Lunch in a Box: Building a Better Bento

Leftover Remake: Risotto cake recipe & bento lunches

Biggie — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:28:58 +0000

Because I’m not my son’s personal short-order cook, I love to use dinner leftovers in our bento lunches to minimize prep time. But eating the exact same thing for multiple meals can get boring pretty quickly, so finding new ways to quickly transform leftovers into different dishes is always welcome. Today I’ve got a simple Leftover Remake recipe for pan-fried risotto cakes.

With these lunches, I took cold zucchini risotto left over from dinner the night before, and made it into little pan-fried risotto cakes that my five-year-old ate as finger food. They’re reminiscent of Sicilian arancini (deep-fried rice balls stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables), but I improvised as I didn’t have a good melting cheese on hand.

Contents of kindergartener bento lunch: Pan-fried zucchini (courgette) risotto cakes (recipe below), teriyaki & pineapple chicken meatballs (my favorite, Aidells brand), red grapes, and steamed broccoli with onion-based salad dressing. For dinner, I’d made the zucchini risotto from a recipe in Marcella Hazan’s classic cookbook Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Morning prep time: 22 minutes for the two bentos, including cooling time for the risotto cakes, meatballs and broccoli. In the morning I formed and pan-fried the risotto cakes from leftover risotto, microwaved the frozen meatballs, and steamed the broccoli in my microwave mini-steamer. (Click for full lunch details, an adult variation on this lunch with additional fruit & veggies, and a basic recipe for the risotto cakes.)(...)
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Bento shopping in San Francisco Japantown

Biggie — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:13:09 +0000

It’s been a long time since my last bento gear shopping update, so there’s a lot to cover! Today I cover San Francisco Japantown, with a couple of new stores on the list. Highlights are the new Kinokuniya Stationery & Gift store with a variety of bento gear, the conveniently located (but partially hidden) Daiso dollar store, and the Sanrio store with a new shipment of heatable aluminum bento boxes.

Full store info and shop addresses are at the bento gear shopping guide for the San Francisco Bay Area, and you can also find reader updates at the Bento Store Locator with Google Maps. Photos of shop inventory were taken and used with store permission (click on any of the small photos for a larger version). (Click to read the full post.)

* Daiso (NEW)
* Kinokuniya Stationery & Gifts (1st floor) (NEW)
* Kinokuniya Stationery & Gift (2nd floor)
* Daikoku by Shiki
* Ichiban Kan
* Moritaya
* Nijiya Market
* Sanko
* Sanrio (NEW)
* Soko Hardware

(Warning: Photo-heavy post ahead!)(...)
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His & her pasta frittata bento lunches

Biggie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:54:16 +0000

Once a year, volunteer language teachers come from Japan to help out at my son’s school, and do a month’s homestay with families from the school. Part of the homestay deal is that the host family is to pack the teacher a daily lunch to eat at school. So that means that I’m back to making adult and child versions of the same lunch while “A-sensei” is with us — I’m finding it stimulating.

It was initially a little weird to be making bentos for a Japanese person. (You know, will she like our food? I don’t want them to look so thrown-together that the other senseis at school wind up gossiping about it.) But we’ve gotten used to each other over the past couple weeks, so I’m less self-conscious now and am learning her food likes and dislikes. The result? I’ve slipped back into my regular old speed bento habits for both lunches.

For this meal I fell back on pasta frittata, a simple egg dish that incorporates leftover spaghetti from the night before. Now whenever I make pasta I just go ahead and make extra, knowing that leftovers will get remade into breakfast or lunch the next day.

Contents of adult bento lunch: Pasta frittata made with leftover spaghetti, shrimp & tomato sauce (see the full pasta frittata tutorial). Sauteed orange bell pepper with garlic & soy sauce, and green grapes.

Morning prep time: 20 minutes for the two bentos, using leftover pasta for the frittata and including prep/cooling time for the frittata and peppers. Thoroughly cooling all foods before closing them up inside a bento box reduces the amount of condensation inside of the box, improving food safety and making it easier to remove the lid of the bento box. (Click for lunch details and a kid-sized version of the same lunch.) (...)
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Poll: How long does your schoolkid have for lunch?

Biggie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:25:11 +0000

One issue we’ve run into since my son started kindergarten is the shorter time available for him to eat his lunch.

