04/30/09 Bento

I really ought to come up with better titles for my posts.  Since I haven't made any themed bentos yet, it seems harder.  How do you come up with the titles for your bento posts if you blog about them?  If you don't blog about them, do you title them anyway, like the works of art they are? =D

Wednesday night after work I went to the mall to pick up the purse I had pined for and finally ordered from The Container Store. I know it sounds kind of weird to be so excited about a purse from The Container Store, but it has a pocket, pouch and place for everything.  As I packed all my purse junk into it Wednesday night it sort of felt like I was making a bento - ensuring that everything fit snugly and well together and keeping it all in order and in such a fashion that it was pleasing to the eye.  Seriously, I love this purse.

Since I was already at the mall, I went to the sushi bar at Sarku for dinner.  I bought a BBQ unagi roll and a cucumber and avocado roll.  I only planned on eating half of them for dinner so I'd have the other half for Thursday's bento.  As I was waiting for my rolls to be made, I noticed one of the workers was taking her break and eating dinner - from a bento box!  She seemed really self-conscious about it so I tried not to stare in awe and fascination.  I'm shy myself so I didn't strike up a conversation with her, though I wanted to.  (Which is an improvement as far as my shyness is concerned because a few years ago I would not have even contemplated talking to her about it.)

I actually only ate 1/3 of the rolls and brought in another third for Thursday's bento.  I hadn't had unagi before.  It didn't have a strong taste or texture, which I had expected.  

On to the bento!

There's a tofu miso soup packet and below that is shredded carrots, celery, green onions and quail eggs to go in the soup.  The sushi is accompanied by soy sauce in a cute little elephant bottle.  The soup spoon I plan to use is something I picked up at my local Asian grocery for a dollar or two.  When I have my own kitchen again, I plan on buying lots of different Asian dishes.  I love the idea of having an eclectic mix instead of just one set of dinner dishes.

The snack bento has celery and hummus sprinkled with shredded carrots and sliced strawberries and kumquats.  Even though I won't snack on a handful of them in the future, I really do like the citrusy smell the kumquats have.  And I'll probably use Toro's suggestion from my last post and make kumquat marmalade at some point because that sounds very tasty and perfect for a breakfast bento!

Kyle and I went out last night to catch the midnight showing of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  As a very slight nod to that, I made a little "X" out of shredded carrots in the hummus.  It's not a Lost-themed or Homer Simpson bento, but it's a start!

As a result of staying out so late last night, I didn't make a bento for today's lunch, but I'm quite pleased that I made one each day the rest of the week. 

Introductory Post!

I'm going to make this post a short one so I can get something written here so I can stop fretting over my first post and how to make it perfect! Next week I hope to start posting daily with my bento from that day during the week and other little things on the weekends. We'll see how it goes!

I love everything about bento - the time it takes, the finished product, the community surrounding it on the internet. I dabbled in it a little bit last Spring when I first discovered it. I had been browsing the internet for healthy lunch ideas and was immediately obsessed. My very first bento was made on May 1, 2008:





Since then I've amassed a sizeable amount of bento related products, gadgets and doodads. (The onigiri above was made using a square cookie cutter and plastic wrap - it came out well, in any case.)  My collection isn't quite as big as I'd like it to be yet, but it will get there eventually. Most of the items I have, I've bought through J-List.com. The Asian grocery stores I've been to in my area do not have a lot in the way of bento items. But supposedly there is an area in downtown Denver, Sakura Square, that has a lot of different Japanese stores and restaurants. I hope to go there someday soon so I can browse their selection - and not have to wait for a package from Japan!