Instructables has a great post on the do’s and don’ts when you make bento boxes. It is very nicely written with illustrations and images. This “instructable” (their name for a tutorial) attempts to provide the basic design principles, resources for obtaining the necessary tools, and some of the traditional rules of making a beautiful and delicious bento box. I was both inspired and learned a lot from this tutorial.
Their step based tutorial starts with some general information about bento boxes. It emphasizes that you should know the rules of making the bento boxes - and then break them. Traditional bentos follow a couple of basic rules - for instance the 4-3-2-1 rule: 4 parts rice, 3 parts protein, 2 parts vegetable, and 1 part “treat” (Usually either pickled vegetables or something sweet.) Also if the bento includes sushi - it should be prepared with more wasabi than usual. I specifically like the focus on design in these boxes. You decide on what your main content or focus is and fill the box around based on colors, texture, theme etc. Here are some of the bento boxes to be inspired from:
Bentos are becoming quite the fad, and there are several websites that only write about bento boxes. I can understand this - they are both beautiful and inspiring. And yummy by the looks of them. Here are some links to a few of these websites:
Links:
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intersting website you have here…keep it up.
I am crazy about Japan but I have always feared sushi because I hate seafood. I will try it one day though…I promise
Happy New Year
cool! I love sushi. But there is one thing I won’t eat in my bento box - kamaboko.
@ Jamaipanese - thank you. You really should try it. But be warned - you might get addicted… Thanks for visiting.
@ Lina - Yeah, sushi is yummy. I don’t know if I have tried kamaboko, though.
Thank you both for visiting!
VERY BEATIFULL THANKS
I love bento boxes! I even have some cookbooks about making them. The problem I’m having is that I really dislike Nori, sushi is totally out of the question…basically I’ve tried and not liked a number of the things for the bento box. Plus I just couldn’t seem to score the Totoro box I wanted, so I went off in a huff LOL.
I love making bento boxes and am always looking for new ways to make them interesting for my fiancee and daughter. My faincee loves the stuff, his favorite is onigiri. My daughter is 14 and is still a picky eater. She just changed schools this past year and making her a bento helped to break some of the ice. I love some of the ppics and hope that I can make them look just as cute
OMGosh that’s my bento flickr site! I just stumbled onto your blog and have been flipping through things because I looooooooooove sushi and it’s so cool that you have a link to my flickr group…..>.
The more bento tips the better, cheers for all the info. Bento is so tricky