Food for your Bento

Just because a Bento Box is considered Japanese, it doesn't mean you have to put only japanese food in your bento box. You can obviously put anything that you enjoy eating in your box. There are actually some set rules for the content of the box for the japanese version (proportion of proteins and carbs etc) but as long as you avoid pre-prepared foods (ok, like hot dogs) then you are pretty sure to be making a healthy lunch. The whole point of bento boxing is taking the time to prepare a healthy meal and creating something pleasant to look at too.
Since it may or may not be possible to heat up your food in a microwave (both because not all of us have access to a microwave oven but also because not all bento boxes are microwavable), you should think "tepid" or cold food combinations. To give you an idea of a cold food combo, here was my garden bento with tuna salad (seen in last blog post).
Just normal tuna with mayo and on top a little red pepper and carrots cut into little stars. I added the seaweed for decoration.

Here is another quick bento box of mine with "crab legs" (the imitation crab fish sticks) garnished with stewed spicey seaweed and marinated citris daikon (which is a kind of radish), a side dish of steamed asparagus covered in spinach and sesame seeds. For fruit, I found lychees which I love. Notice the sauce bottles.

You could substitute the stewed seaweed with tartar sauce and the daikon with just regular radish cut into discs. It doesn't have to get complicated.

And this bento was prepared the night before. I just got some regular white fish (like haddock filets) and dredged them in seasoned whole wheat flour (you can add thyme, rosemary, basil flakes, whatever, to the flour and mix it around). Shake them off and quickly cook them in olive oil. They come out crispy but without a coating which can be heavy. Pat dry and cut the filets into bite-sized pieces, lay them on top of a bed of salad of some kind when they've cooled off and garnish them with stewed seaweed or whatever you like on fish. As a sidedish I made some red azuki beans (cooked with soy sauce and sugar), my daikon radish cut into julienne, hot green peppers all laid on top of soy spaghetti. You could simply buy some slaw as a side dish. I also added a little bit of wild boar sausage (or, as we know it, pepperoni) for a different taste. This is a bento that is best served tepid.

As you have seen, the trick is often to prepare a certain amount of side dishes ahead of time. When I found the daikon for example, I cut it all up into little pieces and threw it into a jar to marinade (sushi vinegar, water, salt, sugar, lemon peel and orange peel) and I can continue to use that as a garnish for quite a while. Same goes with the stewed seaweed. Just a little goes a long way. You can buy lots of side dish items to use from the fridge straight to the bento. Pickles, peppers, olives.....I even found these little spicey fish filets in their own individual packets.

Same goes for fruit. I located indiviudally wrapped dried prunes ! Kewl.

So, to get you started, here is a little recipe for a side dish or garnish that you can make and then store in the fridge. Thanks to the book BENTO BOXES Japanese Meals on the Go by Naomi Kijima which has a ton of ideas for bento boxing.

SHRIMP SPRINKLES
"Sprinkles keep in the fridge for up to a week and make a delicious combination with any of the side items....

4oz shrimp, peeled and deveined.
1 Tbsp each sugar, mirin and sake (you can find in the grocery store),
1 Tbsp water,
Salt

1. Boil the shrimp, drain and mince into little tiny pieces.
2. Put the shrimp in a pot with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Stir until the liquid is absorbed. Cool."

This is today's bento (dedicated to my sister!) Again thanks to E-obento :

What exactly is a "Bento" ?

