Good Morning, Darlings!
Today’s fun find comes from Sugar Charms, a darling website I found recently. They have the sweetest Bento Boxes. This one is especially sweet. Can any of my readers tell me why this is my favorite? Hint – you would need to have known me a very long time to come up with the answer.
Sweet Gibbon(s) Bento Box
What’s a Bento Box you ask? It’s basically a Japanese lunchbox. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Bento (??, bent??)[1] is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (???, bent?-ya?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.
Bento can be very elaborately arranged in a style called kyaraben or “character bento”. Kyaraben is typically decorated to look like popular Japanese cartoon characters (anime), characters from comic books (manga), or video game characters. Another popular bento style is “oekakiben” or “picture bento”, which is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants. Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements.
Need some ideas on building your bento lunch? Click here. I believe Bento might mean “happy lunch” because you can’t help but smile when you see them!
And Sugar Charms has the sweetest bento boxes I’ve seen yet. How darling would these be for sending your little one off to school or summer camp with? They would be the envy of their friends.
Aren’t they fun?
xoxo, Patti
Today blogging to The Vapors – Turning Japanese (sorry, couldn’t embed the video, but it’s worth the click!)