Customer Reviews

Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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The presentation feels just a bit outdated to me.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.

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.

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.

If you are interested in Japanese cooking, but have been intimidated by cookbooks that seem to fussy or complicated, then this book would be a great place to start. The recipes are easy to understand using very simple ingredients but the results are authentic delicious Japanese taste! One of the things I liked the best is that each and every recipe is accompanied by a photograph of the final dish (a lot of cookbooks just give recipes without pictures and if you are not familiar with the dish, then you may not even want to try to make it).

In addition, the recipes in this book are not just for bento boxes (lunch boxes). Made in larger quantities they can easily be adapted to making full Japanese meals - just add rice and miso soup!

This is a great little book. I haven't carried my lunch since elementary school (over 20 years ago), but this book has inspired me to again.

The photos and presentations are attractive. The recipes are easy. I went through the book and checked all the items I want to make, and now I'm cooking my way through the book.

A good book for anyone that likes rice and is looking for a break from fast food. Also, for anyone that needs a cookbook for one, wants to eat healthy, or likes to put together an attractive meal. Recipes can easily be doubled if you're packing lunches for more than one.

This book reached far beyond my expectations. All the recipes are very simple and require only about 3 main ingredients. It is very versatile for cooks in all regions of the world (a part of the introduction actually says "If you cannot find the ingredients, use what you have as long as they're the same general colour and texture") - it really emphasizes what Japanese cooking is all about - style and presentation of incredibly tasty foods.
About the only drawback to the book is that it's so brief! After paging through it, I wanted more! Every recipe has a full colour photograph accompanying it, and some even have smaller photos of the steps to making the food. My boyfriend can't cook at all, and even he was able to make things from this book.
This is a must-buy for anyone looking to make their lunches a little more interesting or to inject a little Japanese flair into their cooking. :)

I had heard about the amazing boxed lunches that Japanese mothers prepre for their kids, so I picked up this book to see what it was about.

I really like it! Even though I'd never make lunches like this for my kids to take to school (would have to wake up at 5 am), it's fun to make them for picnics and hikes. They look impressive, too--they're a lot easier to make than they seem.

Some of the ingredients might be hard to find in some places. I live in northern California and had no trouble finding any of the ingredients in Japanese markets. But if you live far away from an Asian community, you might have to substitute different ingredients sometimes--like turnips or carrots instead of gobo. Luckily, since all the recipes are in full color, it's pretty easy to pick something close.

This book, with its full color photographs and straightforward recipes, has helped me to cook authentic-tasting Japanese food for the first time. The ingredients for many recipes are easily found in my local grocery stores, although some of the recipes do require shopping at a specialty grocery. This cookbook would be excellent for a beginning cook since the cooking procedure for each recipe is clearly laid out and as mentioned before, the photographs help those new to cooking envision the finished dish. Further, the recipes focus on single-size portions but can easily be increased to feed a family. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Japanese food and would like to add some new elegant dishes to their repetoire.

Actually one of two available at all - so not exactly stiff competition but still even if there were a dozen books on Bento, this would be the definitive one.

There are some odd Japanese ingredients that will need substitutes and you may not want to sprinkle whitebait or pollywog looking baby sardines in your rice but if you can get by those things, there really are some great bento recipes.

The strength of this book though is in presentation. It shows you how to do up your bento the authetic way and will quickly make you an Ebay scouring bento fool like me.

I do have to say - why on Earth is bento not a big dealio over here? The closest thing we have to it in this country are Oscar Mayer LUNCHABLES. And hey I am not knocking them! But this bento is for grown-ups. No juice box required.

This is a terrific book with easy to follow recepies. Pictures are just wonderful and the instructions are easy to follow. I am a Japanese American so I have enjoyed eating some of the traditional recepies in this book. Reminds me of the food my father used to make for us. I would recommend this book to anybody.