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Good Product: Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar

2008_03_11-MrBento.jpgWe love brown-bagging our lunch; not only is it more economical and better for our waistlines, but it's also a good way to get rid of last night's leftovers. One of our favorite grown-up lunch boxes is the Zojirushi Mr. Bento® stainless lunch jar.

 
 

Mr. Bento comes with four inner containers in different sizes, a spork with a plastic cover, and a zippered carry bag. The portion sizes are just right, the containers are microwaveable, and the interior of the lunch jar stays cold for several hours. Plus, it's lightweight and comes with a black carrying case that slings over your shoulder.

It's a lot of fun getting creative with the containers. Sometimes we fill them with the previous night's leftovers, and other times we add fresh chopped fruit, hummus and vegetable sticks, or Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta. We've even done traditional Japanese bento lunches with rice and tsukemono.

Mr. Bento seems to have picked up a lot of fans, judging from the Mr. Bento group on Flickr, and a Mr. Bento LiveJournal community where members discuss different bento combinations and share photos of their bento lunches.

(Image by Zojirushi)

Tags

Storage, Best Products, Brown Bag Meals, storage, lunch, bento, lunchbox, Zojirushi

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Comments (16)

I have been eyeing this lunch box for a while now. I can't figure out how the tuppperware fits together and doesn't leak, are there covers?

I purchased my first CSA this year and this would be great to make sure I eat all those fabulous veggies!

posted by shayna on March 12th 2008 at 7:53am
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I have been using this exact model (though mine has chopsticks, not a spork) for a year and a half - almost every day, in fact. It is FANTASTIC. To answer shayna's questions . . . .

The fit is perfect. The "soup" container goes in first, then the largest container, then two others. The top container is small enough that the lid fits snugly down, and there is very little jostling when the whole thing is put together.

Soup will occasionally leak if you put it into the largest container, which I suppose is why they include a "soup" container. I also have some occasional condensation problems, again mainly with the largest container. If something hot is in a container, it will occasionally affect the container above it, but not drastically.

Again, I LOVE this product. Totally durable and great for portion control. No, I do not work for Zojirushi.

posted by bollygrl on March 12th 2008 at 8:20am
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Shayna, the soup container is vacuum-sealed. I have experienced zero leaks.

The containers have to be placed in the following order:

Small tupperware (topmost)
Large tupperware
Deep container with screw-on lid
Soup container (bottommost)

The soup and deep containers have "handles" on top of their lids to help with lifting them out of the outer jar.

posted by Kathryn Hill on March 12th 2008 at 8:55am
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Love my Mr Bento so much. I have the one with chopsticks too, but I've supplemented with another wedding present--the titanium spork.

posted by moiety on March 12th 2008 at 9:08am
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I've had my eye on these for a while now - I think it's finally time to break down and buy one.

posted by jenblossom on March 12th 2008 at 10:25am
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My husband and I have been loving our respective Mr. Bentos for a couple of years now. My only beef, besides some occasional leakage from the non-soup containers, is that Mr. Bento is not good at carrying a Seinfeld-esque "big salad," which is my lunch of choice these days. Even so, I still love Mr. Bento for a healthy homemade meal while traveling, so I won't be getting rid of him any time soon.

posted by Kristina on March 12th 2008 at 11:23am
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I have one of these but find it doesn't fit into my backpack/messenger bag well. You'd have to carry it separately. Not that this is a deal breaker, but I find that I don't use it quite as much as I expected.

I do love the little containers which I ended up filling with tasty and healthy things.

posted by sciencegeek on March 12th 2008 at 1:49pm
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When I was little, my mom used to pack my father's lunch in these Japanese metal bento boxes. I used to love watching her make Onigiri (rice balls), various tsukemono (pickled veggies) and whatever leftovers we had. Yum yum.

Only a few grains of rice was to be found in the compartments when he returned : )

posted by umeboshi on March 12th 2008 at 6:26pm
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Does anybody know where I get these lunch jars in Europe (or even better in Switzerland)? There are some shops selling the Zojirushi rice cookers, but I had no luck in finding a Mr. Bento overe here so far.

posted by mostlyfood on March 13th 2008 at 12:43am
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Mostlyfood, do you have an asian market? Over here I have found them at several asian markets. The box is written in Japanese but it has a picture on the box. They come in a couple different sizes and colors.

posted by SleepyDweller on March 13th 2008 at 6:59am
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mostlyfood, they can be ordered online at amazon and other places.

posted by Kathryn Hill on March 13th 2008 at 8:32am
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I assume the containers are microwave safe?

posted by lolax on March 14th 2008 at 5:32pm
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Oh that's what I get for not reading the description carefully. Abort comment, abort!

posted by lolax on March 14th 2008 at 5:33pm
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enidd has this one from plastica shop, which is much the same, but in her opinion, much cooler: http://snipurl.com/21y4l

posted by enidd on March 17th 2008 at 6:05am
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Enidd, the Plastica dishes are not microwaveable. While it might be cooler looking, that's not very practical.

posted by cara_mia on January 1st 2009 at 2:01pm
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I think it 's Good Product Z Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar) do you think like me?

posted by imodxlstep on January 8th 2010 at 3:40am
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