What's In Your Bento Box?

The Lunch Bento Box we had at the Korean BBQ restaurant

     The trend now is to make your own lunches and snacks in a bento box. Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. During the early 1900's, the use of bentos had declined and was thought of as a luxury item and showed the wealth of the person. However, even handmade bentos have made a comeback and they are once again a common sight at Japanese schools. Bentos are still used by workers as a packed lunch, by families on day trips, for school picnics and sports days etc. The bento, made at home, is wrapped in a furoshiki cloth, which acts as both bag and table mat.There are so many styles of Bento boxes to choose from such as the following:

 

            

     In South Asia they are called Tiffin carriers or dhabbas and look more like the ones in the picture on the right. Tiffins (or dhabbas) come in all shapes and sizes, but traditionally they are round, with three or four stacking stainless steel compartments firmly sealed with a tight-fitting lid and a side clip to avoid any nasty spillages and a handle for carrying on top.

     In India, food cooked at home with care and love is considered to deliver not only healthy (and relatively cheap) food but also divine contentment. Lunch is usually eaten thali-style, with a tantalizing selection of regional delicacies that may include any combination of spicy vegetables, dhal, rice, yoghurt, pickles, bread and pudding served on a big steel plate or a banana leaf. The separate compartments in the tiffin lunchbox accommodate thali lunches perfectly.

     Tiffin culture is now to be found all over India. Everyone – from women in brightly coloured saris working in the fields to giggling families on long train journeys – carries a tiffin to provide a compact, portable, homemade lunch.

     One day while shopping at Staples (an office supplies store) I saw that they were selling plastic bento boxes. What a great idea! I picked up two boxes along with two smaller sized containers that had layers. My idea was that we could pack them up with healthy foods to take on the plane and use it while travelling on our trip. The portion control would be great. Although the boxes are on the large size, we packed them up with nuts, small sandwiches, vegetables and fruit. The bento box fit perfectly in our carry-on so we had it accessible for us to eat from. It did save a little bit of money because while on the flight we did not have to buy a meal on the plane.

     Once we arrived in Australia, we did not really have the opportunity to use the bento box in the way it was intended, to carry food. We started using the box to store small items that we had purchased on our travels or won on the cruise. Again, it worked perfectly.

     While in Brisbane, we had lunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant and had a lunch bento box. It had a variety of foods, textures and spices. The first image in this post shows the dish that I had for lunch. It was very good and inspired me to continue to use the bento box for its original purpose -- lunches and snacks.

     So now what? I am looking forward to using them again. My plan is to pack a daily bento box for each of us as we travel in Canada to the next province destination. My hope is that we will not be tempted to eat out, that we will maintain an appropriate portion size and will eat in a healthy manner. Maybe our boxes will look like these.

 

         

          

     Well, it will be interesting to learn the creative ways of packing these boxes. Let's have fun with it.  Please leave a comment.

     So, what's in your BENTO BOX?