Bento box culture in Japan
In the previous entry titled "Cooking with fresh ingredients ", I wrote about how different Japanese school lunch system is from American school lunch menu/system and about lunch box day at school when kids bring homemade lunch box to school.
In Japanese, lunch box is called "Bento". It is part of Japanese culture and,usually, parents get up early and make Bento box for kids to bring to school. School usually have Bento box day once in a while and when they have special events like sports festival, parents bring the Bento box for family members and when kids got lunch time break from events, kids and parents sit around the Bento box and eat them.
School lunch system continues up to junior high school year and, when I was a high school students, we students brought Bento box every day.
High school did not have cafeteria. Instead, vendor visited school around lunch time and offered drinks ,pre packaged Bento box, Onigiri (rice ball) or sandwich.
At university I went to had cafeteria and staff cooked meals there, and also we had vendors coming to offer drinks,pre packaged Bento box,Onigiri (Rice ball), and bread. At university years, I lived on my own close to university. So, at lunch time, I went back home and cooked lunch and relaxed till next class time and I went back to class.
Bento box culture does not stops at University years. Many people who go to work also bring Bento box. My father brought mother's homemade lunch box every single day. Mother woke up very early in the morning and when I need Bento box to bring to school as well, she made 2 Bento boxes for us. She made Bento box for years and years. Very long time. I make Bento box for my husband too. I do not make cute artistic Bento box but he does bring homemade lunch everyday to work.
What are in the Bento box depends on each family, but ours were usually rice ball or bed of rice, some meat dish, some vegetable dish and fruits. When I was very little, I remember mother put piggy faced flan for Bento box as special desert. Or I remember seeing bunny apple as fruits;sliced apple peeled like bunny.
Bunny Asian pear;Asian pear slice peeled like bunny
My very first time to visit the state was with home-stay program. One of the days stayed in the state had field trip to Canada (Vancouver). Home-stay program director asked host mothers to let us bring brown bag for lunch.
What my host mother put in the brown bag was a stick of raw celery, a whole apple, and peanut butter and jelly (I do not remember what kind of jelly it was). It was one of those culture shock moment. Because I had never ate raw celery before, I had never had a whole fruits in lunch box, and peanut butter and jelly sounded too sweet. Everything was new to me.
So, how Bento box culture has started in Japan?
According to wikipedia, Bento culture has started around Kamakura period (around 1333) when dried meal was invented. Then at about Azuchi-Momoyama period (at about 1600),wooden bento box was invented like today, and it was eaten at special events like at tea party.
Then, at Edo period (at about 1800), rice ball a.k.a. Onigiri was born wrapped with bamboo leaves, and eventually metal lunch bento box was born and today, you can find all kinds of Bento box at stores.
To read about Bento box at wikipedia website,please click here .
Bellow are two of the Bento box we have at home.
Bento box
Bento box..when middle part on lid opens..you can find the chopsticks..
As you can see, bottom part of Bento box has divider, and you can control portion of rice to be packed in, and I have put 4 muffin tin cups on the top portion to show you those are the usually the place where side dishes are packed in.Fruits are usually peeled,and cut to portion and kids bring in tupperware.
There are many more Bento box with better function from the one that keeps box cool or warm for long time. Bellow is one of those Bento box.
Bento box with rice container that keeps rice warm..
On top lid back has mesh bag that you can stick chopstick container in place. You can stick knife/forks/spoons if you want to. Then, you see tupperware and stainless steel container on bottom part. Tupperwares,you can put side dishes and stuck them up and stainless steel container is for rice. You cannot microwave them but, what you do is to pour boiling hot water into the stainless steel container for instructed time and pour the water out from container and pack the rice in and lid on and voila! You can eat warm rice at lunch time. Stainless steel container lid is a little different.
Bento box with rice container that keeps rice warm..
When you take each containers out, this is what you would be seeing at.
Stainless steel container that keeps rice warmer...
The container's lid is different.
Pre-packaged Bento box lunch is also available at convenience stores, inside the Shinkansen (fast train in Japan.They runs at 300km/h.That is about 186 m/h), and at kiosk area at each station.
The pre packaged Bento box you get at the station is called "Eki ben". "Eki" in Japanese means "station" and "ben" is short for "Bento". When you buy one of those Eki ben, you tend to get pre packaged Bento box with dishes made with local specialized ingredients.
I came across a couple of youtube videos on Bento box in Japan.
Japanese food culture "Bento"
Kawaii Bento
In Japanese, lunch box is called "Bento". It is part of Japanese culture and,usually, parents get up early and make Bento box for kids to bring to school. School usually have Bento box day once in a while and when they have special events like sports festival, parents bring the Bento box for family members and when kids got lunch time break from events, kids and parents sit around the Bento box and eat them.
