Obento: A Little Back to School Magic

One of my favorite things about the new semester starting is having an excuse to make bentos again. For those of you who might not know what bentos are, they are Japanese lunch boxes. What makes them so great, aside from being convenient, is that it's essentially food art. They don't necessarily have to be decorative or filled with solely Japanese food, but those are always fun options. This sort of thing is especially entertaining for children with the added bonus of making them more inclined to actually eat all of their food. Admittedly the fun stuff is primarily intended for children's bentos, but I don't care. I make them for myself anyway.

There are plenty of online sources for purchasing bentos and accessories, such as decorative dividers, eggs and rice molds, and shaped vegetable cutters. One of my favorite sources is www.justbento.com, which has a wealth of information on which bentos you should buy for your needs, recipes, food safety, and plenty of fun pictures of other people's work.

Here are a few more links that I've found useful:

www.allthingsforsale.com/
www.jbox.com/search/all/bento
www.japancentre.com/
www.lunchinabox.net/
www.laptoplunches.com/