Quibbling Dot Net

My bento boxes, let me show you them

Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge

There are tons of bento boxes and accessories on the Internet, so if you’re not careful about what you get, the cute little boxes and food picks and vegetable shapers and whatnot can get out of control and take over your kitchen. Most of this stuff, while fun, is completely unnecessary* and you’re probably better off going without it at first while you get a feel for how your food preferences and packing habits shake out.

* I say “unnecessary” from my perspective as an adult who doesn’t have to pack a lunch for a child. A lot of the “cute” bento stuff was developed so that parents could make lunch appealing to young children by putting little faces on it or cutting it into fun shapes so that they’d eat it. If you’re packing for a child, especially a child with dietary restrictions, suddenly cute becomes a MUCH bigger deal.

Stuff you actually need to pack your bento lunch successfully is pretty minimal: you need an appropriate lunch container, and you need stuff to help manage the food inside the container. Everything else is optional based on personal preferences.

To go bento-style for your midday meal, there are really just a few principles to keep in mind when choosing a container.

Size: You want something that is proportionally sized to how much food you want to eat, rather than a standard storage measurement like a pint, a quart, etc. Standard size for adult women is about 650-ish ml, and for men it’s more like 700 or 800. So, more than a pint, less than a quart. If you get one appropriately sized, it will look tiny the first time you pack it, but I promise that if you pack it the right way with healthy stuff, you will be full.

Compactness: You want something that will be easy to carry in whatever manner is convenient for you- for me, this is either flat, or narrow enough to slide into my bag with my other stuff. You also want it to be relatively light for this reason.

Secure seal: If you’re carrying food that’s even a little watery or oily, you want something that seals tightly even when slid into your bag sideways. Your average disposable Ziploc container will not do this, so look for something specifically engineered for it.

Durability: Because you’re carrying it around a lot, it’s going to take some knocks. Get something that can stand up to it. Also, note how carefully you have to wash it- Japanese bento boxes are often not microwave- or dishwasher-safe, and the extra-fancy wooden and lacquerware ones almost NEVER are. Though, according to Biggie, speed-bento maven, if you turn off your heated drying cycle (which we already do to save energy), the plastic boxes themselves are often fine in the dishwasher, and it’s just the lids that are more fragile.

Versatility: If you decide you’re not that into bento after all, what else can you use the container for?

If you meet these criteria with a random plastic container bought at the supermarket, more power to you. When I went to the Asian market, I chose to get single-tier boxes with locking lids and a watertight sealing ring. They’re rectangular and flat, so they’ll do as leftover-storage in a pinch (multitaskers!). My two-tier box does not lock as tightly; these types often come with an elastic strap to hold them together. Nonetheless, I use this box only for drier foods like bread and raw vegetables.

You can get away with just the one container if you clean it up every night, but it’s probably more convenient to start with two so that one can be in the dishwasher while you’re using the other one, or if you leave it at your desk one night or something.

Other items to consider:

Some kind of food dividers: Baking cups are really popular for this. Silicone ones are reusable and can take a beating, but they often can’t squish down as far as a foil baking cup can to accommodate the amount of space you have in the box. I happened to have some foil baking cups around from a previous cupcake project and have found them to work really well. I will probably keep both types on hand. I recommend against paper baking cups, since they’ll just get soggy and that defeats the purpose.

Liquid containment: At some point, you will want to bring salad dressing, or ketchup, or something like that. You’ll want something to hold it in, because dressing your salad in the morning before work to eat at noon just wilts the salad, and that’s not appealing at all. I got a little penguin cup for this purpose (my one concession to adorableness), but there are plenty of options- you just want something with a cap or lid, and small enough that it won’t take up more room than necessary in the box.

So the actual equipment-commitment is pretty minimal if you get items suited for what you’ll use them for, and most of them can be used for other things. That cuts down on the kitchen clutter devoted to your lunch-making, so that if later on you want to treat yourself to some cuter accessories, you won’t already be drowning in stuff you don’t need.

 

White House Press Pool FTW

Originally uploaded by tbridge

This photo gave me shivers this morning. I’m so, so proud of all the great work we’ve been doing on We Love DC. Are you reading it? You should be.

Tom should have pictures up soon of what exactly he was doing this morning that got him this badge, and there will be an article up at WLDC by the end of the week.

More bento-blogging is coming, too. I got my package from JBOX last night, so I have two bento boxes to compare and contrast, plus there is plenty of bento-ready food in my fridge now. But I won’t be packing one tomorrow- it’s a potluck at the office and I’ll be bringing a dish and sampling my coworkers’ culinary stylings.