Bento

A bento (弁当, bentō) is a Japanese-style single-portion take-out or home-packed meal, often for lunch, typically including rice and packaged in a box with a lid (often a segmented box with different parts of the meal placed in different sections). Outside Japan, similar meals are common in other East and Southeast Asian culinary styles, especially within Chinese, Korean, Singaporean, Taiwanese cuisines and more, as rice is a common staple food in the region. The term bento is derived from the Chinese term biandang (便當, pinyin: biàndāng), which means "convenient" or "convenience".
A traditional bento typically includes rice or noodles with fish or some other meat, often with pickled and cooked vegetables in a box. Containers range from mass-produced disposable containers to hand-crafted lacquerware. Dividers are often used to separate ingredients or dishes, especially those with strong flavors, to avoid them affecting the taste of the rest of the meal. A typical divider is green plastic 'sushi grass', known as baran in Japan, which also works to slow the growth of bacteria.
Bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya), railway stations, and department stores. However, Japanese homemakers often spend time and energy on carefully prepared bento for their spouses, children, or themselves. Outside Japan, the term bento box may be used (e.g., on English menus for Japanese restaurants). Bento can be elaborately arranged in styles called kyaraben ("character bento", typically decorated to look like popular characters from anime, manga, or video games) or oekakiben ("picture bento", decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants). Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically attractive arrangements.
There are comparable forms of boxed lunches in other Asian countries such as in China, Taiwan and other Sinophone communities, known as héfàn (盒饭) or biàndāng in Mandarin, piān-tong in Taiwanese Hokkien, and in Korea as dosirak. Other Asian countries would either just use bento as a loanword or hokben, which means "steaming bento". There has also been discussion regarding what bento means for Japanese society and what it represents. Analyses range from a simple semiotic approach to one that outlines the deeper ideological meanings behind bento.
In Japan, "bento" is written in kanji as 弁当 (Kyūjitai: 辨當). The word itself originates from the Chinese Song dynasty slang term 便当 (便當, pinyin: biàndāng), meaning "convenient" or "convenience" (this sense is still used in Wu dialects such as Shanghainese). When the word was imported to Japan, it was written with the ateji 便道 and 弁道. In modern times, the term is commonly used in East and Southeast Asia. In mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, bento remains written as the original name 便當 (pinyin: biàndāng). In other Sinophone communities, both biandang and bento are often interchangeably used.
The increased popularity of bento can be traced back to the 12th century during the Kamakura period, when meals of cooked and dried rice called hoshi-ii (糒 or 干し飯, literally "dried meal") were developed to be carried to work. A hoshi-ii can be eaten as-is or boiled with water to make cooked rice, and is stored in a small bag. By the 16th century, wooden lacquered boxes were produced, and bento would be eaten during hanami or a tea party.
In the Edo period (1603–1867), bento culture spread and became more refined. Travelers and sightseers would carry a simple koshibentō (腰弁当, "waist bento"), consisting of several onigiri wrapped with bamboo leaves or in a woven bamboo box. One of the most popular styles of bento, called makunouchi bentō ("between-act bento"), was first made during this period. Viewers of Noh and kabuki performances ate specially prepared bento between maku (acts). Numerous cookbooks were published detailing how to cook, how to pack, and what to prepare for occasions like hanami and Hinamatsuri.
In the Meiji era (1868–1912), the first ekibentō or ekiben (駅弁当 or 駅弁, "[train] station bento") was sold. There are several records that claim where ekiben was first sold, but it is believed that it was sold on 16 July 1885 at Utsunomiya Station in the northern Kantō region of Japan, and contained two onigiri and a serving of takuan (pickled radish) wrapped in bamboo leaves. As early schools did not provide lunch, students and teachers carried bento, as did many employees.
In the Taishō era (1912–1926), the aluminium bento box became a luxury item because of its ease of cleaning and its silver-like appearance. Also, a move to abolish the practice of bento in school became a social issue. Disparities in wealth spread during this period after an export boom during World War I and subsequent crop failures in the Tōhoku region. A student's bento too often reflected their wealth, and many wondered if this had an unfavorable influence on children both physically, from lack of adequate diet, and psychologically, from a clumsily made bento or the richness of food. After World War II, the practice of bringing bento to school gradually declined and was replaced by uniform meals provided for all students and teachers.
