FoodPlay Friday: The Joy of Bento

Welcome to another FoodPlay Friday!

Yesterday, our new national FOODPLAY troupe debuted their show for a wonderful audience of kids. As usual, I attended, and (as usual) it was a deeply inspiring experience. Working away in my office every day, it’s easy to lose the energy and sense of pure fun that drives everything we do. Most of all, I was reminded of how much fun food can be, and how dramatically that affects my own daily eating.

Unlike most of the foodies whose blogs I eagerly follow, food preparation was never an enjoyable experience for me. Growing up, I had much more interest in following my dad around, learning how to hang stage lighting and arguing over the legitimacy of pop music in American musical theater, than I did learning my way around the kitchen. This preference extended into adulthood, making me a terrific asset onstage, but a very reluctant and ultimately dull cook.

For me, rescue came in the form of a bento box. Inspired by the endless creativity and hard work of countless Japanese parents, I discovered that making my lunch could feel more like a craft, and as I worked to assemble lunches that pleased my eye, I was accidentally also pleasing the rest of my body, by increasing my fruit and vegetable intake by about 200%.

As you can see here with a few of my novice creations, it’s easy to fill half your plate with fruits and veggies when they add so much vibrant color and delicious design to your plate.

You needn’t rely on my amateur efforts for inspiration, of course. The blogosphere is filled with beautiful, healthy bento, assembled daily, utilizing a variety of cuisine and personal aesthetics.

Sherimiya at Happy Little Bento offers a near-daily feast for the senses, always beautifully filled with fruit and veggie goodness, like these two adorable bento (one | two) celebrating the Chinese New Year. For a mixture of traditional and not-so-traditional bento, keep your eyes on Just Bento blogger Makiko Itoh, whose wonderfully detailed and recently re-issued cookbook has given me the confidence to try much more ambitious dishes than I ever thought possible.

At What’s for Lunch at Our House, Shannon hosts a bento free-for-all every Wednesday, where readers all over can post their favorite weekly creation. And there’s always something to please the eye and whet the appetite at the LiveJournal community, BentoLunch.

Outside of the bento community, Recipe Obsessed Aleksandra Nearing shares a recipe for Smoked Salmon & Spinach Rolls that would be at home in my bento box. At Keep Your Diet Real, Corrinne Fischer offers up her Fruit Bruschetta & Fruit Salsa. (Yum!) And at Super Healthy Kids, Amy shows off these Party Perfect Princess Pops, cute enough to set any bento-lover’s heart a-flutter.

And we adults don’t have to hog all the fun! Many kids and teens enjoy assembling their own bento boxes, so much so that it’s become a school project in some areas of Japan.

That’s all for this week! See you next FoodPlay Friday!