Just Bento

Yes, it was about a year ago. I still didn't quite have the hang of rice, but I think it was fairly uneventful.

My first Bento was about a week before the challenge started. A little much and not really worth remembering. I like the bentos I make now much more

Mine was also the week before the challenge and before I realized my box was too big. It was not very pretty and it was WAY too much food, but since that week, I have only bought lunch at the company canteen twice so I am happy with my progress. :)

Oh boy I do... mostly because it *kof* wasn't exactly perfect*kof*.

It was about two years ago, and I was pretty excited to put together a boxed lunch like the ones I saw on some food sites. I didn't have a clue about ho to get a bento box, so I took a little tupperware box and told to myself I had to work twice as hard to make it good-looking. I tried to include a variety of colourful items in it, though it was in the dead of winter, and wanted to have all my favorite foods in it. Of course it took a ridiculous amount of time to cook and assemble it ; by the time it was ready I was starving !
The result was, in fact, quite gaudy and flat-tasting I'm afraid. But it was a first, and well, the product of my efforts... so I'm still fond of the memory, even if the bento itself was anything but perfect. A bit like when you see this ugly drawing of your cat in the garden that you made in 9th grade, still stuck on the door of your parent's fridge (it's quite awful and more than a bit embarassing, but very endearing).

I hope I've improved my bento since then though ! ^^p

(As a side note, it's impressive to see how many of the participants have made their first bento just before or for the challenge ! )

I bought a large, traditional bento box a couple of years ago, and my first bento was something very traditional, it involved rice, umeboshi, tamagoyaki, and probably some fruit or vegetables. I sent my husband to work with it, which he loved, but it's really too big to carry.

First time eating bento would have been in Japan in 1995 on a school trip on a train to somewhere. I remember wondering why the rice was cold. I also remember being disappointed because our host mothers had pack lunches for us, and when we got to school we found we all had western style sandwiches and fruit. I suspect the school had told them not to feed us anything too strange.

My first bento story is similar to yours Maki. I was going on a school field trip and forgot to tell my Mom to pack a lunch for me. She worked the graveyard shift and was usually asleep when I got ready for school. I think I must of been about 10 or 11 years old. We usually had all the staples for traditional bento so it wasn't too tough. I am not sure if I got the musubi quite right, and there was some leftover nishime that I wrapped up in yards of foil to prevent leakage. I remember how proud I was when I unwrapped my lunch and ate what I had prepared on my own. Thanks for asking us this question. It's been a while since I thought about school days.

My first bento 2009-06-01 ;) Or this Monday to be precise.

http://ruskie.codemages.net/scry/index.php/view/0/food/bento/20090601002...

What it contained:
left over chicken breast from the chicken lunch on Sunday. Remarinated and quickly fried. Some fresh green salad, third of a zucchini(dry fried) and naturally some rice.

I remember my first bento quite well, because it was only a few weeks ago. It contained some noodles called "Wok-Noodles", brokkoli, carrots - everything thrown together in a pan, covered with soy sauce and curry, and into the box with some apple slices and strawbeeries as a side dish. It was really delicious, although not very traditional. I still like it, and make it from time to time - yummy. :) But I think I'll use udon noodles next time, as they taste very nice..

I have just found a pic of my first bento, which was from last December, I think. It's pretty ugly, and it's here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38166471@N04/3613686945/

...but it's great to see this, and compare it with how far I think I've come. I think it was a gratin of butternut squash and sweet potato, with a LOT of garlic, some burnt tofu with soy and sesame(!), spinach and apple. It was one of only 3 or so I made when I was in my last job.

I used to make big salads to take with me for work lunch, but I don't think that counts as a bento. My first real bento I made about a month ago, and it was filled with maki sushi and onigiri (it was my birthday, and my husband got me all sorts of stuff from j-list, so we had to try it all out :)). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture... since then I've made bento's for every working day, AND taken pictures.
bento #2 I filled with tuna- filled onigiri in different shapes, miso marinated pork from a recipe on this site, tamagoyaki, cucumber, tomatoes, and red&yellow bellpepper. It was really good, and all my co-workers were jealous of my lunch :)
http://roos039.hyves.nl/album/40691151/Bentos/TJLfLlLM/photos/602922963/...

I sure do....it was yesterday! Pictures on blog (link in signature) if you feel like a laugh :)