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."

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

I must admit that this bento, from the Live Journal bento stream, gives me the crawlies just a little. I love crab, but these guys remind me a bit of bedbugs. Cute bedbugs. The crabs are sweet potato, served over a pork and eggplant donburi. On the side are veggie spring rolls, a red bean mochi (Japanese rice flour pastry) and a green salad with vinaigrette (in the plastic carrot).

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Japanese anime enthusiasts tend to go in for elaborate bentos in a major way. Big surprise, right? This lil' guy (ten points for whoever can name the character), from Narurto Gallery, is rendered in nori, cheese, lunch meat and surrounded by various vegetables and a skewer of edamame.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Another highly artistic bento today, via Splutch. We've got a lovely redheaded girl (if this is some famous character I don't know about, please do tell) made of turkey, egg, fish cake and nori, along with a nori man, several tamago rollups, some turkey and cucumber rollups and a strawberry jelly.

Cooking Cute

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

You don't get much simpler than this tri-colored donburi (Japanese stewed meal, served over rice) from Cooking Cute. As the author says, "there is something about the texture of the soft egg, chewy beef and crisp snowpeas, and the combination of salty and sweet...yum!" She's even included a recipe. Looks like more of a dinner bento, in my opinion, but I'm sure it would heat up nicely for lunch.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Here's another example of a Japanese mass-produced bento, from Payton Chung's photostream. We've got a nice fat shrimp, a small fish, bits of carrot and greens, shredded radish, noodles and a nice slice of hard-boiled egg. Seriously, could this not catch on in the United States? I'd take something like this over a turkey wrap any day.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento, from I Love Egg, is perfect for lean times, with a calculated cost next to each recipe. We've got instant udon with a sauce made out of its flavor packet and a sprinkling of flying fish roe, some cuttlefish balls, mini toasts, mushrooms, kamaboko (fish cake) and sliced peach. All for less than the price of a cafeteria lunch, with enough for leftovers.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento, from Pinstripe Bindi on the Live Journal site, is refreshingly eclectic. We've got bacon-wrapped scallops, veggie havarti cheese cubes and cherry tomatoes, hummus, sweet corn on the cob cut into slices, triangular Triscuits, and white peach jelly candies. Hungry.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

I'm loving this star-themed bento, thrown together from fridge leftovers, from Catdraco on the Live Journal bento site. We've got cukes with stars cut out of the center, filled with same-shaped sweet potatos. The noodles are rice vermicelli, and there are tofu cubes with soy and sesame oil. The car is a hard-boiled egg.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

This post-Thanksgiving bento, from FoxyMartini, turns mashed potatoes into a Gray Chinchilla with a bit of food coloring, raisin eyes, ham nose, and nori whiskers. Belly is white American cheese. He sits atop several slices of Fuji apple and a container of gravy sauce for the adjacent turkey.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Here's another Thanksgiving-inspired bento, from Mushmo on the Live Journal bento community. We've got roasted potato cubes, beef-stuffed mushroom caps, sliced carrots, tomatoes and onion, green bean casserole and a cranberry-apple crumble, all topped with mini crescent rolls and decorated with turkey flags.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Put this on your mental list of "stuff to do with Thanksgiving leftovers." This bento, from sake-bento, has mashed potatoes, carrots, lettuce and a little lake of gravy in the top tier, and green bean casserole, a molded mound of stuffing (creator used an onigiri mold), turkey and cranberries on toothpicks. The cup contains apple juice with a few decorative floating cranberries.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

With airlines cutting costs, some of us are actually wistful about the days when we got to complain about the prison-level quality of airplane meals. But Biggie over at Lunch in a Box has an idea - DIY bento flight meals. This disposable metal tray contains a ham and cheese sandwich, vegetable curry (in a disposible condiment container), red bell pepper strips with poppy seed dressing, Swiss and Cheddar cheese slices, beans with sofrito (Latin American tomato-based sauce), fruit, cheese triangle and corn chips. The whole thing gets wrapped up in a tea towel, to be used as a placemat or a napkin. Beats a Post-It sized bag of complimentary pretzels, eh?

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Another great example of the Japanese obsession with kawaii (cuteness), this dangerously adorable Pokemon-themed bento from Kotaku features two onigiri decorated with Pikachu-stamped nori and a fish cake with an embedded Pikachu image.

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. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento makes the most of food coloring, with yellow, blue, pink and purple letter mini-onigiri stuffed with tuna and shaped like letter blocks. Letter details are cheese. The teddy is stuffed with tuna, wasabi and mayo, with nori and cheese details. The box is filled out with broccoli and shumai dumplings.