At preschool the children sat three to a table, and the teachers circulated, encouraging everyone to finish their entire meals during the leisurely lunch period. But now at kindergarten the children sit at one long table together, which has got to be more fun but distracting. Couple that with a shorter time to eat, and more bentos are coming back unfinished. (At least they have recess first, and then eat! If it were reversed I think a lot more would go uneaten.)

I look at this as even more reason to pack a bento lunch, so Bug isn’t wasting time waiting in line for cafeteria food and can just dig right in in the short time available. I’ve also been steering away from packing food that I know takes Bug longer to eat, like soup. I can only imagine the challenges for parents of picky eaters!

What about you? How long do your schoolkids have to eat lunch? (If you have multiple kids, go ahead and take the poll multiple times, answering once for each child.) What kind of issues have you had with the time allotted for school lunch, and how have you adjusted your lunch-packing accordingly? Let us know in comments!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Poll voting closes at midnight Pacific on April 2, 2010. Bento-themed merchandise like the “got bento?” wall clock are available at the Lunch in a Box store on CafePress.

FURTHER READING:

Kids’ Corner discussions on the Lunch in a Box reader forum
Poll results: How long does it take you to pack a lunch? (poll closed)
Poll results: What containers do you pack lunches in? (poll closed)
Archive of all polls on Lunch in a Box
Bento FAQ and Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and reviews

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Bulgogi & spam musubi bento lunches

Biggie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:45:51 +0000

May I just say that kindergarten bentos have been kicking my butt this year? Bug’s new school starts super-early, and I’m NOT a morning person. Most mornings I’m thankful for every time-saving trick I can find, and I’m guilty of not taking many pictures as we rush out the door.

It’s been getting a little better lately, though. We’re hosting a homestay language teacher for a month, which has prompted me to get on top of our crazy morning routine (and declutter the house!).

Contents of kindergartener lunch: Shrimp & chive har gow dumpling, sauteed mushrooms, bulgogi (Korean grilled marinated beef), steamed broccoli with vinaigrette, and cheese cubes.

Morning prep time: 13 minutes, using a leftover dumpling and bulgogi from an earlier meal. In the morning I briefly steamed the broccoli and re-steamed the dumpling (to re-soften the dough wrapper) in my microwave mini steamer, then sauteed the pre-cut mushrooms. (I got a bag of cut mushrooms as sample at a food event, but I usually cut my own mushrooms with a knife or hard-boiled egg slicer.) I let the mushrooms and broccoli drain and cool in a sieve set over a bowl for a few minutes to prevent condensation inside the box once it was closed up (which also improves the food safety of a packed lunch). (...)
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Bento gear on Menu for Hope 6

Biggie — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:14:03 +0000

The holidays are a time for giving, and in the food blog world that’s come to mean the Menu For Hope food blog annual fundraising campaign, now in its 6th year. Started by Pim of Chez Pim, Menu for Hope raises money for the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest food aid agency (it raised over US$250,000 over the last three years for the program!). Specifically, this year’s donations will go to the WFP’s Purchase for Progress (P4P), a new initiative that helps smallholder and low-income farmers supply food to WFP’s global operations, improving farming practices and putting more cash into their pockets.

In Menu for Hope, food bloggers around the world offer a variety of food-related items for the online raffle. Every US$10 you donate earns you one “ticket” to bid on an item of your choice. At the end of the campaign, tickets are drawn and results are announced on Chez Pim on Monday, January 18, 2010.

A full list of bid items is will be posted at Chez Pim, and the Western U.S. regional prizes will be shown at Gluten-Free Girl. A mere US$10 gives you a shot at some pretty cool food-related prizes! Check them all out and see what appeals to you.

I’m happy to offer another bento kit for bidding this year, with products courtesy of Skater Company, Japan’s largest manufacturer of bento boxes, and ZESPRI, the New Zealand kiwifruit company. I’ll also give each of the winners a personal tour of San Francisco’s Japantown if you’re in town (details below).

What’s included:

“Winnie the Pooh Goes Bananas” Bento Box Kit and tour of San Francisco’s Japantown, by Biggie (me).
Pack adorable lunches with unusual Winnie the Pooh food shaping tools and a banana-themed “Putifresh” bento set. The yellow bento set includes a watertight bento box, two matching bags, chopsticks, elastic bento belt and a Zespri “spife” (spoon/knife combo) for packing whole kiwifruit. The tools include a boiled egg shaper, sandwich cutter, onigiri rice ball shaper, vegetable cutter, pancake ring and silicone food cups, all shaped like Winnie the Pooh. The Pooh-themed tools are high quality, direct from the Skater Company in Japan. Make lunch as tasty as your own pot of honey! (prize code UW20)

(Read on for full details and instructions on how to enter.)

