February 3rd, 2010
A SQUARE MEAL
Bento Box Lunches are taking the lunchroom by storm
A Japanese tradition is quickly taking over American lunches one Bento Box at a time. Yum Yum Bento, a soon to be released book featuring Fresh Recipes for Adorable Lunches gives an inside look into this fast growing trend. Cute and beautifully presented, Bento lunches are not just being eaten by kids. We caught up with Crystal “Pikko” Watanabe, one of Yum Yum Bento’s authors to get the skinny on this lunchtime craze. Looking for a way to control her portions, Pikko began creating Bento Lunches in ‘07 and never looked back. “Bento looks best when you use a variety of colors and fresh ingredients become very important for presentation. With the world now trending towards greener, healthier living, it’s not surprising that people want to put more effort into their food.” Between blogging about her own Bento Lunches and creating an online community devoted to this creative outlet, it is a wonder Pikko has any time to make her own.
Here are some tips from Pikko:
- Bento should be about presentation and healthy foods. I LOVE using leftovers and it makes it so easy. For presentation, color is the easiest thing to achieve without special tools to start with. Try to aim for having green, red, yellow, orange, and white. With those colors, you’ll find you turn to fresher ingredients.
- If you’re doing kids lunches, buy food picks and sushi grass. That should be enough to get you started. If you find out you love it, trust me, you’ll be finding yourself shopping for more.
- Take a look at the books I have found to be so useful www.aibento.net
- For newbies, I suggest making your Bento in a tupperware or ziploc, once you are fully committed, here are some sources for a proper Bento: I Love Bento or From Japan with Love
We are featured on this article. From Japan With Love - http://www.from-japan-with-love.com
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