Blogging My First Attempts at Bento

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 1:28 pm

Hi everyone,

I'm Katie, 17, live in Germany, and I'm going to tell you about my first attempts at "lunch in a box" or, to use the original term, Bento.

As Wikipedia puts it, Bento (å¼å½“ bentÅ)is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine.

For some more general information on bento, see http://lunchinabox.net/ (they have a great forum, too), and http://justbento.com/

I started reading about bento on the sites linked above just yesterday, and I'm not embarrassed to admit I spent hours reading every single post and browsing bento stores online

Okay, maybe a little.

So I thought this was a great way of taking food with me - especially since I'm on No S - when I know I won't get home until late in the afternoon, but unfortunately, I'm never home later than 4:20 pm or so, so that's when I have lunch (you may think that's late, but it's common for seniors in Gernany to just bring their own breakfast to school and eat it there, and not have lunch until they get home in the afternoon). But I just remembered that this semester's schedule will be different - I'll have school until 5:30 pm on mondays, and won't be able to go home in between classes. The good thing about this is that I'll have a 45 minute break at 3:10 pm, so that's perfect for lunch. I don't want to buy fast food every week, though - it's expensive, and not very healthy, either. The solution for this? BENTO.

That's right, I'll start making bento at least once a week from now on. And if you want to, you can read all about it right here.

I started by figuring out what size bento box I need (if you're interested, check out this chart from lunchinabox.net). It's 600 ml, and I happened to find a Tupperware container in our pantry that has that capacity and is square and shallow - perfect for bento!

And being the girly girl that I am, I just had to jazz it up a little bit, using this equipment:

First I cleaned the lid (there's our family name written on there in Sharpie) with nail polish remover. Then I put stickers with my mom's address on the inside of the lid, and on the box itself:

(fortunately, you can't really read anything)

Lastly, I added some cute stickers:

Et voilÃ - my bento box. And it didn't even cost me a fortune

So my plan for tonight is to cook something for my family - rice, perhaps? - and then put the leftovers in the box, leave it in the fridge over night, and just add some fruit in the morning.

Questions, comments, feedback?

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 6:36 pm

I think it's awesome!

Rice and leftovers is a common bento for me. (And a lot of other people who do it, I would think).

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:14 pm

Finished!

My bento from the side:

View from above:

I used plain white long grain rice, iceberg lettuce to keep it apart from the other food, cut-up raw carrots and a cut-up apple (it's not a whole apple, though), and six Swedish meatballs ("kÃ¶ttbullar"). The meatballs were already cooked, and we bought them frozen from the store. The label says they're good in the fridge for two days, so food safety shouldn't be an issue. I just hope the apple will still taste fine.
Aaand I think I even got the correct bento ratio (3:2:1)!

View from the bottom:

And because I'm so crazy about bento, I made some more customized bento gear:

This is a small salt tub (we had the tub sitting in the kitchen somewhere, I don't know what's it was used for originally) with the lid painted dark red with nail polish. Below is my personal "my hashi" case that I sewed with my mom. It's denim, and the strap used to tie it together is a ribbon with my initials on them that my mom bought for me when I was in kindergarten (to sew on my things so I wouldn't lose them).

Now with the contents of the case:

Here's a description: Two chopsticks (plain ones bought from our local Asia store that I customized with the same nail polish I used for the salt tub), a fork (just a regular one that we use for dinner etc. too) and a tissue to wrap the above in. Also, two hairbands (I love how they go with the chopsticks).

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:26 am

Katie! How creative! I'm getting inspired to try bento now. The museum where I work actually has an exhibit about Japan and the activity kit has the cutest play bento box.

I am going to have soup tomorrow but will try bento on Tuesday.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 2:18 pm

Just tried my first bento, and learned a couple of things:

#1 The meatballs are great for bento that's eaten cold.
#2 The carrots get dry in the fridge over night.
#3 The apple,on the other hand, can handle a night in the fridge just fine.
#4 The rice doesn't taste that good when eaten cold.
#5 Half protein may be a little too much.
#6 Eating with chopsticks isn't that hard.
#7 I need a real bento box (not that this one doesn't work, but - I'm obsessed

). Also, chopsticks that unscrew in the middle.

