There are plenty of Pokémon oriented bento things out there. Get da ze!

An in depth look at the monbento line of bento boxes and accessories, including the boxes themselves, the sauce cups, cutlery and the brand new silicone molds.

Unless you were living as a hermit away from any internet connection last year, you have probably heard of Gangnam Style, the phenomenal video sensation by South Korean entertainer PSY, aka Park Jae-sang, that took over the world. But Gangnam is not just the name of a rap song featuring a geeky looking dude dancing like a madman. It's also the name of a district in Seoul, South Korea, and that's where this interesting line of bento boxes come from.

Expect several bento box and accessory reviews soon...and maybe a few surprises.

Welcome back to the 3rd lesson in Bento 101: Getting Into the Bento Making Habit. If you've been following along, by now you should have a list of foods you like to eat that you consider to be packable for lunch, as well as experimented with putting a meal in a box. If you're just joining us, there's still plenty of time to catch up!

In Part 2b we're going to continue thinking about the all important question of the container or containers we want to bring our lunches in. The type of container that is ideal for you depends primarily on the types of foods you want to bring for lunch. This is one of the main reasons why I had you make a list of foods that you'd like to pack for lunch in Assignment 1. The food you want to pack should dictate the type and size of container you need, not the other way around.

Hi Bento 101 followers! Hopefully you have at least gotten a start on the list of your favorite, bento/packed lunch-friendly foods as described in the first lesson. You may want to keep the list lying around and add to it as inspiration strikes. This approach works pretty well for me, and it's actually how I think up up the bento-friendly recipes I add to this site.

Let's move on to the next topic: what to put your bento lunch in. We will get into more detail about this next week, since many people in my experience get stuck on this point. Some people go out and get a bento box and find it too small, or too big, or just not usable for some reason. Others look at the tiny looking boxes pictured online and think, "no way am I going to be full eating just that". Then there are people who want to lose or maintain their weights with bento lunches and think that getting a tiny one is the answer. In other words, there's quite a bit of confusion.