bento geek

What? Expensive mixed bento 7/11
When/Where? Late at night, my house
Comments: I had a big dinner that day, but for some reason I felt the urge to eat another big bento. There was a combo sale, so I eat this with a calpis bottle (140YEN?), I also bought a minisauce pack for the rice (15YEN). I tried to buy some stamps with this and asked for postcard stamps but the shop guy didn't know the value of postcard stamps. So I just bought some random stamps. Back to the food! Was ok, but I bought this so late at night that the fried prawn had gone soggy (because it had been sitting there for so long) but other than that everything was ok. Came with its own meat sauce back. It was just ok, nothing shockingly good. 595YEN

What? Soysauce Ramen flavor rice ball & egg
When/Where? Late afternoon, on way to shinjuku
Comments: OK. I know, I know, totally not bento. Read my introduction, I know I might venture off to other packaged food. This rice ball is pure yummy-ness. The rice is thick with like this ramenish flavor, the egg is cooked perfect, and nice yummy meet chunks in the rice. Woohoo! 145YEN

What? origin bento fried pork rice bowl
When/Where? afternoon, outside
Comments: I was going to buy a bento at the bento chain shop, but all the ones on display were expensive so I bought this pork bowl. After I ordered I noticed their "cheap menu" so I'll have to go back again. I guess a pork bowel isn't really a bento in that sense. But hey its my food blog! Endless ideas! I went to eat this on my "ant viewing" bench, but someone was there, so I went around the corner to the local temple/shrine and sat on the steps there. The rice was perfect, eggs were a little simple, onions and pork wonderful, although the meat was a little oily. 504YEN

What? 7/11 three meat and eggs bento
When/Where? 1:00 afternoon, on a bench
Comments: Ate this with a carton of orange juice (100YEN) and no extra sauce. This was a 7/11 bento, actually they changed their name in Japan to the uncool "7 and i holdings" recently (a fact Evan mentioned awhile ago too) but I still think of them as 7/11. The clerk was really polite, spoke Japanese in a very traditional style even though he was young. I went and ate this on my current favorite bench. It's right above an ant colony opening, so if I toss the ants a grain or two of rice I can watch them tug it around in strange patterns. They sometimes cant decide what way to take it, weaving back and forth. Great fun to watch. The bento itself was really yummy. Three different styles of meat, each with its own sauce. The scrambled eggs were kinda small, but not bad. The rice was healthy, brown and textured good. Notice how three green peas were placed in the bento, I guess for good looks, not taste. The only "side dish" was the pink pickled ginger. 395YEN

What? ministop groundbeef and egg bento
When/Where? Ate at home, at about 11:30 at night
Comments: Ate this with carton of orange juice (100YEN) and some sesame sauce (30YEN?). This bento was really good. The rice was perfect, the scrambled eggs were soft and plentiful. The groundbeef meat was saucy, with some sort of "bean" flavor. The spagetti sauce on the side noodles was good, and dry. The bento also had a fried mashed potato patty, it was thin but it had carrots mixed in for flavor. This bento didn't have a meat ball, but it had a nice pork flavor patty. Good stuff! 360YEN

What? Sunkus rice & chicken bento
When/Where? 6:20PM, Sunkus conbini, Tanashi
Comments:
Good mini bento thing. Nice rice, with a slice of chicken. Half of a fried mashed-potato patty, and a meat ball. The rice had furikake on it, which made it less plain. Even though, I used my secret sauce (30YEN sesame salad dressing packet) to make the rice more interesting. Drank it with carton of lipton ice tea (on sale, 95YEN). All in all, a nice bento. 390YEN

What? ekiben, beef & eggs on rice
When/Where? April 1st 2006, 1:20, Osaka
Comments:
I was on my way back up to Tokyo when the idea for this blog hit me. I thought that it was best to start with the "realist of the real" and I picked up an ekiben at a small tourist shop near the ticket gates. Ekiben are hard to find these days, but ekiben is like one of the purest form of bento. I ate this one while on the long local train between Osaka and Nagoya (before I transfered to Tokyo). The rice was kind of chalky, but the meat was amazingly soft. 650YEN

So here we go! Start up your eating-engines, get ready to eat, whip out your chopsticks (dont poke your eye out, kid!) and sample food with me.

I'm in Japan (duh) and I like to eat bento (duh). In fact, I like to eat anything, and so this blog will maybe stretch as far as any kind of packaged food. Or anything else that I eat; thats the flexable nature of a blog. But anyway, bento is Japanese style boxed food. These can be found in many places, mostly in convience stores (conbini) for something around 600 or 700YEN or less. Special versions such as 'ekiben' can be found at some train stations or other places. Some bento stores sell just bento. And some bento can be made at home. Hungry yet?