James Andrews

What is a Bento? In Japanese Bento or “o bento” is basically a boxed meal usually a boxed lunch. When you are on trains that are not local or local expresses there is usually a woman (i have yet to see a man) walking down the isles with a little cart selling food items, including pre-made bentos. Usually stuff I won’t eat, but that’s another topic. There are bentos sold in the convenience stores, and there are even little bento shops that sell nothing but bentos in disposable cartons.

Bento is so common in Japan that they come in all shapes and sizes. A simple google search shows images of many styles of bento boxes. Some are traditional japanese style, some are child themed with popular cartoon characters, some are single layers, and yet others are multi layered. Available at the ¥100 shops (100 yen about US$1) for cheap plastic bentos, and up to ¥6000 for those that have seals, and a chopstick holder.

A friend had posted about her plans to lose weight in her Livejournal. One of the links for food she’s making was at a site called JustBento(which is where I got the idea for this post). It’s an interesting website all about planning a Japanese style bento, and but also give recipes on non japanese style bentos. Which I am planning on trying in the near future. Including customized, non traditional onigiri (Japanese rice balls).

What I really like about the site is that the person blogging has a system for putting deciding what is in the bento. Basically portioned out by protein, carbs, and vegetables, and has also prepared a handy PDF to help. It’s a good resource, and if you are interested in Japanese food, or are trying to lose weight you should give it a look.