About Bringing Bento lunch to school.?!
Answers: In 2008 i will start bringing bento to school. I asked a quiestion like this before but i relized i neeed to redo it. I wil be getting bento for christmas. I wanted to know what would be good to pack for my bento. I can not put it in a fridge during school. I want to have onigiri in it with other things. Would it be a good choice? Also if i ever wated to have meat what could i do? Thank you.
I agree with the previous answer -- it is really not necessary to refrigerate your lunch. From observing different food/eating cultures for about 14 years by now (I am not American, but have lived here for that long) I noticed that Americans refrigerate everything out of fear of spoiling food regardless of whether it is necessary or not. In Asia and some European countries, such rampant refrigeration is simply not practiced. With respect to lunch, it is actually the opposite: it is frequently a goal to keep lunch warm, rather than cold! In particular, a popular version of lunch thermos (akin to Zojirushi Mr. Bento http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/lun... relies on the hot soup placed on the bottom of this bento container to keep the rest of the food at the slightly warmer than room temperature. So, the conclusion of this thought would be -- don't do anything, just keep your food at the room temperature.
However, if you are not comfortable with this, you could do what another comment here suggested -- refrigerate the bento container the day before and then maybe place it into an insulated lunch bag, which could further be supplied with an ice pack. Alternatively, you could get the above-mentioned insulated thermos/jar and use it as your bento container.
Finally, about what to put in your bento box -- ANYTHING! What makes bento special is not so much WHAT is in it, but HOW it is. The aesthetics is important. Although, trying to put together a balanced meal is of concern as well.
I think you may enjoy the blog devoted to bento (one of many on the web): http://lunchinabox.net. It contains plenty of examples of bento lunches, as well as some really good advice on bento concepts
Just refrigerate it and take it to school like that. You could also purchase an ice pack, small, and place the bento box on top of that to keep your food cool.
About the meat the same thing. Ice pack and it will keep every thing cold.
I used to live in Japan and had friends that brought bento lunches to school. A lot of times, for the meat they would have sushi with crab meat, fish, shrimp, pretty much any kind of meat. It wouldn't be fresh-out-of-the-refrigerator cold, but it would still be okay. As their side they would have onigiri or mochi or an-pan.
The joy of the o-bento is the simplicity, like steamed white rice with umiboshi, some grilled salted salmon, some veggies boiled in sweet soy sauce. Maybe a few orange slices.
or-
steamed white rice with sesame/salt topping, a couple of chicken wing segments, some wilted spinach with sesame oil and soy sauce, and a small bunch of grapes.
Think balance-light/dark; sweet/salt, soft/firm....
This are the typical bento lunches I make for my kids (and their friends) to take to school here in Missouri, USA. During summertime, I will pack an blue-ice pack to keep the lunch cool. Usually, the food will keep for a couple of hours just fine.