So, you’re back.
I guess that means you’re looking for new ways to spice up things at lunch. There’s something I’ve learned in all my surfing and reading about bentos, they’re great for several goals.
First, they are great for portion control. There are several bloggers who are using them to lose weight. My favorite is Justbento.com and Adventures in Bentomaking. On Just Bento, Makiko, the author, has excellent pictures, along with instructions and a calorie count. Also, she breaks down the cooking time for preparing a bento. On Adventures, Pikko used her bentos in combination with Weight Watchers, to lose 22 lbs. Yea Pikko! Both tend to use Japanese style foods/ingredients more frequently. If that’s not your style or hard to get in your area, that’s cool. But they both are great to learn how to create a healthy balanced meal for weight loss.
Second, they’re great for cutting costs. We all know that taking your own lunch to school, work, etc puts more bang in your buck. And they’re great to gain attention and create “envy” from lunch partners. Take a unique lunch box to work/school with you on a regular basis, and suddenly people will be stopping by to see what you have. No joke. It’s also a great conversation starter. You may find people actually asking you to make one for you or sliding back to days of yore when you traded lunches in school. But it’s unlikely you’ll want to trade your healthy creation.
Third, they become something to look forward to. For me, there’s something meditative about cooking and creating bentos. When I start thinking about what goes with what and how it will look, it breaks up any stress I have from school.
Bento Boxes
American lunch boxes have been around since the 1950s. Buckets gave way to steel pails with a vacuum bottle (remember the glass insulation?!), and when I was going to school, I had the square aluminum box with a funky Scooby Doo scene.
On the other hand, Japan has been doing it in style since the 16th century and became popular probably around the Edo period (1603- 1868). People carried them to outdoor activities and the theater. Generally, these bentos had rice and side dishes. Bentos began to decline after WWII, being replaced by school-produced lunches.
In 1980s, Bentos gained popularity again because of convenience stores and microwaves. Today, there is plethora of bento blogs on the blogsphere for stay-at home mothers (and a few fathers) who are looking to create artful but healthy bentos for their family.
Jane Singer, an expat in Japan, paints a picture of what bento duty is like, in the “Bento Chronicles:”
This imprimatur is important in Japan. Magazines such as the Housewife’s Friend devote special sections to preparation of attractive lunch box fare, with the admonition that a child’s memories of his or her first bento, or lunch boxes, are planted in the seedbed of consciousness. This memory, more than the nine months of breast-feeding or years of mopping up spilled juice, remains with the child until adulthood, they say. Was your child the envy of his peers as he unhinged his two-tiered Ultraman plastic bento box to reveal apple slices pared to resemble bunny ears and braided fish cakes in red and white, the colors of celebration? A monotonal lunch box with just a few ingredients — or even, dear lord, a sandwich, apple and cookie in a brown paper bag — would damage young Taro’s self-esteem and his standing among his cohorts. Even worse, the photographs always taken of children at lunch would reveal to the other mothers that you’re more concerned with a few hours sleep and getting to work on time than with your child’s best interests.
Bento Box offers another interpretation of the bento box and packing a lunch:
As with so much of modern Japanese culture, the aesthetic (especially for children and young women) is strongly based on a compact cuteness. If you went to a school where kids brought packed lunches, you know how much it means to a kid when Mum (or Dad, or whoever takes care of these things at home) packs his or her favorites, and what a social advantage it is to have a parent who packs lunches that are admired or envied, particularly if the food is handy for swapping and sharing. The same is true in Japanese schools, but the ‘judges’ award a lot of additional points for presentation. There is often some rivalry between housewife-mothers to produce the niftiest bento, which can be fun, but is a source of serious and unwelcome social pressure for some women, who rise early in the morning and agonizes over what to make today, so their children’s friends and teachers won’t think they suck.
Many Japanese bento websites are in Japanese, but have no fear: Google translator gives a decent translation of the sites. E-bento.com is a very popular site in Japan. But beware of the splendor of these bentos and remember they take time!
If you go ‘hardcore’ in bento making considering buying a book or two to get ideas and add variety to your lunches. I’ve only come across one or two in English. There are a few on Amazon.com.
Here are a few bento boxes I own. I guess a “real” bento would have the box, chopsticks, and a carrying bag for it.
Here’s a video from a really cool kid, discussing Bento Basics:
Why is there grass in my lunch?
If you’ve been looking different sorts of bento boxes, you may have noticed “grass” and other sorts of things holding the food. You may have seen eggs in the shape of a bunny, car, star and vegetables shaped like flowers. Again, this is where bentos take on that culture aspect which makes them unique. The grass acts as a divider, keeping food flavors separate, and as an antibacterial agent to keep foods from spoiling. The eggs shapes are made by using molds and just look good.
If you pack a lunch that needs mayo, ketchup or any kind of sauce, there are mini sauce bottles that you can use. If you get them, you may think – How in the heck do I fill these things? I use a plastic syringe I got for free from Walgreen’s. If you order any of the cuter sauce bottles (with animal heads) they come with a syringe, which I find to be useless.
If you can’t find grass dividers, you can use cups. I got a few ideas from, Lunch in a Box. I use silicone-baking cups to hold my vegetables, fruits and other items. You can find them at Bed, Bath and Beyond or any cooking supply store.
Here is the winner of Lunch in A Box’s organizational contest:
Where can I get them?
Finding bento boxes is getting easier. Ebay.com has several stores which carry them and the supplies used in them. Watch out though, if you start liking this practice, you’ll find yourself budgeting for the cute items to “pretty” up your lunch. Generally, bento boxes on Ebay can start from $.99 if you’re bidding and go into the $100s if you’re looking for something elaborate and decorative.
I have also found plain ole Tupperware-type containers do the job. In fact, a few companies are making lunch containers similar to the bento style. Fit & Fresh Lunch on the Go is one type. Dollar Tree reportedly carries actual bentos although I haven’t come across any in Chicago, yet. So, I’ve just stuck to sandwich size containers and larger-sized ones.
When I invested in my Mr. Bento, I figured I would be saving $$$. What I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed making my lunches. I pretty much started out trying different thing to fill all the containers in the Mr. Bento (and it can be a lot, as it’s a bento for a man. I’ll write about that next). With time, I discovered a new way to spoil myself without breaking the bank, and fuel my creativity.
And how can you have a bad day when lunchtime becomes a culinary oasis?