(...)
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Bento Box Song: Sandwich Version

Biggie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:56:32 +0000

While watching Shimajiro, a popular Japanese cartoon of a tiger cub that teaches kids little songs, manners and safety, I stumbled across an uncommon variation of the classic Bento Box Song (”Obento Bako no Uta”) that features more Western food — sandwiches! It’s kind of a chant with hand motions referencing food words that sound similar to numbers in Japanese. It’s less of a counting exercise than the original, but fun nonetheless. I also dug up a comedy show riff on the bento box song that Japanese speakers may get a kick out of — the Osaka comedienne in the video clip takes issue with the vagueness of the original lyrics and makes up new ones after bullying her fellow singers.

I don’t want to infringe on the Shimajiro copyright, so I made a quick YouTube video of me singing the song and doing the associated hand motions (what was I thinking? Thanks to my Twitter followers for humoring me!). Full lyrics and an English translation follow. While I was at it, I made a little video for the original Bento Box Song to show the hand motions, and added it to the old post. (...)
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Recipe: Fried Shrimp Sushi Rolls

Biggie — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:13:50 +0000

Making inside-out sushi rolls doesn’t have to be all that involved if you’ve got the basic materials and some plastic wrap on hand. Serve plain or decorated like fish to thrill your child (or your inner child), like I did with Bug’s bento lunch for Children’s Day. You can speed this up by using frozen fried shrimp and frozen rice, but a step-by-step recipe for making inside-out shrimp sushi rolls from scratch follows below. (...)
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Poll: How many American bento-makers are men?

Biggie — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:34:53 +0000

A Japanese radio station asked me to do an on-air interview about bento lunches in the United States, and they seem to think that there’s a growing trend of American men who pack bentos. This may be because of a recent trend in Japan of “bento danshi“, or men making bentos for themselves or their families, often as a way to cut food bills in rough economic times. (See the recent Guardian article and video on the subject, or a Japanese TV clip about bento men.)

Although I know of a few men who make bento lunches (Mr. T on the Lunch in a Box forum, A Man’s Bento blog), my impression has been that the vast majority of U.S. bento-makers are women. If you’re a bento-packer in the U.S., weigh in via the poll so we can either prove or debunk this theory!

Do you know of other men who pack bentos in the U.S.? Bento blogs or Flickr streams by men? Are you a man who packs bento lunches? Feel free to weigh in or share links in comments. The radio interview is slated to air in Tokyo late this week, and I’ll provide a link to the podcast afterwards. UPDATE: The bento segment aired on J-Wave Friday morning Japan time, with a Japanese write-up in the Global Frontline section of the station’s blog.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Poll voting closes at midnight Pacific on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.

FURTHER READING:

Lunch in a Box forum discussions about “Social implications for men” and “Bentos for Hubbys“
Poll results: How long does it take you to pack a lunch? (poll closed)
Poll results: What containers do you pack lunches in? (poll closed)
Poll results: Where are your lunches eaten? (poll closed)
Poll results: Why do you pack bentos? (poll closed)
Archive of all polls on Lunch in a Box
Bento FAQ and Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and reviews

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Book Review: Kawaii Bento Boxes

Biggie — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:49:58 +0000

There aren’t many bento cookbooks written in English, so of course I’m curious when a new one comes out. I’m a big fan of Japanese-language cookbooks for their glanceable step-by-step photos and intuitive graphic presentation of complex material. Kawaii Bento Boxes: Cute and Convenient Japanese Meals on the Go, newly published by Japan Publications Trading’s Boutique-Sha, really captures the essence of fun, kids-oriented Japanese bento cookbooks.

As I was leafing through it, though, something started to seem oddly familiar. A quick browse through my kitchen bookshelf revealed why I was experiencing deja vu: it’s a straight translation of the same publisher’s Japanese-language cookbook Ichinenju Yakudatsu Tsuen Obento: Daisukina Kondate ga Ippai: (“Children’s Bentos that are Helpful Year-round: Lots of Favorite Menus”), with identical photos, layout, and text.

Now, there are both good and bad aspects to a straight translation of a bento cookbook written for the Japanese market. It’s extremely well suited for bento enthusiasts or Japanophiles already familiar with Japanese food, but may miss the mark for others…(...)
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