Our Bento Boxes Explained

For people who aren’t Japanese, many will be familiar with Bento boxes but you may not know exactly what they are and what goes in them. A bento box is essentially a convenient lunch box. If you visit Japan for any length or time, you will find Bento boxes in all shapes, sizes, prices, and for all appetites all over the country. Where to buy Bento Boxes All Japanese convenience stores will have a selection of Bento boxes at reasonable prices and locals are usually seen eating homemade bento boxes at lunchtime. Such is the popularity of this way of eating, Bento boxes are now very popular in Japanese restaurants across the world to both eat in or take away. Bento boxes are a long standing Japanese tradition, and a way of enjoying food that looks pretty and is easy to eat on the go. Bento boxes also tend to be very healthy, usually containing many different foods such as fruits, vegetables, meat, rice, and fish. Take Away Bento Boxes Originally, Bento boxes were almost exclusively a homemade lunch, made by working people before their day, or made by mothers to give to their children before school. Today, if you step into any convenience store or supermarket in Japan there will be a whole section devoted to Bento boxes. Most of these Bento boxes are made fresh each day. In the past, Bento boxes were served in wooden lacquer boxes but nowadays they usually come in plastic containers. Many take away restaurants also offer Bento boxes at lunchtime and the evening. Healthy Option Unlike many other ready-meals across the world, Bento boxes tend to be very healthy. They are made up of different food groups using quality, fresh ingredients including fresh fish, vegetables, fruit, and lean meat The Japanese have a saying that ‘you eat with your eyes’. This means that food should good as well as taste good. A trend that has grown in popularity is that of Kyaraben (or cute character Bento). The original idea behind this was to make lunch boxes look attractive so that children were encouraged to eat properly. It is not uncommon for a housewife to get up early in the morning especially to prepare wonderful looking boxes for her husband and children. Characters including cartoon characters, animals, people, and landscapes are often included in the boxes. How to Make a Bento Box Meal If you want to create your own bento box meal, you can use a normal Tupperware, or buy a specially made Bento box, available on-line, that has a fitted lid and several compartments. Then work out your ratio of food. The traditional method is the 4:3:2:1 ratio, which is 4 parts rice, 3 parts side dish, 2 parts vegetables, 1 part pickle. The side dish is the protein part of the meal, which will be fish or meat. If you don’t like pickles, the last part can be made up of a small dessert! Bento Boxes from Tenkaichi At Tenkaichi, we serve a range of Bento boxes to our customers including boxes filled with salmon, tuna, seafood, pork, chicken and a vegetarian option. We also serve our very own Tenkaichi box which offers a choice of fish, meat and vegetarian choice. Check out our full Bento box menu here. and you can call us on the number below to make a reservation at Tenkaichi:

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Tenkaichi Test

Japanese food is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, so much so that even the supermarkets sell sushi in their snack and takeaway sections.  But what does a typical Japanese meal consist of. It normally includes a bowl of rice (gohan), a bowl of miso soup (miso shiru), pickled vegetables (tsukemono) and fish or meat. Although rice is the staple food of Japan, several kinds of noodles (udon, soba and ramen) are also very popular for light meals.

As an island nation, the Japanese love seafood which includes a wide variety of fish, squid, octopus, eel. So, in Japan, shellfish is used in all kinds of dishes ranging from sushi to tempura.

Japanese Rice

Sticky, short-grained rice is the staple food in Japan and there are several thousand varieties grown across the country.  Rice is also used to make rice cakes (mochi), rice crackers (senbei) rice crackers and rice wine (sake). Rice is also cooked with red beans (sekihan)or seafood and vegetables (Takikomi gohan). Onigiri are rice balls with seafood or vegetables in the middle, usually wrapped in a piece of dried seaweed (nori) and are ideal as for starters or snacks.

Noodles

Udon noodles are the most popular and are made from wheat flour. They are boiled and served in a hot broth and topped with ingredients such as a raw egg to make tsukimi udon, and deep-fried tofu  to make kitsune udon.

Soba is another type of noodle which is made from buckwheat; these are thinner and a darker colour than the udon noodles. Soba is usually served cold with a dipping sauce, sliced green onions and wasabi. When served in a hot broth, it is known as kake soba.

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