Bento(弁当)
Source: Tilleke Gunatilaka
When you talk about Bento, you talk about the food. Bento is a type of traditional Japanese cuisine. A Bento can be eaten anywhere, anytime, or in any style. Bento can come in any type of shape it can either be round or flat; big or small. It is a kanji word which comes from Chinese. Bento comes from the word Ben (弁 = sharing of portion and To (当 = means time) so when both word combine together it will means: a variety of food put in a box and served on time. In Japanese many people like to call it Obento; Obento is a polite form by adding an O (お) in front of the word Bento we will get Obento (お弁当). It will sound more polite if we speak it that way.
The history of Bento can be trace back to the 1603 during the Edo period in Japan. There is a hypothesis that Bento develop from rice balls wrap around in bamboo leaves; which is famous among travelers during that time and gradually develop into box. It even became more popular when the Japanese railway is introduced in the 1949.
A traditional Bento will always have a variety of food and will always fit into one container. Normally in a Bento we will divide it into 3 parts one part for the rice, another part for vegetables and another part for meat. When making a Bento the rice will always contain the biggest portion taking almost half of the box. Then we have the vegetables which are the most color decoration that will be put into the bento box; it will contain boiled vegetable (煮る物), or sometimes preserved vegetable or pickled things called tsukemono (漬物), and for the last part we will put in the meat, fish or sometimes Agemono (揚げ物) or fried meat.
There are many types of Bento. But most famous known ones are the Shokado Bento, Eki Bento, and Makudouchi Bento. There are also new and unique types of Bento for instance famous Anime characters are made into shape of food and put into a Bento (for more information on how Anime bento is please visit this blog: http://happylittlebento.blogspot.com/). There are many shows on YouTube that teaches you how to cook Japanese cuisine a recommended channel that really teaches you about Japanese cuisine might be this one: “Cooking with Dog” it is a Japanese show that is translate into English for more information please click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog?feature=watch. This show was awarded for the best Japanese YouTube video in 2011.
Obento is object that represents the love that a mother has for us. It is a use of technique for feeding children that dislike their nutritious food (e.g. vegetables) by making the vegetables that their child dislikes more colorful and tastier.
The history of Bento can be trace back to the 1603 during the Edo period in Japan. There is a hypothesis that Bento develop from rice balls wrap around in bamboo leaves; which is famous among travelers during that time and gradually develop into box. It even became more popular when the Japanese railway is introduced in the 1949.
A traditional Bento will always have a variety of food and will always fit into one container. Normally in a Bento we will divide it into 3 parts one part for the rice, another part for vegetables and another part for meat. When making a Bento the rice will always contain the biggest portion taking almost half of the box. Then we have the vegetables which are the most color decoration that will be put into the bento box; it will contain boiled vegetable (煮る物), or sometimes preserved vegetable or pickled things called tsukemono (漬物), and for the last part we will put in the meat, fish or sometimes Agemono (揚げ物) or fried meat.
There are many types of Bento. But most famous known ones are the Shokado Bento, Eki Bento, and Makudouchi Bento. There are also new and unique types of Bento for instance famous Anime characters are made into shape of food and put into a Bento (for more information on how Anime bento is please visit this blog: http://happylittlebento.blogspot.com/). There are many shows on YouTube that teaches you how to cook Japanese cuisine a recommended channel that really teaches you about Japanese cuisine might be this one: “Cooking with Dog” it is a Japanese show that is translate into English for more information please click here: http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingwithdog?feature=watch. This show was awarded for the best Japanese YouTube video in 2011.
Obento is object that represents the love that a mother has for us. It is a use of technique for feeding children that dislike their nutritious food (e.g. vegetables) by making the vegetables that their child dislikes more colorful and tastier.
References
Belluz, Julia. “Taste: What You Need is a Beautiful Bento Lunch: A Japanese Food Writer Offers Up Recipes for Aesthetically Arranged Meals-in-a-Box.”Maclean’s Jan. 31, 2011: 64. ABI/INFORM Complete. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.
Mari Kanasawa. “Bento Sumo Tokyo.” Bangkok: Wongklom Publishing, 2007. Print.
Mari Kanasawa. “Bento Sumo Tokyo.” Bangkok: Wongklom Publishing, 2007. Print.