I started my bento journey by reading the instruction manual, so to speak of a couple of Japanese cookbooks that followed health food trends on both sides of the Pacific:
- gut health foods
- brain function foods
- plant-based diets rather than complements to animal proteins
This summer I went to Japan for the first time post-quarantine, after five years away, enough for a time machine-type of experience. The kids are now adolescents rather than elementary school age, when I made them last go to public school in Tokyo over a summer month.
Post-quarantine travel felt like intense food tourism. After a shrinking palette of meal options based on grocery deliveries and on tighter budgets with less employment, our eyes grew large with the cuisine options and food presentation. From convenience store rice ball, or onigiri, medleys of chicken and veggies and various center fillings, to onsen elevated washoku (traditional Japanese food) to airport hotel breakfasts, the sheer variety of healthy prepared foods blew us away. I even encountered an all you can take vitamin pill bar at a Narita airport hotel.
My Bento Journey is a blog aspiring towards a microcourse on healthy Japanese staples, as onigiri and deli salads. Something from the trip that an average person can incorporate in their daily lives, that’s accessible and affordable. Two main sources inspired this journey: the Japanese convenience store, including what’s still called Seven Eleven, and the prepared foods market at the basement of department store, one with the curious name of MYLORD. One in particular specialized in deli salads that made my otherwise fraught stay at my parents condo apartment livable and memorable!