Bentō (弁当 or べんとう) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish.

Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquer ware. While bento are readily available at convenience stores and bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya?) throughout Japan, it is still considered an essential skill of a Japanese housewife (Hey!? What about the skills of the househusband? Huh?) to be able to prepare an appealing boxed lunch.

Bento can be very elaborate, aesthetically pleasing cuisine arrangements. Often the food is arranged in such a way as to resemble other objects: dolls, flowers, leaves, and so forth. (source: Wikipedia)

I will present some elaborated ones here on Sushi or Death. Enjoy!

Bento box art:

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