Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 4889960732
Manufacturer: Japan Publications Trading
Average Customer Review: (From 36 total reviews)
List Price: $14.95
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description:
This book offers an elegant way to enjoy delicious, healthy food on the run. Includes more than 40 main dish recipes and step-by-step illustrations.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Bento Lunches by A. Blair
This book is both an excellent introduction to bento lunches and a great inspiration for experienced cooks packing bentos for their loved ones. I have made nearly every recipe in this book and I have not been disappointed. Each recipe is made in a small quantity and most can be made in under 30 minutes, making this an excellent cookbook for small households (1-2 people). I have also increased the quantities to adapt the recipes for dinner. There are pictures to accompany each recipe, but for the beginner it might be worthwhile to pick up an additional guide to Japanese cooking. As with anything it might take some experimentation to adjust the recipes to your liking.

I’ve been running a bento blog for going on 2 years and found the best way to learn about bento is to search web for Japanese bento blogs. Type the word “bento” in hiragana or try photo sites. This book is an excellent accompaniment to that sort of research because it enables you to identify what many of the items are and provides you with a recipe.

My only complaint is the book should have been spiral bound and laminated. My copy is in pretty bad shape from being used so much.

Nice pictorial intro to bento, but not too practical by Makiko Itoh
I run two food blogs, one focused mainly on Japanese cooking, the other just on bento lunches. (I’m Japanese but live outside of Japan.) I finally got around to taking a look at this book.

The pros: it’s a nice visual introduction to fairly traditional bento lunch boxes. (Keep in mind that ‘bento’ can be something other than a portable lunch.) The presentation is very attractive.

The cons: even as someone familiar with the ingredients and cooking methods I thought that this book looked rather intimidating, because just about every single recipe calls for ingredients that are only available from Japanese groceries. Actually quite a lot of the recipes call for ingredientat that would be very hard to get outside of Japan. Clearly this is a translation of a Japanese bento book, and no consideration is given at all to how available certain ingredients may be or not. (This is something I always try to keep in mind on my sites.)

The presentation feels just a bit outdated to me. Current bento books in Japan have a much simpler, modern feel. The instructions are also rather abbreviated, as if the intended audience is the fairly experienced Japanese cook (which it probably was when it was written originally).

So, I think for most people who don’t live in Japan this would be a nice picture book to have around, perhaps as inspiration and eye candy, but perhaps not too useful for everyday lunch making for a typical American.

Kind of short and unimaginitive by Borat
This book has some nice pictures but is very short. I wasn’t blown away by any of the recipes. It’s more about making eye-candy then serious food.

Not for the beginner by Anime Junkie
While most of the recipes can be executed as described, some are missing key steps or oversimplifying. Case in point the directions for tamago. It says to combine the ingredients and make an omelet in a square pan.

What is left out is that you are supposed to pour part of the egg mixture into the pan. As it sets up, fold it in half so it sits on one side of the pan. Then pour more of the egg into the bare part of the pan. When it sets up, roll the previously cooked half back over the newly added side. Repeat the process.

This changes the texture of the finished product as well as the appearance.

Also as a word of warning, these will take a while to make. Some of the lunches presented incorporate 3-4 separate dishes. However you can mix and match so the book is a great resource in that sense. In addition the photos are beautiful and helps to make up what is missing in the directions.

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