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Bento Boom Hits Bay Area

bento
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are embarking upon a Bento Boom. The prettily packaged (often very elaborate) box lunch has been around in Japan since the 1600s, has its share of obsessives stateside, and now boasts an upscale San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur as its, uh, bentoperson. Meet Peko-Peko (Japanese for "hungry").

How can a simple, typically cheap boxed lunch go upscale? Well, owner Sylvan Brackett's restaurant background is at Alice Waters' famed local eatery Chez Panisse. His tribute to the food of his childhood -- his mother is Japanese -- do not come cheap. When they're so gorgeously presented in beautiful "to go" boxes, or on traditional servingware when catered, we'd be inclined to shell out the $25 minimum. (Full disclosure: We sampled Brackett's incredible potstickers as college acquaintances). Seasonal, organic ingredients might include Marin Sun Pork Kakuni (soy and sake-simmered pork belly) with chrysanthemum greens or a layered box of Dungeness crab, pork cutlet, local pickled ginger and Brackett's house-brined umeboshi (pickles).

Though gourmet bento has not yet charmed all of America, Brackett studied the cuisine in Japan and declares, "Beautifully laid out food is common there." How does Mom feel about him taking the casual food she served him as a tot and bringing it to the Alice Waters crowd? "She thinks it's amusing."

Filed Under: Chefs & Restaurants, New Products, Restaurants
Tags: Alice Waters, AliceWaters, america, bento, bento box, BentoBox, Chez Panisse, ChezPanisse, dinner, lunch, San Francisco, SanFrancisco, Sylvan Brackett, SylvanBrackett

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

AmandaonMaui

4-24-2009 @4:47PM AmandaonMaui said... I made bento last semester for school, and I'm doing some on occasion now. I'll pick it back up when I start working.
Reply

AS

4-23-2009 @11:49AM AS said... We have had an Obento shop in SoCal for a little while now called Bentoss (http://www.bentoss.co.jp/us_shop.html). It is the US version of a Japanese chain. Yummy stuff prepared fresh.
Reply

Confetti

4-26-2009 @1:31AM Confetti said... Bento is awesome, so it's good to see it getting a little more mainstream. Though I would love to see a more affordable version of this....
Reply

3 Comments / 1 Pages

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