There was an obsessive glint of excitement in her eye's when I spoke with her about Bento some months back. I figure I could do with some obsessive attention to detail in my life to.
Obento or Bento is sort of a strange Japanese-housewife art form that has now expanded. Mom's make them - with excruciating patience and detail that I may or may not possess (ahem) - for their children and husband's lunches.
There is a whole drawn out long and complicated explanation about the 'Life' of the bento - from preschool to marriage to divorce on JustBento.com. This site is utterly amazing and full of everything you'd ever want to know about making lunch boxes bento style.
I don't really eat Lunch - must be all that Ritalin - but I do get grumpy and on occasion stupidly irrational and violent if I fail to remember to eat during the day. I figure Bento-in' might prevent some regrettable out bursts while also serving as a hobby - two birds, one stone.
Jesus just look at Jeff Woe - LOOK AT HIM! That, my friends, is a pink Nintendo DS made from dyed rice. Can you imagine opening your lunch box at school in Western society (yessum) to discover your mom had made you a rice replica of a pink Nintendo DS?
If it was my Mom, I would be inclined to rush home an make sure she hadn't eaten some Mushroom's out of the freezer again.
Despite the initial mind fuck, I figured I like order, which is why I like the idea of Bento making. First of all - there are a whole gaggle of boxes and containers specially for Bento. Not only that but they match and come with matching bag's that keep the food warm or cold and there are matching utensils and and and...
Well you get the point. I'm a nick-nack-nazi - meaning I love all things compact, technical, decorative and well designed. My shelves have stupid ornaments arranged in a particular set up. I have little boxes with sentimental shiny things, kind of like a magpie, that I only look at, like, once a year but remain of
HUGE importance to me never the less. I love things that have a kind of order - especially when all those things are combined into one neat little matching lunch box set.So in terms of aesthetic value - Bento as a hobby rates highly in my book. Alas, while I would secretly love to have a Hello Kitty bento lunch box set - I am twenty one and find women who are all "kwaiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!" at my age about any child like bullshit slightly disturbing.
However! All women experience 'wobbly-ovaries' from time to time. Over weight cat's usually do it for me. So perhaps I can over look the whole cutesy revulsion and enjoy this as art. Anyway, when I started reading up on Bento I found myself oddly excited at the prospect of preparing meticulously crafted lunches.
I mean just look at that Piggy Bento!WTF?!?!
Amazing.
So I am going to try out Bento for myself. I woke up early to hit the one shop in town that might aid my Bento search - 'Yum Yum Oriental Market' of the North Laines in Brighton.
Alas this is Sunday and this is Brighton (Not LA! Sorry... couldn't resist). So of course at 10:00am in Brighton 99.9% of the shops are shut and people shoot you the stink eye for being awake and in a good mood on a Sunday morning as you skip through the Laines listening to some cheesy iPod tunes.
So after coming back home, reading more about the process of making Japanese rice (which I will later relay - it's once again stupidly drawn out) and going back out to the shops again to buy all the goods. I am home and now in the third hour of rice prep.
My first Bento atempt menu will be as below:
Vegetarian Ongiri
Sushi Cucumber Maki Roll
Fake-Terriaki-Meat-Like-Substance-From-Tin & Vegetable Stir Fry
I am not sure if I am ready for the Kyaraben thing yet - which is when you go all out and make Nintendo Rice or Piggies - but I will be posting the outcome shortly.
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