Bento regained popularity in the 1980s with the help of the microwave oven and the proliferation of convenience stores. In addition, the expensive wood and metal boxes have been replaced at most bento shops with inexpensive, disposable polystyrene boxes. However, even handmade bento has made a comeback, and they are once again a common, although not universal, sight at Japanese schools. Bento are still used by workers as a packed lunch, and by families on day trips, school picnics, and sports days. Homemade bento are wrapped in a furoshiki cloth, which acts as both a carrying bag and a table mat.
In Japan, it is common for mothers to make bento for their children to take to school. Because making bento can take a while, some mothers will prepare the ingredients the night before, and then assemble and pack everything the following morning before their children go to school. It is often a social expectation of mothers to provide bento for their children, to create both a nutritionally balanced and aesthetically pleasing meal. This activity is expected of the mother and emphasized by society at large, and is common in nursery school institutions.
The traditional bento that is eaten at school or at work is most often prepared by the mother or the wife. However, bento can also be bought at konbini (convenience stores) or from street vendors who appear on street corners at lunchtime. For those in a hurry who spend their lunch time aboard Shinkansen bullet trains, ekiben are available in train stations.
Osechi, an assortment of foods eaten around the Japanese New Year, is typically arranged in a multi-tiered jūbako box, similarly to bento.
The slang term hayaben (早弁), literally "early bento", refers to eating a bento before lunch and having another lunch afterward.
The Chinese word for boxed meals is héfàn (盒饭), though biàndāng as a re-borrowing from Japanese may also be used. There are numerous regional styles, ranging from Northeastern Chinese boxed meals to the Hong Kong "two dishes with rice" boxed meal. Packed meals would traditionally be carried in boxes known as shíhé (食盒, "food box"). Shíhé ranged from basic styles to elaborate, multi-tiered designs.
The bento made its way to Taiwan in the first half of the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period and remains popular to the present day. The Japanese name was borrowed into Taiwanese (piān-tong) and Hakka (phien-tông). A modern Taiwanese bento always includes protein, such as a crispy fried chicken leg or a piece of grilled mackerel and marinated pork chop, as well as side dishes. Taiwan Railway Bento is a well known bento dish manufactured and distributed by the Taiwan Railways Administration at major railway stations and in train cars. It is estimated that, with five million boxed meals sold per year, annual revenue from bento distribution amounts to 370 million NTD (approx. 10 million USD).
In Korea, similar packed lunch boxes are called dosirak, and they may be homemade or store-bought. They are similar to Chinese and Japanese variations. Dosirak is usually made with a few different vegetable and meat side dishes, often including a type of kimchi.
In Singapore, such packed lunch boxes are often acculturated and localised with cuisines slightly different to Japan. These may include roasted pork (similar to char siu) and soy eggs, as well as fried rice. It has been a common method of meal preparation within Singaporean cuisine as early as the start of the 20th century, intensifying during the Japanese occupation and cultural influences in subsequent decades with Japanese-style bento also being common in the country today.
In 2021, the Singapore Food Tech Event showcased how bento of the future might look like for a sustainable food system.
Many scholars have written about the bento since the late 20th century. The foundation of their approach is based on the idea that food can carry many different meanings.
In the 1970s, Chie Nakane used ekiben as a metaphor for group organization in Japan. By comparing this variant of bento to groups in Japan, she considered how different organizations in Japanese society often include identical components so as not to depend on any other groups for their success. In 1984, Ŏ-ryŏng Yi used bento to present tendencies towards reductionism in Japanese culture; all the food in a Japanese-style lunch box is only able to be reduced to fit in a little box due to it being Japanese food, as it naturally lends itself to being tightly packed. Roland Barthes, on the other hand, used a symbolic approach to describe the lack of a centrepiece in Japanese food. He described the distinct contents of a bento box as a multitude of fragments or ornaments that are combined to beautify each other. Joseph Jay Tobin in 1992 discussed how the meticulous assembly of individual bento boxes has been aided by the reinterpretation of Western goods, practices, and ideas through a process he classified as domestication.