School lunch system continues up to junior high school year and, when I was a high school students, we students brought Bento box every day.
High school did not have cafeteria. Instead, vendor visited school around lunch time and offered drinks ,pre packaged Bento box, Onigiri (rice ball) or sandwich.
At university I went to had cafeteria and staff cooked meals there, and also we had vendors coming to offer drinks,pre packaged Bento box,Onigiri (Rice ball), and bread. At university years, I lived on my own close to university. So, at lunch time, I went back home and cooked lunch and relaxed till next class time and I went back to class.
Bento box culture does not stops at University years. Many people who go to work also bring Bento box. My father brought mother's homemade lunch box every single day. Mother woke up very early in the morning and when I need Bento box to bring to school as well, she made 2 Bento boxes for us. She made Bento box for years and years. Very long time. I make Bento box for my husband too. I do not make cute artistic Bento box but he does bring homemade lunch everyday to work.
What are in the Bento box depends on each family, but ours were usually rice ball or bed of rice, some meat dish, some vegetable dish and fruits. When I was very little, I remember mother put piggy faced flan for Bento box as special desert. Or I remember seeing bunny apple as fruits;sliced apple peeled like bunny.
Bunny Asian pear;Asian pear slice peeled like bunny
My very first time to visit the state was with home-stay program. One of the days stayed in the state had field trip to Canada (Vancouver). Home-stay program director asked host mothers to let us bring brown bag for lunch.
What my host mother put in the brown bag was a stick of raw celery, a whole apple, and peanut butter and jelly (I do not remember what kind of jelly it was). It was one of those culture shock moment. Because I had never ate raw celery before, I had never had a whole fruits in lunch box, and peanut butter and jelly sounded too sweet. Everything was new to me.
So, how Bento box culture has started in Japan?
According to wikipedia, Bento culture has started around Kamakura period (around 1333) when dried meal was invented. Then at about Azuchi-Momoyama period (at about 1600),wooden bento box was invented like today, and it was eaten at special events like at tea party.
Then, at Edo period (at about 1800), rice ball a.k.a. Onigiri was born wrapped with bamboo leaves, and eventually metal lunch bento box was born and today, you can find all kinds of Bento box at stores.
To read about Bento box at wikipedia website,please click here .
Bellow are two of the Bento box we have at home.
Bento box
Bento box..when middle part on lid opens..you can find the chopsticks..
As you can see, bottom part of Bento box has divider, and you can control portion of rice to be packed in, and I have put 4 muffin tin cups on the top portion to show you those are the usually the place where side dishes are packed in.Fruits are usually peeled,and cut to portion and kids bring in tupperware.
There are many more Bento box with better function from the one that keeps box cool or warm for long time. Bellow is one of those Bento box.
Bento box with rice container that keeps rice warm..
On top lid back has mesh bag that you can stick chopstick container in place. You can stick knife/forks/spoons if you want to. Then, you see tupperware and stainless steel container on bottom part. Tupperwares,you can put side dishes and stuck them up and stainless steel container is for rice. You cannot microwave them but, what you do is to pour boiling hot water into the stainless steel container for instructed time and pour the water out from container and pack the rice in and lid on and voila! You can eat warm rice at lunch time. Stainless steel container lid is a little different.
Bento box with rice container that keeps rice warm..
When you take each containers out, this is what you would be seeing at.
Stainless steel container that keeps rice warmer...
The container's lid is different.
Pre-packaged Bento box lunch is also available at convenience stores, inside the Shinkansen (fast train in Japan.They runs at 300km/h.That is about 186 m/h), and at kiosk area at each station.
The pre packaged Bento box you get at the station is called "Eki ben". "Eki" in Japanese means "station" and "ben" is short for "Bento". When you buy one of those Eki ben, you tend to get pre packaged Bento box with dishes made with local specialized ingredients.
I came across a couple of youtube videos on Bento box in Japan.
Japanese food culture "Bento"
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Popular Bento culture in USA
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Kawaii Bento
If you were a blog subscriber or reading this entry from Facebook, please click here to watch the video.
In Japanese, "Kawaii" means "cute".
I think that homemade lunch box from scratch is not only nutritious but also the good way for kids to at least try many ingredients. For adults, lunch Bento box is cheaper way to eat lunch and tasty.
I am very impressed to think how long my mother kept making Bento box for family and, help us family be healthy with home made Bento box for years.
If you were to make a Bento box for your family, what they will be like? Some of mothers have very artistic talent and very impressed with it.
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