bookmark_borderBento Refinishing

Eleven years ago, I made this hexagonal bento box in a class taught by Pittsburgh’s Tadao Arimoto. At the time, I did not know much about making bento lunches, so the box mostly sat on a shelf as a display piece. It waited patiently for me to expand my studies of Japanese culture to include food, and for me to start shopping at the Tokyo Japanese grocery enough to develop a menu for lunch. Back in 2019, I started making bento lunches to eat at work, and I discovered that the box was not sealed! I got salad dressing all over the tablecloth, and had to use plastic bento boxes for my lunch.

A year or two ago, I sanded the inside and outside of the box to smooth out the uneven epoxy surface. The box sat in this state for a couple of years, still waiting for me to make time for it. This summer, I finally cleared off the workbench for a couple of days so that I could mix up some epoxy and refinish the box.

These are the pieces of the box. One lid, one base, and two rhomboid containers that fit inside the base.
Here are the smaller containers inside the base, ready for filling.
Add the lid to close the box. It falls slowly because the tolerances are tight.

It’s completely sealed now. I could probably take soup in it. The lid edges are almost the full height of the box, so it might not even spill very much if tipped. Even though I don’t go into the office at all these days, I made lunch at home and served it to myself in this box because I believe you should always let things fulfill their purpose.

Hana Goshoku onigiri; pickles and salad; togarashi tofu, roasted mushrooms, and kamaboko; lotus root and roasted eggplant.

bookmark_borderBento Lunch

I’ve been making these bento lunches for a few years now, but for some reason I have never posted about them here.

Bento Lunch 2022.10.18

Upper left: pickled daikon, pickled cucumber and peppers, pickled carrot, pickled ginger with yukari, simmered taro

Upper right: Shredded cabbage with dressing, topped with salmon flakes, black sesame seeds, and seaweed flakes

Lower left: Mushroom rice with roasted shiitake mushrooms

Lower right: Tofu with soy sauce and togarashi spices, imitation crab meat with spices

I have to do quite a bit of prep work on the weekend to be able to put these together in ten minutes in the morning, but it is fun and tasty.