As I am a woman, and I do like to shop, I have an ever expanding collection of not-totally-necessary-but-totally-likeable bento gear and bento boxes. I find myself walking in shops, stores and even your average grocery stores thinking about what items would go well into my bento. It’s always in my head, I guess the bento-bug has caught me. Well to, for once, not give in to the temptation of buying new stuff I decided to arrange my bento stuff and make a picture of it to show it to you all. Hah, it is weekend after all so there’s no normal bento’s to take pictures of. Photo-heavy behind the cut~!
As you can see above I have a number of paper- and sillicon cups to use as dividers, or for when my lunch can do with a touch of colour.
Molds and cutters~! At first when I bought them I felt a bit guilty because I was convinced this was a waste of money. But it turns out I actually use them quite a bit~! After all, who can say no to cool star-shaped eggs?
Tiny cocktail skewers which I use to make mini-skewers of either vegetables or sometimes meat; some larger sauce cups with lids; coloured food picks; my mashimaro-bento spoon; grass dividers~! And sugarhearts. I sometimes sprinkle these on top of the lid of the bottom tier of the Totoro bento my boyfriend uses. Just to show him that his vegetables were made with love 😉
All kinds of different sauce bottles. I use the hello kitty sauce cups for thicker sauces like the tonkatsu sauce, as well as for furikake. It turned out that one full bottle of furikake is exactly enough to sprinkle over two onigiri.
Furikake; small packs of salt, peper, sambal; packs of ketchup; wasabi, etc.
This is my korean Mashimaro bento box which I actually bought in the Netherlands. (Wah-Kiu bookshop in Rotterdam, they don’t regularly sell bento stuff there, the owner just seems to buy stuff that he comes across on his trips to HongKong or so, I guess you just have to be lucky.) This came with a small spoon which fits needly in between the two layers of the box. As you can see it has a removable divider in the top layer.
I only use this bento box on very busy or very long days as it is slightly larger than my other bento boxes. This one is about 750 ml in total, which I find quite filling. I usually pack it with some fruit or a snack which I eat later on the day. 750 kcal in one go is a no-can’t-do for me.
This bento box was a gift from my mother and it comes from Muji in London. I like the fact that it is so clean and crisp. Every colour you use in your food stands out in this box. The downside is that it is a bit small for a normal day. In total it measures about 400. But it does do fine for lunches on less busy days. This two-tier box also has a removable divider in the top layer.
This two-tier Hello Kitty box is the box I most regularly use. The measurements are just right for me (620ml) and this box is conveniently shaped in my opinion. The top-tier has a removable divider and the lid of the top-tier nests hashi which is actually quite nice, because I usually forget them if I have to bring them seperately.
This two-tier Totoro bento is my boyfriend’s. I bought it for him as a gift and it’s the only one he uses. Quite explainable given that the others are either too small or too pink for his taste. This box is of exactly the same measurements as my Hello Kitty box, it also looks the same on the inside.
I also have a small two-tier box shaped in the head of a pandabear with some fun english written on it. (Panda, day after day sounds a bit depressing to me, as if the panda woke up this morning hoping he’d be an ice-bear but wait… no… he’s still a panda, day after day :p).
This box needed some washing up as I had used it that day, so no pictures of that one.
And finally:
This is what I use when I have to bring my chopsticks seperately. I don’t like the fact that they have travelled all through my bag by lunchtime since I don’t have a seperate bag for my bento box so I decided to find a sollution for that. It is actually a toothbrush-container for children, and it fits my child-size hello kitty chopsticks perfectly, keeps them clean before lunch, and it keeps my bag clean after lunch.
Ofcourse my bento shopping hasn’t ended yet… and I do have a wishlist of things I “need”.
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I really really want a one-tier box, which is slightly larger and deeper. I’m looking forward to experimenting with the different foods and shapes of the containers. I’ve seen some I like, one was an aluminium from hamtaro another one was from rillakuma bear and I’ve seen a white one they sell at Muji which I will buy this summer.
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I actually do really need some of those elastic band thingies to hold together my bentobox. I kinda lost one to fungus (it was a tragic death) and the other one I just erhm, lost, I guess.
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Things to make my lunch cuter are always good. I like those punchers which make faces out of nori. I also like those mold for really tiny onigiri.
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Well, I do kinda need some kind of bag or furoshike or something to wrap my lunches in. So that way I won’t be so afraid of the box opening in my bag, and it will prevent smelly bags after lunch.
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A Canon Eos 400D please, to take pretty pictures of my lunches~! (Not gonna happen though)
Ah well, you know what, the list is endless…
I’m having trouble finding two tier boxes, though one of the shops in amsterdam has a nice stainless steel multi tiered hot food lunch pale for about 20 euros. I managed to get a plastic multi container hot food pale for about 4 from one of the markets.
I’m making do with single tier Blokker tupperware at the moment, though i’ve also bought one of the ‘lock boxes’ types which seem ok. I’ve seen single tier kids sandwich boxes with those elastic bands in Hema.
Normal huge elastic bands are easy to find, just follow/ask a postman. saw two of them on my doorstep this morning!
Furoshike Bags:- I’m using big ziplock bags at the moment, but i’m going to try and learn this:
http://www.env.go.jp/en/focus/attach/060403-5.html
Also, Sushi boxes from Albert Hein have some cool reusable stuff, such as a soy sauce Bottle, plastic divider grass, expendable chopsticks etc.