Characters in anime and manga are often seen eating bento lunches, either at school, at work, or while on picnic. They often feature a variety of foods and you often see a wide range of bento boxes being used. So I thought I'd write a bit about what a bento is, and how you can enjoy this fun and practical way of packing your lunch.
What is a bento?
According to Wikipedia, a bento a single-portion takeout meal. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Bentos can be home-made, bought in stores, or even bought in restaurants. They can be very simple, or very elaborate. In the manga series Mars, a characters coworkers tease him about how much his "wife" must love him because of how elaborate the lunches she packs for him are.
"A bento is traditionally made in a 4:3:2:1 ratio: 4 parts of rice, 3 parts of the main dish (either meat or fish), 2 parts of vegetables, and 1 part of a serving of pickled vegetables or a dessert." One great thing about a bento, though, is that its something you can make however YOU want. Here in American, people often use bento boxes with more American like foods, like cookies and crackers, bread, etc.
A bento is usually either wrapped with a handkerchief (called a furoshiki) or carried in a bento bag. Along with your bento, you'll want to take utensils, such as chopsticks or a fork/spoon set, and condiment containers. You can also get separators for your box to help keep your food from intermingling too much.
Bento Making Tips
Of course, when making a bento box, you have to be careful about food poisoning, especially when you have meat, fish, milk, or egg products in a box and in warmer weather. You can get ice packs to put with your bento when you pack it. And, of course, if you have a fridge where you are going with your lunch, you can store it in there.
It's usually not a good idea to put saucy foods in a bento as the sauce may spill. If you really want a sauce, though, you can get little containers to put the sauce in separately and keep them safely away from other food. Soy sauce containers and other condiment containers are available in fun shapes and can be used for any sauce of a similar consistency.
When packing hot foods into your bento, especially rice, make sure you cool it completely before you put it in your box. If you put it in while still hot and close it, the steam from the food will condense in the box and make everything soggy and icky. No fun at all. Wikipedia also recommends adding extra wasabi if you are making sushi, though it doesn't say why. I'm guessing the wasabi helps keep the fish from spoiling.
There are many tools available for decorating a bento lunch, including nori punches in a wide range of designs. A nori punch lets you punch out shapes from nori, which is dried seaweed. Then you can put them on your rice or other foods. You can also get molds for shaping onigiri rice balls and cutters for shaping fruits and veggies.
Some common bento foods
Octopus hot dogs - simple, but cute food made by cutting slits into the end of a hot dog before cooking it. You can also buy cutters for them, and they can be decorated in a variety of ways using nori and other food items. You can also get other shaping tools for hot dogs to make them into other forms, like flowers, penguins, etc.
Rice - a staple of the Japanese diet, so not unexpected to find it common in bentos at all. It can be included just as is, or molded into shapes or made into onigiri rice balls (rice wrapped in nori with umebosi in the center, usually made into triangles or ovals, but can also be made into a wide range of shapes).
Fruit and Veggies - raw or steamed veggies and fresh fruit are often found in bento's after they have been cut into bite-sized pieces. They are also usually decorated or shaped, such as apple slices that look like rabbit ears, melon balls, and star shaped carrots.
Eggs - eggs are usually seen as Japanese style omelets, rolled and sliced to be bite-sized, or in the form of sliced hard boiled eggs. American style omelets could also be done if it was rolled right, and scrambled eggs would probably work as well.
Where to get bento boxes and supplies
There are many many places you can buy bento boxes in the US, and a huge variety of them are available. They can be found at World Market or other similar stores, and at Asian food stores or malls, however your best bet is probably going to be online.
One place I've found with some decent prices and a nice selection is the Bento Obento Shop on eBay. They have quite a few boxes and accessories for making bento lunches. Another great eBay store for boxes and accessories is The Bento Store. You might also want to check out JBOX.com, a Japanese item store run by an American living in Japan. It has a large range of bento boxes and sets available, as well as many other Japanese goodies. Aranzi Aronzo Online Shop is a Japanese store with an English translation that ships worldwide, allowing you to get your bento goodies straight from Japan (note, prices are listed in Yen, so make sure you have a converter handy to figure out the approximate US price).
More Information
Bento Corner - a great blogs about making bentos, with a slant towards bentos for kids
BentoTV.com - a daily short broadcast with tips on making bentos and bento foods
Bento Box - another great site with basic bento information
Virtual Japanese Culture's site on bentos - includes history, preparing, and packing; also has a virtual bento so you can try your hand at making one online
Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go
- great recipe book for bento foods
And, of course, don't forget good old Google and Yahoo! Search were you will find many more excellent resources for learning about bentos
