I am jumping on the Friday Favorites Meme so I will be posting a family favorite in our household every Friday. Today’s favorite is Bento! Bento is the Japanese tradition of making beautiful and functional box lunches. My all time favorite lunchbox for my kids is an American style Bento box called a laptop lunchbox. It you didn’t catch my review of these a few months back here it is again.
Well, there is a funny story about that first post. I guess it inspired Jenn to start using bento boxes. She quickly found that it can be addicting and she and a partner ended up starting Bento Yum, a bento blog that I am loving. I am totally impressed with Jenn’s ability to create beautiful bento box. On the other hand….my bank account doesn’t like Bento Yum very much as Jenn and Abigail also use it to sell authentic Japanese Bento boxes direct from Japan. I am quickly getting addicted to collecting Bento boxes and related accessories too, despite the fact that I don’t really have a reason to make any lunches during the summer months. :) Although we did take a couple road trips lately..one to Amish country and one to visit three uncles and a cousin (who are Japanese incidentally) and I packed Bento luches for my kids to munch on in the car.
I like Bento boxes because they make it easy to make waste free lunches, they are easy to put last night’s leftovers in, they are adorable and make lunch making fun, and it has meant delving into a whole different culture with foreign words for your kids to use and impress friend with like…tamagoyaki, oshibori, onigiri. It is great fun!
I have taken a picture of some of my favorite Bento boxes that I have accumulated (above). Among the actual bento boxes you will see egg molds, food cups and dividers, chopsticks, and condiment containers. And (close your eyes Jenn) I may have a lead on a local source of Japanese bento boxes so I am checking it out this weekend. Amazing how something like a lunchbox can be so exciting.
