Bento Equipment

Bento boxes, cutters, bento-making appliances and gear

How to: Make a furoshiki and matching bento belt

(A terrific tutorial from the Just Bento forum!)

Furoshiki are a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. They come in lots of sizes and are used for wrapping gifts, treasures, and bentos. As a bento wrapping they are extremely handy, because in addition to keeping your bento together (if you don't have a belt), and mopping up any small spills of wet stuff that may escape your box on the way to work, they transform into a small tablecloth or napkin when you unwrap your lunch.

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Has anyone seen this? An onigiri maker that allows you to microwave unboiled rice into the right shape.....

I was cruising Ebay looking at the things I can't afford to get (but my birthday is in March..) and found this for the microwave!!! It is some gadget that makes onigiris from unboiled rice!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/Hario-Microwave-Onigiri-Maker-Rice-Ball_W0QQitemZ120377025129QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0 Anyone see this before???

New Zealand supplies

I thought I'd make a posting here so that we few Kiwis can exchange shopping hints. I have just bought a 700 ml microwavable thermal lunch container from Kathmandu. It was 30% off, down to $12.50. Here it is with its lid off and sitting beside it. SANY0001.jpg The 700 ml refers to the volume without the divided insert, I calculate that each side of that holds about 300ml. I think it'd be good for making yoghurt too; hopefully I can find a suitable non-divided insert.

Bento bargain found (UK)

There is a 99p store right next to my chiropractor's office, so I pop in every other week. Today I scored a set of 6 silicone cups as well as a set of 10 mini cups. They had them in orange, pink and blue and only 99p per set! Compared to what I have seen them priced at elsewhere, it seemed like a good deal so I thought I'd share for the UK members. :)
Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

question about the little soy sauce bottle

I have some of the little soy sauce bottles, which originally came with a little matching eye-dropper thing to help put the soy sauce in. But now its been over-used and the seam at the bottom split, so there isn't any more suction in the eyedropper. I've tried using the bottles themselves to suck in the soy sauce, but they only ever get about half-full, so I end up needing to take in two bottles. I've also noticed that some bottle sets don't even come with an eye dropper. Is there a secret to filling these things that I just haven't figured out yet? :) thanks!
Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Cool old Canepe cutters

Thought some might like to see what I found in the back of my kitchen drawer. This I think came with a lot of my late Mother-in-Law's kitchen stuff. She liked to shop at second hand stores for fun and came home with a lot of cool things, like this Canape Cutter set from Japan. Don't know how old it is, but the tag on the back says $1. To me it looks a lot like the little veggie cutters for bento. They are actually a little too small for regular canapes, and they are in good shape and sooo cute! here's a picture.

What's your box?

I'll show you mine, if you show me yours! :) I use a couple of different sets. For me, I use either a Hakoya two-level box (in ume blossom motif) that I bought at Loft last fall. Very sturdy, and I use it at least three times a week. I also have a Floream set with a keep-warm rice thermos and side dishes (that look a lot like denture cups, frankly). I use this set for warm leftovers, like mapo dofu or curry, since my workplace doesn't have a microwave.
Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Pages