After seeing all her fun, beautiful creations, I have my friend Papaya Mom to blame for this addiction. I soon made my first Bento. It was ugly. But I was hooked. It's fun, creative, healthy, and makes lunch something my husband actually looks forward too. Not to mention, I can put about anything in Ainsley's cute bento boxes and she'll eat it.
My bento collection is getting out of control. I now have two entire kitchen cabinet shelves now devoted to bento boxes and accessories. But of course I need more.... So today I ventured out to check out more of the local asian markets and stores for Bento stuff.
I'm going to guess that there are at least fifty asian markets within a thirty minute drive from my house. And it's been my mission to check them all for bento. My first stop today was Pika Pika, only about three miles from my house. It's not a market, but a store specializing in only Japanese goods. I walked in and the man working there looked at me in that, "are you in the right place?" kind of way. I said "bento" and he nodded towards the wall. I walked around the aisle and just about passed out on the floor. An entire WALL of Bento. GASP. And with prices so low I really almost hit the floor. My last bento purchase came all the way from Japan and I'm not even going to tell you what I spent on that stuff, not to mention the shipping....
Just some of what I picked up today. *big smile*
Here are some of my bentos.
Ainsley's "fishy lunchbox"
Mommy's bento
So if you're interested, there are tons of great resources out there, like Lunch in a Box and Flickr Groups. Just search the Flickr groups for "bento."
2 comments:
I like your use of the little Lock & Lock box (holding sauce?) inside a larger one -- nice! Also, nice shapes and arrangements; very creative. Thanks for the shout-out about Lunch in a Box, BTW!
Love LOVE these Bento boxes, N. I really need to get me a pretty box and stop using old Wendy's salad containers.
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