Japanese Bento Boxes

(Picture to the right was made by Kasumin.)

When I was a wee kitten cat, my mother would make me colorful bento boxes. They weren’t saccharine like the ones featured in today’s NY Times. Instead, they were hearty, stir fried beef and rice in seperate compartments with cooked carrots shaped as flowers, octopus shaped sausage weiners, and bunny apples (apple peels are cut to resemble ears!). Bunny apples were the extent of the cuteness, but I did like those apples… They were normal and sometimes, a bit lame. I would take them with me to Japanese Saturday school, but I prefered MacDonalds’. In regular public school, I would prefer a sandwich, bagel, or just going outside for lunch.

Now they are novel, perhaps, and they are fun to make. I’ve always been too busy to really get into this. Also, it’s a bit of a otaku thing… like for example, “Kyaraben” is mostly done by super mothers that want to out do other mothers, or bored Office Ladies of Japan.

Still, I miss the bento boxes. Perhpas this is because I’m feeling sentimental about times gone away… This article might be the culprit to me asking her to cook things for a bento box. Ryan wants to make it, so I might have to go pick up my old boxes from her. Hopefully they will be filled when I get there. ; )

When I was small, and too young to really use the stove to make anything other than pancakes… I used to make my mother onigiri coupled with candy. That was my bento for her. (What’s the deal with the pancakes? I learned how to make my mother’s “hotcakes” (Japanese type of pancakes that aren’t made from buttermilk, a little firmer, and sweeter) before anything else. I had the measurements engraved in my skull.)

Further reading: Aesthetics of a Japanese Lunchbox by Kenji Ekuan