Bento Books

Over the past year or so, I have purchased a few books about bentos (as previously mentioned below for recipes) and bento making. But a few books have ended up being for inspiration more than anything also because I was able to find them only in Japanese (of which I cannot read). In any case, I am seeing that many of these types of books are becoming available as bento and lunch boxing becomes more popular in western cultures.

So, for a few posts, I will dedicate some time to the people who have dedicated their time to their kids and then to passing on ideas and advice to others when it comes to bento building.

First up is Mari Miyazawa who's internet blog e-obento was one of the first I came across. With the help of Babelfish, you can understand quite alot on her site. But more to the point I discovered she has written a few books. The one I purchased is called "Fantasic Lunchbox" (111 pages), and I found it only on amazon.jp (amazon Japan).

What makes this book fun is that even though I was unable to understand what has been written, I could easily get tons of ideas on how to create new and interesting combinations of food. Some are quite straight forward whereas others are almost impossibile to understand or replicate since not all kinds of food stuffs are available where I am (or maybe where you are).

The book is very well organised. It starts out by presenting bentos by season meaning first lunch boxes with a spring theme (for example certain flowers or events which take place in the spring time), then into summer (with a fantastic bridal bento), into fall with it's harvest themes then finally into winter with christmas symbols and santa too.

There are then sections dedicated to color and all the different foods used to achieve certain chromatic additions to the lunch boxes. Chopped up pickles and avocado for two different tones of green, chopped up ham for pink and scrambled egg for yellow and so on.

Then she divides the book into special events such as the first day of school complete with boys or girls in school uniforms and backpaks. Birthdays, sports events, anniversaries, arrival of a newborn, housewarming and holidays. Each is presented as an actual bento in that one part is often full of food with no particular design and the other half of the bento has the design or is the visual part of the presentation. As I've shown in previous posts, most bentos are two-tiered so it makes sense that the two parts are shown in the book to complete the idea of the entire lunch.

Part of the book is techniques and tools as well as particular ingredients. She shows how to use the same cookie cutters to achieve different shapes or animals. She has an entire section devoted to eggs, meat cutlets and another to fish paste. Here is one of those ingredients which is tough to find. Fish paste is usually white fish pressed into a block. It's sold in many shapes and sizes and even pre-prepared manga characters. Here is an example of Hello Kitty fish paste used in making sushi (thanks to Hello Kitty Hell - this guy really hates Hello Kitty)

The fish paste is pressed into blocks. When cut one way it will come out as the manga face or whatever the design is but if cut horizontally can be used for other color combinations. Mari shows many ways to use it - even as minature bento kimonos. Really fantastic.

An entire section is then dedicated to the most important staple of the japanese diet - rice. Even here the creativity in the presentation of mundane rice onigiri is amazing.

I highly reccommend purchasing this book and have high hopes that these books will be translated one day. A new book has come out and to be honest I'm quite tempted. Will have to wait till Christmas I suppose....

and here is today's bento (from Mari's site e-obento - please check it out !)

Nothing better than Halloween themes !!!!!!!! Boooo!

Choosing a Bento Box

Bento boxes come in a variety of sizes and shapes and volume. Some are more adaptable to snack size meals while others are for "man sized" portions. You can actually find some boxes which are very masculine in their design and colour and are made specifically with men's appetites in mind.
I had the good fortune of discovering Ebay as a source of bento boxes. I had traveled to Tokyo many years ago and found these boxes purely by chance. I was looking for traditional wooden lacquered boxes and stumbled upon the more modern plastic lunch boxes. I found two in a large department store called Mitsukoshi which sells just about everything. One was a two-tier blue with a hidden compartment on the top which kept a pair of chop sticks. Over time, the closing mechinism broke and I began searching on the internet for similar boxes with no luck. Only until about a year ago did I stumble upon the bento fanatics in cyberspace like me. And of course I couldn't resist. I just had to replace that old box.
I found both under the Ebay shop Japan Souvenir. The prices were pretty decent for one (the larger of the two) and the second a little more. The first one I purchased for my husband since it was pretty big. It's a two-tier with one of the tiers having its own cover. It has a little compartment for chop-sticks which were included.

The other was a little more expensive since it also was a two-tier but came with its own bento strap (a heavy duty strap which keeps the bento box closed) and its matching bag. Plus it has a nice japanese kanji graffiti design.

I've also purchased from 21stcenturyfineartgiclee also off of Ebay this very nice green bento set. Not only is it a two-tier, it came with a matching elastic strap, utensils, bottles, towel, carrying bag and even plastic grass which is used as a food separator when you make your bento meals. (see upcoming blogs about packing bento boxes). It's not as resistant as the above two but it's a nice matching set and works well for a good quantity of food.

This box was for me a particular bargain given its size and that all the accessories match. Usually you have to buy them all separately.

Many boxes have different themes. You can imagine how many Hello Kitty bentos are out there. Here is one based on a manga pig called Monokuro (I think).

There are also sexy manga boxes too ! Here is one called the Lolita Goth Bento Box. It actually comes with a garter belt as the bento strap. And of course it comes with a matching bag.....you can check the sexy bentos at JBox. They are a little more expensive than most but they have a very interesting collection. I never ended up buying this one and to tell you the truth I wish I had. Together with its matching bag of course !

No matter what you end up choosing to put in the box, the contents become all the more precious when you close it all up and pack up your lunch bag. Leaves something to be desired when you think of the old brown bag lunch!!! Here is this blogs bento :