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Other bento stuff.

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I'm very excited to to announce the Spring 2010 Bento Contest, together with top French bento site FrenchBento and the awesome online bento boutique Bento&co! Read on for details...

Bento tidbits from Japan: Kiyoken Hotate Gohan (scallop rice) Bento, a higher end takeout bento

Kiyoken hotate (scallop) bento

I'm busy getting ready for the photo shoot for the bento cookbook, which starts next week, so I don't have a lot of time for long posts at the moment. So I thought I'd do a brief write up of this bento I had for lunch today. It's a good example of a higher-end takeout bento, of the kind you might buy in the food hall of a department store, at specialized stores or stalls in the bigger train stations, and so on.

Bento tidbits from Japan: 7Meals, 7-11's healthy bento and meal delivery plan

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One of the questions asked in the comments to my first Japan trip report was what kind of healthy 'fast-food' options there were. In that vein, I thought I'd talk about something that you can see for yourself, in a way. You might have heard already how totally awesome Japan's convenience stores, called conbini or konbini, are. They are like the 24 hour delis and bodegas that you see all around a big city like New York in a sense, but go several steps further in terms of customer service. Competition is fierce between the major conbini chains like Lawson, Family Mart, and 7-11, and competition between the conbinis and the fast food restaurants for the quick-meal market is quite serious too.

Japan's 7-11s are not quite the same as the ones in the U.S. to say the least. One of the services they offer is takeaway or home delivery of pre-ordered meals, including bentos. They have a dedicated web site for this service, called 7meal (セブン・ミール) (in Japanese only.)

Bento tidbits from Japan: Takeout bentos

Takeout bento and onigiri

In case you don't follow my other food blog, Just Hungry, I am in Japan for the next 3 months. I'll be reporting on non-bento stuff over there, but of course I'll be posting about bento related things here!

I just got here yesterday, so I don't have much to report yet, but here are some photos of takeout bentos available locally, in the suburban area of Yokohama (a major port city near Tokyo) where my mother and stepfather live.

menuforhopevi.jpgOnce again, Just Bento is proud to offer a great raffle prize for the annual Menu For Hope fund raising event, which will benefit the United Nations World Food Programme.

This year it's really personal: A hand-selected (by me, of course) box of bento boxes and accessories directly from Japan, plus...a signed copy of my upcoming book, The Just Bento Cookbook!

The winner of a copy of The Manga Cookbook is...

..Keanna! Congratulations! I've emailed you, but if you didn't get the email let me know.

Thank you (I think), Lord Sandwich

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Today, November 3rd, is the birthday of John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. He was either an inveterate gambler or a very hard worker; either way, he did not want to step away from his desk or the card table to take the time to eat. So he supposedly commanded his manservant to bring him some sliced meat between 2 slices of bread. Thus, according to legend, the sandwich was invented.

Nonchan Noriben, a movie about bentos

A new movie opened in Japan in late September called Nonchan Noriben (the rather sparse listing on IMDB). Here's a trailer:

The Nonchan part of the title is the name of the little daughter of the main character, Komaki. The Noriben part of the title refers to the name of a classic type of bento. I explained how a noriben is made here, as well as a little bit of the culture behind it. Basically, any bento consisting of layers of rice and nori seaweed is a noriben.

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