What exactly is a bento box? It is the Japanese name for lunch box and basically all the preparation that goes with it. Preparing a bento lunch box in the morning can be a complicated ritual. Most Japanese Mom's get into unspoken contests to see who can actually prepare the most tasty and eye-catching meals. Since many Moms also work, this every-day habit is slowly disappearing. But still there is something to be said for preparing lunches for ourselves and the people we care about.
I'm sure most of us would equate our Mom's lunch preparation with something from Leave it to Beaver or The Brady Bunch where Mom parepared everything to pack up in a brown sack or Superman metal lunch box (wonder how much one of those would be worth today?) We'd get the usual P&J sandwhich, some kind of fruit (an apple maybe?) and some cheesey crackers. But basically it was a sandwich of some kind. And milk money. I remember that I always brought some kind of brown bagged lunch and milk money – and I still remember sipping out of those mini milk cartons with a straw.
The Japanese version of the bagged lunch has always been a little more complicated. They probably didn't have P&J sandwhiches, they had little stuffed rice sandwhiches (onigiri) wrapped with seaweed (nori) and accompanied by some kind of protein (teriyaki fish) and fruit. The entire lunch would be nutritionally complete and would be presented in some kind of creative way. For example, cutting hot dogs so that they look like little sea creatures. Or having carrots cut into flower shapes. Since the Japanese believe that digestion begins with the eyes, the actual presentation and combinations of colors has as much to do with the meal as the nutritional content.
I have always been intrigued by Japanese culture. The art of printmaking – one of my majors in university – was always stimulating since it involves various steps and processes to achieve the correct final result. Cooking for me is also a series of processes. Living in Italy I have learned to cook well since Italians have an instinct and respect for the "raw materials" used in food preparation. Fresh is always best so meals are planned around seasonal products. Japanese cooking is no less different. Sushi (preparation and presentation of raw fish) for example requires decades of training before someone can achieve the title of "Sushi Chef". And for anyone who has actually visited a sushi bar, you can appreciate why. So, for me, the preparation of my own Bento Box is a great challenge and a lot of fun. And tasty too !
First and foremost, a decent Bento box is required if we are going to make a bento lunch. They have never been easy to locate in America or Europe but now that Ebay exists, you can easily locate sellers who will furnish you with dozens of style boxes and containers. The box should be big enough to contain all the food for the meal being prepared. For example, I can get away with a small two-tier box but my husband would require a larger box to fit a larger amount of food. Some come with their own utensils and carrying bag whereas others are just the decorative container. Most are not dish-washer or microwave safe. This is not necessarily a disadvantage since it adds to the challenge of preparing foods which taste good cold or lukewarm.
In addition to a nice box and a way to carry it, it's a good idea to locate small condiment holders. If you like soy sauce or hot sauces, it's always best to flavor the food when you are ready to eat it so as not to end up with soggy rice or mushy foods that have been sitting in soy sauce since the morning when you made the meal. Having little containers is a great advantage and they can easily fit inside the box next to the food. Or having little mustard and ketchup packets (take extra ones when you are buying fast food next time). Another good source for mini condiments is the next time you take a trip somewhere by plane! Most people throw away the little bottles and salt and pepper packets. I actually got hold of a tiny bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. Cool. You can find all kinds of little accessories on Ebay too.
The meals that get prepared definitely do NOT have to be of Japanese origin. You can prepare anything in a bento box. The little boxes can hold an incredible amount of food. You could prepare the night before some grilled chicken breast. Once grilled just cover it and leave it in a cool place (it doesn't necessarily have to go in the fridge – as long as your house isn't super over heated, then you can leave it wrapped tightly in foil after it's cooled down). The next morning, get up ten minutes earlier and spread the bottom of your box with fresh small leafed salad, cut the chicken into bit-sized strips and carefully position them so they look like they are a whole chicken breast. Prepare some instant rice, strain and put that in the other part of your box. Be sure to let it cool a bit. In the meantime, whisk up a lemon vinigrette to put on your chicken and transfer it to a little bottle dispenser. Put that in with the chicken. Transfer a bit of soy sauce into another bottle and put that in with your rice. Close it all up and there you are. It's not super creative in looks but it will taste good when you pull it out at lunch. And it's good for you! Nothing fattening there !
I have been preparing bentos now for only a few weeks. I purchased a few off Ebay and now with my new work hours I will have to prepare my lunches daily. So, this blog is to give you some ideas and tips on making some interesting food that hopefully is also interesting to look at. You can check out http://www.e-obento.com/ and http://www.cookingcute.com/ which are two great sites for ideas and info and more links. Enjoy.
(The above bento is not mine. Wish it was. But certainly we can finds lots of inspiration on the internet!)