Apparently we were a little late to the party last month when we predicted that Bento was a coming trend. We get it now: Bento is already a popular way to pack your lunch (or any meal), get your kids to eat, have some fun and express yourself, and help save the planet with a little less waste.
One of the most popular and comprehensive bento websites is Lunch in a Box, where you’ll find photos, top-tips and recipes, an online store for bento gear and an amazing list of bento links. We stopped by recently to visit Lunch in a Box’s Biggie for a mini-kitchen tour.
Biggie has written extensively about her kitchen and bento supplies on her blog. Before we came, she did a little rearranging and straightening up, mostly, she says, to protect her husband who has had to cope with avalanches of plastic bento supplies when he opens the kitchen cabinets.
What's your cooking style?
Eclectic, across the board, not by the book. If I'm making something for the first time, I compare several recipes from different sources. On the weekends there's more time to fuss. Weekdays I keep it short. My bento time limit is 10-15 minutes, unless it's a special occasion.
What's always in your pantry?
Rice, coconut milk, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, and curry paste. All the ingredients for a good Thai curry.
What inspires your kitchen?
Efficiency. I would have remodeled if beauty were more important but I'd rather be cooking, not redecorating.
Favorite tool or element:
Sharp knives. I get them professionally sharpened once a year at Razor Sharp Cutlery. I like them because they actually ask me what I use my knives for and then put the appropriate edge on it. The edge is different when you use the knife for cutting vegetables as opposed to a chicken carcass. In between I hone them as needed.
Best cooking advice or tip you ever received:
Taste your food as you're cooking.
Biggest challenge in your kitchen:
Organizing and containing all the stuff and not having it fall on my husband when he opens the cabinet door. Dealing with all the little things.
Biggest indulgence:
Refurbished KitchenAid. I got it when my husband was misdiagnosed with celiac disease (which was how I got into bento) and I wanted to make gluten-free bread regularly.
Dream tool or splurge:
My ovens are really old and inefficient so I use my convection toaster oven a lot instead. New ovens would be great.
What are you cooking this week?
There's no preschool right now, so it's a bento-free week. I really don't plan much ahead -- maybe Indian. We eat Thai curry at least once a week. I'm very inspired by cookbook author Kasma Loha-Unchit's website. My favorite fish sauce is Golden Boy.
Desert island cookbook?
The New Best Recipe by Cooks Illustrated. I've bought copies for my entire family so when I visit them and I want to cook something, there it is.
Favorite meal cooked here:
Crab cakes (from New Best Recipe) with fresh lump crabmeat and chipotle/lime cream, salad with champagne vinaigrette, sourdough bread and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. This was the ultimate meal. I was in a funk for days afterwards because I thought it would never get better than that.
Related: Kitchen Tour: Devesh and Tara's Spice Pantry
(Images: Dana)
I love the way her fridge is organized. I might have to adopt that!
view revolution9's profile
Ooh, great tour. But I wish you had linked to her website a little higher. It gets a little lost all the way at the bottom.
view squidlette's profile
I freaking love Biggie, and want her to make my lunch everyday. I thought I was organized, but she puts me to shame!
view Daigan's profile
Good point, squidlette. I'll pull it up a bit.
view faith's profile
I love Biggie's blog! So inspiring when I am thinking about what to pack for lunch.
view erin79's profile
I'm in love with her just for the Anpanman and Baikinman ... whatever-they-ares (furikake jars?) in the furikake bin. I love that cartoon so, so very much!
view tinderblast's profile
Where can I get those magnets!?!
view accidentalvermonter's profile
alaskanwoody--
The magnets are handmade by Biggie, using illustrations from a magazine. Here's her post on how she did it:
http://lunchinabox.net/2007/04/03/magnets-to-track-freezer-inventory/
Dana
view Dana V's profile
alaskanwoody: I actually got those animal magnets from Alton Brown's book "I'm Just Here for the Food" -- they're really thin and just punch out of one of the pages. There was originally a little egg magnet that went with the chicken, but my three-year-old did something with it...
view Biggie @ Lunch in a Box's profile
that blue polar bear wrap she uses I saw a few years ago on the vegan lunch box blog! & I like her bento animal shapes! :)
view witchbaby's profile
alaskanwoody--those magnets i see in the picture above of the animals with there parts labeled come from the back of the book by Alton Brown. "I'm just here for the food"
view stuey's profile
great idea!
view foodguru's profile
I wrote up the full kitchen reorganization on Lunch in a Box with before/after photos and notes on what worked and what didn't, so the details are available if you'd like to dig deeper:
* the spice pantry
* the pantry
* the refrigerator and freezer
*
view Biggie @ Lunch in a Box's profile
How can you handle order in your kitchen? You seem to have so many little colorful objects, it would be almost impossible for me to organize a kitchen like that. I like to keep my kitchen clear, so I only keep what's only strictly necessary, this makes things easy for me, I only get to keep my kitchen sink clear of dishes...
view albert31's profile
great suggestions, here what i recommend to :
1) For UPPER CUPBOARDS
Think about the best flow for your space. If you have a dishwasher, you will want to put your everyday dishes in a spot that is convenient when it comes to unloading. However, if your good china only comes out for Sunday dinner and needs to be washed by hand, it can easily be stored on the opposite end of the kitchen.
Keep glasses and mugs on the lowest shelves, so they can be reached by as many members of the family as possible. Large bowls for prep work and regular serving platters make more sense on higher shelves. Store items that only get used a couple of times a year, like vases or fancy serving dishes, on the shelves that are the most difficult to reach. You won’t mind the extra effort if company is coming wireless internet or high speed internet service facility.
2) For FREEZER
Whenever possible, group similar foods together in the freezer, such as entrees, veggies and desserts, so you can locate what you’re looking for quickly. If you freeze a lot of your own prepared foods for future meals, use sturdy containers that are easy to stack, such as Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids containers. Labeling them with the date they were added to the freezer and rotating the items so the oldest ones are in front is a great way to ensure that everything gets eaten before freezer burn sets in. More can be found at windows backup software section.
view Garry winnick's profile