For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.
Today's bento is from the blog Cooking for Monkeys, where a very creative mom displays her ultra-adorable kiddie bentos. This safari bento is from her three-year-old's birthday party. Each kid got a box containing a PB & J jeep, an alligator carrot, cheese lions and giraffes and a blueberry elephant, all atop Veggie Booty "grass." Beats the heck out of the floppy slices of pizza from my own childhood birthday party days.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-29-2008 @ 3:49PM
Henmei said...
The jeep rests atop a PB&J, but the jeep itself appears to be Spam and cheese.
Reply
8-29-2008 @ 4:02PM
ee3 said...
I've been reading slashfood for around a year now, and these stupid lunch boxes make me want to delete the feed from my reader.
They are not cute, or artistic, or interesting.
Please stop posting them.
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8-29-2008 @ 5:13PM
Emily Matchar said...
Naturally you're free not to read any post you don't find interesting, ee3.
Millions of people enjoy bento boxes and consider them lovely forms of everyday art.
-Emily
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8-29-2008 @ 6:41PM
Liz said...
ee3, just scroll through them if you don't like them. I can tell you are not someone who is into food. Because, even my husband who isn't into food the way I am likes to see the Bento's. So just pass them by and shut up. I'm sure there is plenty to enjoy for you. Emily, I love this new thread. Please keep it up.
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8-29-2008 @ 7:10PM
pam said...
Hi Henmei,
The jeep is actually made from a red tortilla toasted and then brushed with honey and the wheels & accents from fruit leather & cheese.
Thank you Emily for the post!
Pam
Reply
8-29-2008 @ 11:10PM
kasey said...
I LOVE the bento boxes. For my Japanese class in high school, we got into groups and made different themed bento boxes that we then rated on taste, cuteness, and beauty. It was a really nice exercise for everyone and allowed us to be really creative. (Pokemon was just becoming popular in the states then so of course my group made a Pikachu themed bento).
As a side note, I think it's kind of sad when I read harsh comments from other readers. I usually like to think of food-lovers as really nice people and you would never see a mean or angry comment on a craft blog where everyone is really supportive. If you don't like something, don't read it. No one forces you. What happened to the old saying, "If you can't say anything nice...don't say anything at all" ?
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8-30-2008 @ 6:58AM
Tamer Brad said...
We're really stretching the meaning of word "bento" here, aren't we?
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8-30-2008 @ 12:34PM
Bernie B said...
Isn't "Bento" really just a homemade prepared lunchbox? If our school system didn't eliminate parents from providing their children's lunches, I bet we'd have a Bento craze in the US.
Here's a site that I'd bookmarked awhile back that people might want to visit.
http://lunchinabox.net/
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8-31-2008 @ 6:53AM
solomeeeo said...
They're cute but what's the green stuff everything is sitting on top of?
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