The Beautiful Art of Bento Boxes

Bento boxes have elevated the standards of packing a lunch box, and if you haven’t purchased a bento box set, now is the time!

Written by Kristy Kim Illustration by Thomas Harris

You know those moms who effortlessly wake up each morning at 5 a.m. to make their kid’s school lunches in bento boxes while simultaneously molding their foods into cute Pokémon or Hello Kitty designs? Not to brag, but that was my mom making seamlessly easy-looking cartoon characters out of rice balls and omelets. The most recent trend of Bento boxes on social media made us think about why they deserve all the hype and appreciation. Especially now, as more people are spending time at home, we have more interest in spicing up our home-cooked meals and finding new outlets to enjoy the meals we make while also being aesthetically pleasing.

Apart from the time and skill it takes to curate such a masterpiece, bento boxes have been a part of Japanese culture dating as far back as the fifteenth century by a man named Oda Nobunaga. Wooden bento boxes were a quick and efficient way to carry your lunch around while traveling and doing a variety of different tasks. As bento boxes progressed, they formed into more sophisticated meals such as makunouchi bento, which included

sesame seed rice balls with a variety of side dishes. Bento boxes are traditionally eaten with chopsticks on the go and a nice beverage while you get through the day!

Now, people from all over the world put their own modern twist on their bento boxes, but we want to talk about what makes an authentic bento box. These boxes can be as nutrient-dense as you want, but it consists primarily of rice, a source of protein and pickled vegetables or tiny side dishes. Like most cultures around the world, rice is the basic component, yet certainly not undermined, in each meal. From there, we can add some sort of teriyaki fish or grilled meat on top to complement the rice. My favorite part would be the side dishes, (it’s not an authentic bento box without one!) because this is where we can get creative. These side dishes can be anything you want including kimchi, seaweed, grilled veggies, boiled egg or even tempura! You can go as simple or as intricate as you want. The best part of a bento box is that there isn’t a bento box “recipe”. This is our time to let our imaginative minds explore the diversities of food, and this is what makes bento boxes so vibrant and animated. This is a good way for kids, and even college students, to have a balanced meal with all the major food sources of carbs, fats, and protein.

As we humans progressed and realized that a bento box can become more than just a meal, Japanese people became even more creative and added components of their favorite pop culture. Here come the Hello Kitty omelets, rice with seaweed cut into Pokémon shapes and even tiny squid sausages! It is just another way to express your love to others as you put thought and effort into your fully nutritious meal. Dozens of cookbooks have been published on how to make different characters, and we’d be lying if we said we didn’t purchase one of those books for ourselves just to look at. The designs that people have created are endless. This just takes food art to the next level, and we’re not complaining. Bento boxes are finally getting the appreciation they deserve, because not only does it take skill, but love is shown through the beauty of the meal. No wonder why bento boxes are still being used today, based on how efficient and fun people seem to have made it. It makes us appreciate the Japanese culture as we can eat and enjoy looking at the food we created.