When you are travelling long distance in Shinkansen (bullet train) or want to have relaxed dinner in your hotel room, Bento is a good option.
What is Bento?
Bento is takeaway food arranged in a box. It usually consist of rice and varied assortment of Japanese delis. Bento are really popular. We cook them at home to take it to schools and school excursions, or some people take it to work. We often enjoy picnic outside with Bento, especially for cherry blossom viewing. We often buy Bento when we travel in long distance train ride. There are fancy ones that is available at nice department stores, too. Sometimes, some Japanese reataurants offer food in bento box style.
There are such a wide variety, I would categorize bento as follows:
１．Regular Bento
２．Eki-ben (Station Bento)
３．Luxury Bento
１．Regular Bento
Regular bento include homemade and ones you can buy at convenience stores or bento shops in town. When my son attneded private school, I had to make bento everyday for 6 years. I usually put rice, main dish (meat or fish), vegetable side dishes and eggs (tamago-yaki omlette).
I did not do this (I couldn’t) but some people made bento to another level. There are cute “Kyara Ben”(Character Bento). Those bento are decorated with characters of their children’s favorite characters.
Some people buy bento in convenience stores and bento shops.
Bento shops such as Origin bento, Hottomotto (Japanese only), and Hokkahokka-tei (Japanese only), are chain bento shop that you may find around town. They make bento in front of you, just like hamburger shop, so you can enjoy hot bento.
２．Eki-ben (Station Bento)
Bento that are sold in major station is called Eki ben. (Eki is station in Japanese) If you go to Tokyo Station or big stations like Osaka, Kyoto or Hiroshima, you will find shops that sell all kinds of Eki-ben. That’s one of the fun in travelling and also save time. You will find some special bentos all around Japan.
Some of the famous bentos I recommend are:
”Toge no Kamameshi”, Gunma（群馬 峠の釜めし）Rice, meat and vegetables cooked in a pot
“Echizen Kanimeshi”, Fukui （福井 越前かにめし）Crab meat on top
“Torimeshi Ben”, Gunnma（群馬 鶏めし弁）Rice and chicken steamed with soy sauce
“Shumai Bento”. Yokohama（横浜 シュウマイ弁当）Steamed dumpling
“Beef Domannnaka”, Yamagata（山形 牛肉どまんなか）Sweet and soy flavor beef
“Nori Ben”, Fukushima（福島 海苔のりべん）Traditional style bento fish, egg, and vegitable
“Ebi Senryo Chirashi”, Niigata（新潟 えび千両ちらし）Shrimp, fish and egg omlette
“Hibbaridakomeshi”, Hyogo（兵庫 ひっぱりだこ飯）Rice and octopus cooked in a pot
３．Luxury Bento
Luxury bento can be found in some Japanese restaurants and department stores. There are long established bento stores because we have tradition of bringing bento to picnics and for kabuki theaters. If you would like to enjoy such luxury bentos, try food hall of department stores usually located on B1 floor.
懐石弁当 桂 (katura-bento.com)
Nowadays, you can also find Western deli bento, Chinese bento, Korean bento, and Ethnic bento in Department stores. When you are really tired and don’t want to go out but still want to have good Japanese food, please try!
If you like bento, you can buy bento box and bring it home. You can find variety of bento box at such shops as LOFT and Hands.
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