お弁当 (Obentou) – Bento

23rd April – 卯月

Bento – as a take away food box, is well known all over the world. This word came from Japanese word 弁当 (Bentou), and its quality is stunning in Japan. Many of Japanese students and workers bring their 弁当 to school and work and eat them at the lunch time. It is said that why 弁当 was developed well in Japan is because Japanese rice is tasty even it gets cold. Nowadays, 弁当 related goods, such as lunch box, portable catteries, bags for lunch box are sold in various shops. Moreover, there are 弁当 decoration items like seaweed cutter, egg sharpeners are everywhere in those cooking isle in the shops. This is due to the trend of キャラ弁 (Chara Ben) the abbreviation of Character Bento. Many parents and wives put a lot effort to make the lunch time fun for the receiver!

In the past Heian era, 弁当 was very luxury therefore only nobles could relish it. The box used at that time was called 提重箱(Sagejuu bako), having various shelves and tools at one. They went to see the Cherry blossoms and Autumn leaves and enjoyed the food there.

Then in Edo era, 弁当 became a public box of food, and the famous 弁当 called ‘幕の内弁当’ (Makunouchi Bentou) was introduced. Makunouchi Bentou still exists everywhere now and it means the box of food including White rice with variety of different dishes on the side. This 弁当 was eaten when people went to see the theater. In between the play (After the first play and waiting for the second play), they eat this 弁当, therefore this 弁当 was named like this.

On the other side, 弁当 at the station also became very famous, called 駅弁 (Ekiben). Ekiben was started in Meiji era, selling rice ball wrapped in bamboo skin. This evolved to the ones nowadays which includes regional special ingredients and sold at the station. This special regional Bento has spread since the train travel became a trend.

To make an easy but very cute 弁当, you can make タコさんウインナー (Takosan Winnar).

タコさんウインナー

Make three break lines in the one edge of sausage and grill it on the pan. The cut part will gradually open and look like an octopus!