Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with bento

I can haz bentoz?

sully75 — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:14:34 -0800

What are your favorite containers, recipes and techniques for cooking food ahead of time and eating it at work? I'm particularly interested in the best containers and bags. I got nothing good. But recipes and cooking techniques would be great too. I've heard the crockpot gospel but I've never dipped my feet into its waters. Bento box or something?

Oh yeah, would be awesome to find cool glass things I could microwave that wouldn't break and that weren't heavy. Possible?

Children's Bento Box?

FunkyHelix — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:53:52 -0800

Suggestions for bento box dealers? My son is a fussy eater, and the thermal sack we bought for his school lunches is not going to carry things like peanut butter and jelly crackers well. Someone suggested a bento box, and I've been reading up on them since.

Which on line sites are good places to find relatively cheap children's bento boxes, that also have quick delivery?

Take out sucks anyway.

barc0001 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:59:27 -0800

I've heard amazing things about the Mr. Bento lunch jar, and I really really want one. I have heard that there are places in or near Vancouver BC that sell them, but my inquiries have turned up empty. Does anyone on MeFi know of such a place, or will I have to get one shipped from elsewhere?

help me pick a OSX personal database?

penciltopper — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:26:50 -0800

Mac Mess Filter: help me choose personal database software. OK, so I've got a Mac and I can't find anything on it because I'm a slob that just saves everything in one "bucket".
How's that working out for me? Not so great.
By "personal database" I don't mean something like Access or OO.org's Base, keeping track of a vast record collection; I mean something that will take scans, PDFs, old emails, web clips, screenshots, etc. as drag-and-drop and do most of the searching/indexing for you.
Right now I just have all that kind of thing scattered all over my desktop - every so often when the desktop gets too crowded, I just sweep it all into a folder and hope I don't need/can find it in there at some later date.

I got a chance to use another Mac that had SOHO Notes (used to be StickyBrain?) installed, and it seems really cool.
I looked around, and it has several competitors.

Then I got concerned with "Ok, now I put everything into the Personal Database software and delete the originals (why keep two copies?), continue to use it for years, and the software craps out/company folds/alien space bats attack and now I can't get my stuff out of it again. So maybe I should just keep everything as files in the bucket, but organize with some sub-buckets, etc. (Does Leopard help? I'm still running Tiger.)

So if you know about this, and/or have used any of the following, please tell me what you can about:
SOHO Notes
Yojimbo
Bento
??? (another personal DB)
getting off my duff and making an organized file structure, labeling everything consistently, and letting Spotlight take it from there

Bento in the Buffalo, NY area

Meep! Eek! — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:06:20 -0800

Where to find Bento-as-I-knew-it-in-PDX in Buffalo NY? In Portland, back in the 90s, there were many places that served what they called "bento". A bed of sticky rice with grilled meat slices on top. (There were drive thru places with "rice bowls", a restaurant in Milwaukee that probably isn't there anymore, etc.) There was one trailer downtown by the place I then worked at, Europa Communications, in a parking lot, which I went to nearly every day. It had the usual condiments on the ledge - soy, black bean, chili, etc.

Now I'm in Buffalo, NY. I used to go to a Vietnamese place called Pho 99 on Niagara Street, downtown, which had something pretty similar but it has shut its doors. I recently tried what was referred to as teriyaki bento at a place at N Campus UB, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Shredded chicken with some sort of sauce that I wouldn't call teriyaki, although it might well have been more authentic than what I was used to.

Does anyone know of any place that serves the type of meal I'm talking about? It can be in the general metro area (for those of you local, I'm living in Allentown and driving to Lockport to work, so you know I'm not afraid to drive somewhere. *wry grin*) Any help appreciated. I've been craving desperately, and while I might be able to do the meat if I bought a grill, I'm at a loss for sticky rice.

Bento for everyone!

misha — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:22:42 -0800

Where can I buy small bento boxes, or small lunch boxes or tins that would pass as bento boxes? I want to give them out at BlogHer with my business card inside. Bonus points for personalization options (but I think that will be over my budget).

Japanese Passive Aggressive Bento Blog?

duckierose — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 16:44:02 -0800

I am looking for a Japanese blog about a woman who left passive aggressive notes for her husband and son as part of the food in the bentos she made them. A few years ago a friend of mine stumbled upon a Japanese blog of a woman who would create daily bento boxes for her husband and son, but leave passive aggressive notes in them as part of the bento.

Examples, via my friend: She would do stuff like draw a graph of their electric bill on his rice. There was another one where she drew a map of their house to the pharmacy out of nori and a note that said, "Don't forget to pick up your meds!" written out in fish flakes. And there was another one where she made a stereo out of nori with a note that said, "Your music is too loud!" and she put it in her kid's bento.

She, of course, has lost the link. I've run a few searches, but I think the whole "it's a Japanese blog" is making it more difficult.

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Its sounds just awesome enough that I would love to look through it.

Mr. Bento you're a bloodthirsty foe, but your chicken is delicious!

indiebass — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:34:21 -0800

I bit the bullet and bought a Mr. Bento lunch box and it is awesome. Now what? I purchased Mr. Bento for a few reasons:

a) to save some money instead of buying lunches and Lean Cuisines (which is what I currently do) which has recently become more important

b) to eat healthier foods because I'm trying to shed a bunch of lbs, and what I'm doing now is OK but I think I could do better (plus, frozen foods have a TON of sodium), and

c) to help regulate portion size, because even when I eat healthy I do tend to have a lot of it, which is (let's face it) counterproductive, and I feel like only so much can fit into the bento compartments which means what doesn't fit doesn't come for lunch.

So now I'm looking to stock the kitchen with the things I'll need to make delicious and nutritious bento lunches. I have brown rice, natch, and Mirin but what else do I need to pick up? I got a jar of Giardiniara yesterday, which are italian pickled veggies (I understand pickled veggies are a common bento course) so I'm not necessarily looking to make traditional Japanese bento food every day, but I do love it so I certainly will be making some, learning how to along the way. The only requirements will be that it is, more or less, "healthy" and that it isn't overly complex to make. (I understand that's one of the Raisons d'être of the bento). I'm less interested in making everything 'cute', which seems to be the focus of a lot of the bento websites I've seen. I'm more concerned with the food itself than the aesthetics.

So, hive mind: you've never failed me before. Can you help me make a startup shopping list for my Mr. Bento lunch adventure?

I'm HUNGRY.

Sijeka — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:26:33 -0800

Lunch-box-rescue-filter! Help me find a Mr. Bento lunch box (or similar multi-compartmented box) in London, UK. I really want a Mr. Bento lunchbox after seeing those cool lunch pictures from this flickR group. Amazon won't ship it to the UK, the official Zojirushi website is useless, and e-bay has crazy quotes which seem to be more than the item's normal price. Anyone know of a website or a store that sell this product?

Alternatively, does anyone know where I could find a similar product in London (my only criteria is that I want at least 3 containers, not two)?