Borrow from Japan for the perfect school lunch
Originally published March, 2009
Recipes by Leeanne Wright
Written by Megan McChesney
Photo by Michael Alberstat
Food styling by Leeanne Wright
Lunchtime is about to get a whole lot cuter! If your little one is tired of the same old sammies, try whipping up a bento lunch—perfect for kids thanks to small portions, lots of variety and adorable serving techniques.
Bento means lunchbox in Japanese, and has been a part of Japanese culture since the 700s. Once used for soldiers to bring food to the battlefront, they’ve evolved into an art form, where small, varied portions of fresh food meet incredible aesthetics and intricate presentation. And they’re still incredibly popular; bentos are served during theatre intermissions, sold at train stations for long train rides, and many grown-ups bring them to work. Of course, the most popular use for bento in Japan is still school time! It’s not uncommon for Japanese moms to spend up to 45 minutes carefully preparing each bento. But there’s no need for you to go quite so far.
With a few choice items in your kitchen, you can whip up a bento in no time. There are all kinds of specialty accessories you can buy at Japanese import stores and grocery stores, or online at sites like jbox.com. You can even find bento-appropriate goodies at your local hardware or kitchen supply store. But you can start to bento with what you have in your cupboard. Gather your plastic containers, silicone or paper muffin cups, cookie cutters, cute toothpicks and you’re ready to go. Some bento enthusiasts insist you need nothing more than a good knife. The trick is to keep servings small, varied and let your creativity run wild! Turn hot dogs into octopi, carrots into flowers or cheese sandwiches into dinosaurs.
Another great thing about these lunches? Most can be made completely litterless.
Pictured: Sticky-rice balls with seaweed and cheese faces, egg and ham roll-ups, carrot flowers, broccoli florets, edamame, cherry tomatoes.
Animal-shaped chicken fingers with ketchup, cheese animal crackers, enoki mushrooms, carrot flowers, grapes, creme-filled koala cookies.
Mini meatball hamburgers with cheese and tomato, carrot and cucumber flowers with ranch dip, apple slices, grapes, snack crackers, cheese cubes.
Ham sandwich on a mini croissant, strawberries, omelette rolls, baby corn, snap peas, small fruit- flavoured jellies, candies.
Spaghetti with tomato sauce, hard-boiled quail egg, edamame, mini Ritz cheese sandwiches, Jell-O, Teddy Grahams.
Mini meatballs with potato gnocchi and tomato sauce, peas and corn, kiwi slices, box of raisins, raspberry yogurt with a fresh raspberry, mini rainbow-chip cookies.
“I liked that every bento lunch was a surprise. My mom would always put something different in each one. My fave was one made with little sausage meatballs and potato gnocchi (meat and potatoes—get it?) that I could dip into a little container of tomato sauce. My friends really liked my bentos too and thought they were cool. I’d like bentos every day because you can have a variety of things. Everything is small, so you can put lots in.”
Cailey, 13, Toronto
Sticky-rice chicks dyed with food colouring with seaweed eyes and carrot beaks, hard-boiled quail eggs, sprouts.
Ham and cheese flower sandwiches with pepper stems, spinach, enoki mushrooms, cheese string.
Mini hotdog, imitation crab and sausage octopi with edamame, blueberry and baby-corn eyes, broccoli, Goldfish crackers, hard-boiled quail egg, edamame, strawberries, chocolate-almond square.
Sticky rice balls with soya sauce, pepper and cucumber sticks, shrimp and mango skewers with plum sauce, sprouts.
Mini tuna salad sandwich with sprouts, baby bocconcini and tomato skewers, grape and cherry skewers, raspberries, blueberries, mini Oreos.
Mini hotdog rolls with ketchup, clementine slices, cherries, cup of yogurt, snack mix with raisins.
Macaroni and cheese, clementine, pear slices, cherry, pretzels, rice pudding, mini Oreo, Pocky cookie sticks.