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:00 pm

Oh this is so cool! You've inspired me to check this out. I thought Bento was the Japanese fast food where you buy sushi and california rolls and all that...I will read the links now

I may try this, too!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 9:18 pm

Often when rice is made to be eaten cold, it's strongly flavored with umeboshi and some such. (You know, like rice balls).

Though the real beauty of bento is that you can put any food you like into it. I didn't have any rice at all in mine this afternoon. If you don't like cold rice, there's no reason in the world to put any in the bento.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 4:00 pm

I am so obsessed. I made a breakfast bento this morning, and I may or may not make this a habit.

Here's a photo:

The box has a capacity of 400 ml, which is perfect for breakfast. Clockwise from the upper left, it contains cherry tomatoes with raw carrots underneath, a scrambled pancake (made with one egg and just milk and flour added), and homemade applesauce. No sugar added at all in this meal

Bento-ing seems very No-S friendly.

And the box and egg moulds I ordered on Monday arrived

The box has a capacity of 580 ml, which is nice for lunch.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 3:39 pm

So... on Friday, I made yet another breakfast bento:

Clockwise from the top left: a scrambled egg with about a tablespoon of diced ham, a cut-up apple, a cut-up slice of bread roasted in a frying pan, blueberry yogurt.

And underneath the apple: Some raw carrots.

I made another one (for lunch) on Saturday, but the photo says it can't be opened... :-/

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 6:11 pm

I made one for lunch today, but didn't get to take a photo because I was in a hurry, so you'll just have to trust me on that.

I used my 580 ml box again, with rice in the top tier (250 ml) and two chicken nuggets cut in half and some raw carrots, apple pieces and two cherry tomatoes underneath. Yummy

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 7:38 pm

Yes, it's me once again.

Today, I made a bento to have at lunch at my internship tomorrow.

In the middle, we have some scrambled pancake, and on the right, applesauce in two reuseable silicone cupcake molds with an apple slice on top. On the left, there are some sliced almonds, and on the right, four radishes and some more apple pieces.

This is what it looks like closed...

And then I wrapped it in a towel and put it in the fridge so it'll be all ready to go in the morning.

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:42 am

These are fun and adorable! It's almost enough to make me want to try bento and that's not my style at ALL.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:37 pm

Almost? Then I guess I'll have to make some more...

And how is it not your style at all?

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sat Aug 13, 2011 3:38 pm

Bento doesn't look like my style because it looks like there's a knack and I'm knacked out right now.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:20 pm

Blithe Morning wrote:Bento doesn't look like my style because it looks like there's a knack and I'm knacked out right now.

What's a knack?

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:42 pm

A knack means an acquired or natural skill at performing a task.

I'm not really using the word properly in "knacked out" as there is no such phrase. I was trying to say that I'm not willing to do even the little bit of work it would take to make a Bento lunch. Most days I'm dumping a salad into a container 2 minutes before I run out the door.

Obviously, I still have work to do to make lunch a more gracious meal.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 4:42 am

Ah, okay, makes sense.

Well, you could acquire the task while making the bentos!

Here's the one I made for today:

Top tier (left): two slices of toast cut into rectangles
Bottom tier (right): a boiled egg (it's supposed to be a flower, but as the egg was still wet, the food coloring wouldn't stay in its place), kiwi, banana, apple

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:09 pm

Your toast is so nicely cut. It really is a delight to look at these. Really, if this is the way you eat I wouldn't be concerned at all about people looking at you odd because you are a picky eater. This looks like good, normal stuff.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 6:30 pm

Thanks, Blithe!

This is the one I made for today (I went biking with a friend, 50 miles). She likes bento, too, by the way, and we'll order some boxes together so we'll only have to pay for postage once.

Today, I made a bento in a different box. Left to right: Crackers, cherry tomatoes, a kiwi, apple pieces, meatballs cut in half.

NoSnacker · Post by **NoSnacker** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:20 am

Funny how they call it bento, kind of like brow bagging a lunch. I take my lunch during the week to work.

I will check out the website! Looks like a cute idea and a great way to teach moderation.

