.opensourcefood.com/people/yongfook/recipes/cooling-japanese-cucumbers/


For excellent speed tips, tutorials, etc., see: http://lunchinabox.net/top-tips/


For an article on bento food safety: http://lunchinabox.net/2007/05/08/food-safety-for-packed-lunches-updated/


For all kinds of great bento tips: http://community.livejournal.com/bentolunch/tag/bentotips


Check out these interesting blogs of bento pros: http://lunchinabox.net/ and http://cookingcute.com/


A video blog featuring bento recipes, bento packing tips,and demos of bento making tools: http://bentotv.com/index.html


For some more inspiration, see: http://www.flickr.com/groups/367772@N22/ and http://www.flickr.com/groups/bentoboxes/ and http://www.mydailybento.blogspot.com/ and http://www.bentolunchesforall.blogspot.com/


For an interesting look at the bento lunch of a normal Japanese high school student, see this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA2ZFQQkZl8


I hope that helps! If anyone out there has any more questions about anything, just give me a shout! Good luck Krafty1 and Special K!


Cheers!