Curiosly Ravenous has a shot of what's essentially a bento set meal, minus the box. It's austerely and elegantly Japanese in its own right. Here you see "shiozake (salted salmon), asparagus in dashi broth with egg, and steamed rice topped with furikake (rice seasoning)." Be sure to click through to Curiously Ravenous for the salmon recipe.
Too cute to eat: The winners of the second Sanrio Character Bento Grand Prix 2008 were announced last week, with the top prize given to "Tenorikuma's Exciting Lunch Box" (pictured, center). Two Silver Charabenist (an amalgamation of "character" and "bento") awards were handed to the cutesy "Best Friend" set and the carblicious "How Do You Feel About a Bread Lunch?" set. Truth be told, all of the winning entries were way too cute and creative to herald a clear victory, if you ask me. [via Watashi to Tokyo]
Just Bento is a new weblog by Maki Itoh with her bento recipes and tips. Each recipe requires no more than 30 minutes to prepare and is illustrated with a handy timeline. [via rp]
I like sushi. I like the color blue. I might even like blue sushi, but I have a feeling it's not something you can get at your local sushi bar. Can anyone make me a blue sushi bento box? Roy's girlfriend Reiko made one for him! Be sure to check out the rest of her intricate bento box creations. That's real love.
Great tips on food safety for packed lunches, for those of you who bring your own food to work or pack lunches for others. I work from home and usually pick lunch up while I'm out walking my dog, or have something delivered, but I totally have packed lunch envy. [via YumSugar]
Flickr's Bento Boxes group has a great thread on budget bento ideas, well worth reading if you regularly pack lunches for yourself or for your kids, whether or not they're bento. This tip is pretty nice, especially in this age of hugely oversized meals: "Bento are small - learn to only buy what you need. I actually have saved money on food because I just don't eat as much."
Cooking Cute made this amazing Year of the Pig bento the other day: "salmon-rice sushi shaped like little piggies, hotdog flowers with carrot-star centers, kamaboko fans, tricolor swirled sushi made from three flavors of sticky rice, sweet sticky rice flowers, pig-shaped spam nigiri, and a pig-shaped egg."
Someone please make me one of these for lunch today? Thanks!
If you liked the look of the bento boxes we featured last week and are thinking about making your first foray into making one for yourself, Maki Itoh wrote two posts recently that should help you get started on making onigiri, the rice balls that are a classic in bento box lunches: Onigiri (Omusubi) revisited: An easier way to make Japanese rice balls, step by step and More about onigiri: keeping them fresh and more.
Looking at Flickr's bento boxes group, with its thousands upon thousands of photos of neatly arranged, self-packed and often incredibly cute lunches, has got to be one of my favorite ways to start the week. Even the dreariest Monday is somehow easier to face when you know there are people in the world making crabs out of hotdogs and Ms Pacman out of egg and seaweed.
(The Totoro dust mote-shaped onigiri in the photo at right almost make me wish I had to go into an office every day, just so I'd have an excuse to make them!)
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