The art of Bento Box

When you create, you share yourself with others

When I saw the shape of these loaves of bread, it got my creative juices flowing. I remember seeing some images floating around on the internet before of cute little bento boxes and pulled some inspiration from there.

This is what I came up with up...

This was my first time making it so I still have room for improvement. Its so fun to make esp when you are creating it for someone else. I made this for my sister and her hubby when they were going on a road trip to Fernie. They were delightfully surprised =)

So what is Bento Box art anyways?
In Japan, it is a trend for making cute lunch boxes for children. This form of art is also called "charaben" which means character bento. Instead of the plain paper bag or ziplog container that comes to mind when you think of a packed lunch, ur lunch is packed in bento boxes which contain different compartments for you to place your food. There are different techniques and even kitchen tools you can buy specifically for this. There's even molds to make your eggs heart shaped, star shaped...u name it(you can buy it on . I love japanese pop culture. They always have a way of making everything so cute and pretty.

How can you make your own?

You can start off with whatever containers you have at home. If you wanna dive in right away & invest in some bento boxes, there are so many cute ones you can buy online. Or if you have a DAISO (japanese $2 store. LOVE IT!!!) near you, u can search for one there. They also sell cute toothpicks, chopsticks, napkins....etc.

Some other things you'll need would be cookie cutters so you can cut shapes out of things like bread, cheese, veggies, fruits. Circle or face shaped hole punchers to make the eyes and faces out of Nori seaweed or you can just be like me and use sissors to do it. It takes too much time tho and as u can see in my photo, its not quite even. heh heh

Think of a theme or an idea you want to tie ur box around. "Under the sea", a heart theme, an animal...? Search the internet for examples. There are tons of photos out there. It usually containts 3 parts carbs, 1 part protein & 2 parts fruits, veggies and sometimes a small treat so keep that in mind when building your box.

When its time to pack ur boxes, make sure to fill it completely and tightly so everything will stay where it belongs. You dont want any room for your food to shift around after you close the lid.

So there you have it. I hope someday I can open up my lunch box and be surprised by a cute arrangement staring back at me °(• ᴥ •)° I would gobble it all up in a few seconds....of course after admiring it and take a few photos of it first. You know how asians are. We take pictures of everything - especially of food.