When do you prepare your bentos?

Bento Business · When do you prepare your bentos?

Just wondered when everyone prepares their bentos. I make mine in the evening but a few people seem to be organised enough to make theirs in the mornings - how do you do it?! I'd fall asleep into the rice cooker!

Bento Dan

Tendo to do it in the evening. I have to cook the evening meal so it makes sense to prepare the bento box as well.

However you do have less natural light when you photograph your Bento creations. Smile

Rob · A Question

Hi, never made a bento before but I like the idea. Especially if you can make it the night before. My question is tho, do you put your bento in the fridge overnight and take it out in the morning or do you leave it at room temperature?

Also I will be going to Japan in a couple of weeks anything worth buying there that I couldn't necessarily get back in the UK? Some cool bento boxes for certain, and probably some good sushi knives, but owt else?

Thanks

Bento Business

Traditionally, you aren't supposed to refrigerate bento boxes, particularly as rice goes slightly hard and stale if you put it in the fridge. Realistically, however, unless you are making your bento the same day, you'll have to put it in the fridge, especially during summer. I've not experimented with leaving them out overnight, but I do take mine out of the fridge in the morning and allow it to get to room temperature before lunch.

One compromise would perhaps be to purchase a rice cooker which you can set to cook rice in the morning for you to be ready when you get up. Then you can scoop fresh rice into your bento in the morning and it'll still be good by the time you go to eat it.

As far as what to buy in Japan - do you mean specfically foodie wise, or just generally? Some sake would be good, as not an awful lot of premium stuff actually makes it out of the country. Tableware, if you have room and weight to spare in your suitcase, is a good idea. Whereabouts are you going? You can see on my site in the gallery the kinds of bento accessories you can pick up over there, so it might be an idea to do that - much cheaper, and most of the stuff is incredibly light.

Rob

I'm in Dali Yunnan province China at the moment, should be heading to SHanghai and catching a Ferry to Osaka in a week or two. The itinery then is a bit up in the air, but I will be getting a Japan rail pass and be travelling around for a couple of weeks, likely I'll stay at least 5 days in Tokyo. In terms of what to buy I was thinking more tableware and cooking equipment that's easier/better to get in Japan compared to back in the UK.

Bento Dan

~NK~

I make mine in the morning, usually with last night's leftovers, unless I'm having bread, which is quite rare. With rice, I keep it in the rice cooker. I think this is safe enough, since it's usually only overnight rice. I find that refridgerated rice goes really cardboardy, unless you do a quick blast in the microwave with a little added water (but then, it heats it up, and then you'd have to put warm stuff together with cold stuff... Confused

) The rest of the leftovers are put in the fridge, and packed in the morning. Fruit, I chop up in the morning. Moulded eggs I make a few in one go, so they can be anything from one day to 3 days old (refridgerated, of course! :p). If the stuff is there for you to throw together, the lunch shouldn't take more than 10 mins in the morning.

Rob,
You're so lucky! I wish I'd thought of bento lunches before I went to Japan last month. I bought my first bento box 3 years ago when I was last there, but hadn't really used it. I used to just threw my packed lunch together. I've since had to resort to ebay. Boo...

If you're in Tokyo, there's a street in Asakusa that's full of tableware, cheaper than if you'd got them at department stores. I shopped there on the last day and carried everythin in a rucksack into hand luggage.

For bento stuff, go to Tokyu Hands in Shibuya. Or any of the 100 yen places you see around.

Enjoy!

Bento Business

The best place for bento stuff in Shibuya is Loft - I went to Tokyu Hands first, bought a load of bento stuff and thought they had a great selection, but when I saw what was in Loft... wow! There are pics in the gallery on my site, if you wanted to see the bento collections in Tokyu Hands and Loft.

Like NK says, 100 yen stores are good - look out for Daiso. There's a big one in Harajuku. Also in Harajuku is a place called Oriental Bazaar which is next to Kiddy Land (definitely go in there for loads of cool stuff). It sells loads of traditional items like kimonoes and tableware - highly recommended.

To be honest, I'm reluctant to suggest anything in particular because there will be so many things that catch you eye when you go, and as Dan says, you can pick up most things here, you just might have to pay extra. But it might be worth it, as the weight does add up eventually!

TrekkieGrrrl

I always make my kid's bento in the evening, because there's NO way I'll get up early enough to do it before she leaves for school. My own bento... that depends on my workshift (I work on all times of the day)

Yes, the rice tends to get slightly weird overnight, but again, it depends on what you do with it. For onigiri and the like it's best with freshly cooked rice, but for fried rice it doesn't matter as much. And since the kid prefers fried rice to plain rice anyway when it comes to eating them cold, guess what's she's mostly bringing?

A few tips:

Two of my staple bento fillers has become fish sticks (they're seriously not gross when cold) and chicken nuggets. The nuggets can be disguised as chicken katsu if needed. I always store those two things in my freezer for when I can't come up with anything else. I also do a lot of ramen/noodles. The common soup noodles like YumYum are great when you fry them instead of make them into soup (of course they need to be soaked first in boiling water) - I fry them with the oil and soup base that is in the packs. Cheap and easy AND it tastes fine when cold.

When do you prepare your bentos?

A Question