Thinking inside the Bento Box
Like many aspects of Japanese culture, particularly contemporary fads (anime, Hello Kitty, harajuku girls), the bento has become extremely popular here in North America.
A single-portion meal, a Japanese bento typically contains rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables. It’s pretty much on every Japanese restaurant menu or outside billboard (with the more casual places) as a fundamental lunch staple. A little variety of favourites in a partitioned decorative wooden box good for times you’re craving Japanese but you can’t make up your mind exactly what you want to eat, you’re hungry and don’t want to pay a fortune. Usually it’s the expected Western preferences like California roll (boooring), chicken or beef teriyaki over rice, tempura and the tiniest bit of salad. Sometimes miso soup on the side.
Recently I’ve come across some restaurants that offer a bit more creativity to the familiar boxed bento. You can pick and choose your add-ons from a variety of delicacies (usually from looking at photos on the menu). A design your own box lunch. After all Bento (弁当 or べんとう) really means the art of arranging one’s lunch. This is perfect for me.
Anyway, for fun I wanted to share a few of these brilliant or at least cute looking bento boxes and lunch plates. I mean if they can create coffee art, why not this?
Above photos courtesy of Amorette Dye
It brings new meaning to you are what you eat but are you willing to disturb the presentation?
Last week when I put on one of my sweaters only to find several small holes and one fairly large hole I decided “no moths, no more!” I will never use moth balls because they smell horrible. My grandmother’s chest of drawers used to reek of them. Even though they do the trick – NO way! I roll my sweaters with pretty lavender sachets in a box containing cedar wood chips. After this I went through my sweaters one by one and found another three that have holes. So now I’m desperate. And through experience I know that if you’re lucky enough to find someone to mend them you might as well buy a new one because it’s expensive. So I called my friend Colleen because a) she has a lot of cashmere and b) I don’t have Martha Stewart’s phone number and this was the next best thing because c) she seems to know a lot about a lot and d) when she discovered that moths had eaten her favourite cashmere housecoat she called the moth exterminator people (she recommends Mat Neale from *Pest Solutions in Vancouver) who sprayed her whole house with a non-toxic substance that killed those little suckers dead. Apparently they also have pheromone moth traps.
I just watched it with my film buddy who I met at VIFF. 
This film is not about garbage, it’s about making the best of the junk that surrounds you.
For me they’re a closet staple. Some of us prefer wearing our sweaters close to the curves but I think they look best worn a little on the loose side.
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 
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