This book offers an elegant way to enjoy delicious, healthy food on the run. Includes more than 40 main dish recipes and step-by-step illustrations.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Naomi Kijima is a well known cookbook author and teacher in Japan. She has appeared on Japanese television and her recipes are regularly featured in women's magazines and newspapers there.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
330 of 333 people found the following review helpful
By Makiko Itoh
Format:Paperback
I run two food blogs, one focused mainly on Japanese cooking, the other just on bento lunches. (I'm Japanese but live outside of Japan.) I finally got around to taking a look at this book.
The pros: it's a nice visual introduction to fairly traditional bento lunch boxes. (Keep in mind that 'bento' can be something other than a portable lunch.) The presentation is very attractive.
The cons: even as someone familiar with the ingredients and cooking methods I thought that this book looked rather intimidating, because just about every single recipe calls for ingredients that are only available from Japanese groceries. Actually quite a lot of the recipes call for ingredientat that would be very hard to get outside of Japan. Clearly this is a translation of a Japanese bento book, and no consideration is given at all to how available certain ingredients may be or not. (This is something I always try to keep in mind on my sites.)
The presentation feels just a bit outdated to me. Current bento books in Japan have a much simpler, modern feel. The instructions are also rather abbreviated, as if the intended audience is the fairly experienced Japanese cook (which it probably was when it was written originally).
So, I think for most people who don't live in Japan this would be a nice picture book to have around, perhaps as inspiration and eye candy, but perhaps not too useful for everyday lunch making for a typical American.
The pros: it's a nice visual introduction to fairly traditional bento lunch boxes. (Keep in mind that 'bento' can be something other than a portable lunch.) The presentation is very attractive.
The cons: even as someone familiar with the ingredients and cooking methods I thought that this book looked rather intimidating, because just about every single recipe calls for ingredients that are only available from Japanese groceries. Actually quite a lot of the recipes call for ingredientat that would be very hard to get outside of Japan. Clearly this is a translation of a Japanese bento book, and no consideration is given at all to how available certain ingredients may be or not. (This is something I always try to keep in mind on my sites.)
The presentation feels just a bit outdated to me. Current bento books in Japan have a much simpler, modern feel. The instructions are also rather abbreviated, as if the intended audience is the fairly experienced Japanese cook (which it probably was when it was written originally).
So, I think for most people who don't live in Japan this would be a nice picture book to have around, perhaps as inspiration and eye candy, but perhaps not too useful for everyday lunch making for a typical American.
107 of 114 people found the following review helpful
By dave
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A Bento box is to the Japanese what the brown bag lunch is to Americans. And the food inside is the same: simple, easy to make, and cheep. Though this book is short (64 pages), it is easy to follow and is accompanied by colorful photos. The recipes are short and simple to follow, most with five or fewer ingredients. Take note, you are not going to find and fancy or exquisite dishes in this book. There is no introduction or explanations for what you are doing or why you do it. Its only recipes and pictures cover to cover. Almost all of the ingredients can be found at your local megamart with a few exceptions. Pickled plum, cod roe, and burdock might be hard , if not imposable to find, but by my count the things I cant get only eliminated seven or eight recipes. And with two to five recipes per page that?s not to bad. At its cheep price and easy to make dishes I lightly recommend this book.
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By Anime Junkie
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
While most of the recipes can be executed as described, some are missing key steps or oversimplifying. Case in point the directions for tamago. It says to combine the ingredients and make an omelet in a square pan.
What is left out is that you are supposed to pour part of the egg mixture into the pan. As it sets up, fold it in half so it sits on one side of the pan. Then pour more of the egg into the bare part of the pan. When it sets up, roll the previously cooked half back over the newly added side. Repeat the process.
This changes the texture of the finished product as well as the appearance.
Also as a word of warning, these will take a while to make. Some of the lunches presented incorporate 3-4 separate dishes. However you can mix and match so the book is a great resource in that sense. In addition the photos are beautiful and helps to make up what is missing in the directions.
What is left out is that you are supposed to pour part of the egg mixture into the pan. As it sets up, fold it in half so it sits on one side of the pan. Then pour more of the egg into the bare part of the pan. When it sets up, roll the previously cooked half back over the newly added side. Repeat the process.
This changes the texture of the finished product as well as the appearance.
Also as a word of warning, these will take a while to make. Some of the lunches presented incorporate 3-4 separate dishes. However you can mix and match so the book is a great resource in that sense. In addition the photos are beautiful and helps to make up what is missing in the directions.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Bento recipes
I purchased this for a grandchild but I leafed through it and it was so wonderful I decided to keep it myself and may order several more for the kids. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Talltimbersmd
4.0 out of 5 stars
Glad I Got This
Taking into consideration some of the caveats in other reviews, I am lucky to live in a large city with easy access to at least three major Asian markets. Read more
Published 7 months ago by JustIMHO
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love this book!
My number one favorite recipe book! Not necessarily for a beginner, but not hard either!
Great recipes ready to put in a bento so you dont have to worry about what... Read more
Great recipes ready to put in a bento so you dont have to worry about what... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Soi
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, Nice Pics, different layout
The book was enjoyable to look at and get a different perspective. Pictures are large. Seems to be very authentic Japanese, which means many of the ingredients would be hard to... Read more
Published 12 months ago by JB knows
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great if you want Authentic
Great recipies to follow and exteremely diverse although it has the same rice for side it would be great time to be able to try something out of the norm!!!
Published 21 months ago by Sey
2.0 out of 5 stars
Very poor
If you are a reasonably skilled, have read other books on Bento, and have some Bento making experience as well, then this book may provide you with some inspiration. Read more
Published on May 4, 2011 by C. J. Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent cook book.
I bought this Cook Book along side a bento box. I'm an over-weight person and I figured that If i could use the bento box for portion control and the cookbook for good, and... Read more
Published on March 19, 2011 by Joshuak
3.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated
I guess a few years ago there was a bit of a bento craze on the internet which sent people flocking to their kitchens to create apple pigs and space-themed omelet cutouts. Read more
Published on July 9, 2010 by Lucy Adams
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent recipes, except for
I purchased two Bento Boxes for my husband and I to use for lunch. This book had excellent reviews, and the recipes are simple, easy and the pictures gorgeous. Read more
Published on April 2, 2010 by R. Lamparter
4.0 out of 5 stars
yummy bento!
I love this book. That said, I only actually bought it because I knew there were a few good asian market groceries in my city, so I was confident that I could find things that I... Read more
Published on March 1, 2010 by M. Wolfe
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