See around.

p.s. we have a women here about 36 from Germany, she is a Christian Missionary working with a bunch of youth in an old neigborhood I grew up in. I'm always interested in others cultures.

deb

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 8:15 pm

Starting a new internship tomorrow (one week, at a hospital), and this is what I made for Day 1:

Left (top tier) is my fruit/veggie tier. Three carrot wedges, four cherry tomatoes and lots of tiny apple pieces to fill the gaps. NOTHING moves in there.

Right (bottom tier) is left-over spaghetti (cut-up to make it easier to eat) and pieces of what was once a huge meatball (there are more than six pieces, but you can't see the rest).

There probably won't be a microwave, but that's okay.

I also ordered three new bento boxes yesterday (a fish, a polka dotted one, and a tartan one)!

Oh, and tomorrow I'll probably have some more left-over spaghetti, stir-fried with an egg and the rest of the meatball. As for the rest of the week... we'll see.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Tue Sep 06, 2011 7:15 pm

Banana, carrots, cucumber, kohlrabi

Bread (ripped to pieces), an egg, meatball dices, stir fried

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Thu Sep 15, 2011 9:47 pm

I'm leaving for Bulgaria tomorrow, and I'll be on the train/in a train station for over 24 hours, so I need a lot of food.

I got new boxes, by the way. Isn't the fish one adorable?

I apologize for none of this being particularily pretty, but I wasn't in the mood to prepare lots of elaborate pretty designs today.

I'll have breakfast at home tomorrow, then lunch will be this:

Left: apples over carrots, gnocchi
Right: a kiwi, a scrambled egg

For dinner, I'll buy something in Vienna.

Then for breakfast the next day (I'm spending the night on a train), I'm having this:

Top: carrots, apple, almonds, apple sauce
Bottom: scrambled chocolate chip pancake (note to self: either scramble a pancake or put chocolate chips in -- otherwise, it's just chocolatey batter)

Lunch will be this:

Left: cut-up cevapcici, a tomato, apple, almonds
Right: gnocchi

By dinnertime, I'll be in Sofia... let's see what I'll have then.

NoSnacker · Post by **NoSnacker** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:44 pm

These are really cool!!! And you make some really interesting dishes!!

Blithe Morning · Post by **Blithe Morning** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 12:09 am

I had to look up cevapcici. The recipe sounds like like fancy little beef/lamb/pork meatballs. The spices were pretty interesting - basil, fennel, paprika. How delicious!

Sinnie · Post by **Sinnie** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:52 pm

Hey Katie! Your bento looks soooo good! It's hard to tell how big the portions are...does it keep you satisfied? How is No S going?
Question - how is bento different from just packing tupperware containers? Is it the pretty display of food?

Anyways, enjoy Bulgaria! Are you going for a trip?

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 8:56 pm

Thanks, everyone! Yes, BlitheMorning, they're very tasty, but we actually buy them frozen at the supermarket and don't make them from scratch

Sinnie, the boxes contain 550 to 600 ml each; 600 ml is the recommended size for women between 18 and 50 (Japanese women, that is... if you're tall and very active, you might need a bigger box). And they definitely keep me satisfied! It's a big plateful when you spread it all out, even if it looks tiny in the boxes.

Who Me? · Post by **Who Me?** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 2:57 am

I admire people who are organized.

I usually plan to eat leftovers for lunch. And I usually succeed in leaving them at home, when I leave for work in the morning.

Anoulie · Post by **Anoulie** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 4:04 pm

I'm going on a trip tomorrow and taking this with me:

The ingredients are 100 % bought in Bulgaria, and I prepared the thing in my flat in Bulgaria, too.

Top (left to right): Rice cake, banana, apple pieces, rice cake, cut-up cevapcici (but a different kind, I guess, bigger and with more spices)

Bottom: pasta

Oh, and concerning what makes bento different from just packing stuff:
Bento should
- be packed compactly (stuff shouldn't move when you carry the box around all day)
- be visually appealing
- contain pieces of food that are small enough to be eaten with chopsticks / with a small plastic fork and spoon, i. e. small enough for you to pop into your mouth
And ideally, it contains Asian food, too, but I'm too lazy to put that much work into them. And it's usually eaten at room temperature.

I just typed all that from memory, but you can get more information here: http://lunchinabox.net/faq/#FAQ1