Bento Box Lunch

UK's Guardian highlighted the bento craze in Japan in their September 18 online edition:

“It has taken the worst recession since the war to force Japan’s kitchen-phobic white-collar workers, known as salarymen, to get in touch with their inner Jamie Oliver.

Falling wages, slashed bonuses and fear of redundancy have shrunk household budgets, and for a growing number of workers that means cutting down lunchtime trips to the local sushi or ramen joint. Instead, almost 10% of men now take bento boxed lunches to work in an attempt to save money, according to a survey by a Japanese bank.

And in a sign of the shifting power relationships in Japanese households, many of the men now seem happy to wake up early and cross the kitchen threshold to create their own bento ensemble, typically grilled fish, rice, pickles and an omelette, all lovingly arranged in a compartmentalized box”.

And Guardian’s Tokyo correspondent Justin McCurry joins the latest craze in recession-stricken Japan and makes his own lunchtime bento box:


I am thinking Blackout Bistro should consider selling bento box lunches – I am sure they will be a hit! It’s time, Wei Wei, Iona and company return to their entrepreneurial roots and become creative once more…

In the SPL today, Celtic carved a dramatic late victory over Hearts, to finish the game with a 2-1 score. Hearts opened scoring when Suso Santana completed a solo run with a fine strike from 18 yards out in the 5th minute. Celtic had to wait for 51 minutes before a diving header from Chris Killen levelled the score after his earlier shot was palmed wide by Hearts keeper Janos Balogh. And a Glenn Loovens' close-range header snatched the points in added time (90+3).