From panda-shaped rice balls to two-tiered boxes covered in decorative wrapping paper, Japanese culture adds a little style to the average boxed lunch.
Bento boxes are a very popular take-out meal option common in Japan. The containers used are often two-tiered and have separate compartments for different foods.
“The concept of using lunch boxes started as early as in the 10th century,” Dr. Yuki Takatori, a Japanese language professor at Georgia State, said. Japanese rice, unlike short-grain rice or Indian rice, tastes good even when cold, so the practice took off.
“It’s for the convenience of those who cater,” Takatori said. “The meaning of the word ‘bento’ is convenience.”
Japanese parents pack bento boxes of rice, meat, pickled vegetables and any leftovers from the previous night for their children.
Takatori recalled being a child in Japan, going to school and placing her bento box on a wooden stove in the the classroom, along with the other children, so that the meals would be warm when it was time for lunch. The practice changed and developed for each person as they got older.
“Convenience stores like 7/11 sell boxed lunches. So full-time workers go out to any convenience store, buy a bento and eat it at work,” she said.
There are also some options of getting a bento in Atlanta from Japanese restaurants and even food trucks. Yami Yami on Peachtree Street has a colorful Sashimi bento selection and the Bento Bus can be seen roaming the streets of Atlanta.
But since options are still limited, people have turned to other sources for these colorfully-packed meals.
The more creative people decided to step up their game and turn lunch into art. When online shopping websites started selling tools for creating character bentos, panda rice balls and anime faces became common in the lunch boxes.
“You place a cut-out sheet of paper or plastic sheet on a bed of cooked rice,” Takatori said. “Then you sprinkle rice toppings on it and remove the sheet, and there’s a face of the character drawn on the rice.”
Another option is to cut the pickled vegetables into pieces and use those to draw a face on a bed of rice.
While the practice may have not picked up outside of Japan, those who experience it carry on the tradition.
“Many English language teachers go to Japan to teach and they continue to make their lunches in bento boxes, even after they come back,” Takatori said.
Make Your Own Bento:
Making your own Bento box isn’t too difficult, and with great local examples to look to, you can have your own soon enough.
- To begin, get the technicalities out of the way: divide the box proportionally to fit the proper amount of rice, meat, vegetables and dessert. Keep in mind that if the container you’ve chosen doesn’t have compartments you will have to pack the food tightly.
- Now comes the fun part. To center your design around something, create a theme for the meal. For example, the theme could be a nature scape, a variety of animals or even a scene from a movie or show.
- Once you have the theme you can cut the food items into shapes to be a part of the scene. Make sure to define the edges of each item so that the overall picture is still clear.
