Bento

In Japan, it is common for the Japanese homemakers to spend a lot of time and effort in making bento for their spouses, children and themselves. They always ensure that such bento is nutritionally well balanced and some of them would even make very nice shapes out of the vegetables and meat and make them very colourful to make it aesthetically pleasing to appeal to their children’s appetite. On top of that, they are all packed in very attractive packaging ready for consumption during lunch or tea break.

During this Japan trip, we had eaten many bento sets. The bento sets came in very pretty packaging which I could not help but had to take photos of the packaging and the attractive food before every meal. Every food was always aesthetically pleasing and the meal was always nutritionally well balanced with meat, vegetables, rice, and dessert. The convenience of having just one box filled with small portions of everything is what I love about Japanese Bento. In this way, there is less food wastage. The boxes also came with a compartment to place the chopsticks and seasoning which makes things easy for people to eat on the go. The bento design and ingredients also varies from places to places as they make use of the available resources within the vicinity. Another thing I like about Japanese bento is that, the food is usually fresh and not overly seasoned and additional seasonings are packaged if one wants to enhance the flavour of the food. The food is also not oily and you can really taste the original flavour of the fresh food. This is probably the reason why I did not see any obese Japanese! I think we really should follow Japanese’s food culture and keep ourselves healthy!

I am glad that in Singapore there is no lack of Japanese food and the quality of food is maintained in many of the authentic Japanese restaurant. However, the freshness of the food and produce found in Japan can never really be replicated in Singapore. I would definitely go back to Japan for its beautiful scenery, fresh and delicious food and the hospitable people!