Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go [Paperback]

I bought this book in the hope that I could recreate some of the mouthwatering o-bentos I had during a 3 year stay in Japan - this book did not disappoint! A good mixture of fish and meats, with also some soup recipes, and also all the little tasty, often 'mystery' side veggies and things too! It helps if you have access to an oriental grocery store for the ingredients but as long as you have mirin, soy sauce and sake you should be able to make the bulk of the recipes. Great book! Many happy lunches ahead of me.....:-)

I love Japanese food and have been cooking a few selected dishes for some years now but recently wanted to try new things. I decided to go for this book not because I wanted to create bento boxes to take to work, but because I thought this book would have menus offered rather than individual recipes and I was intrigued. Since getting this book I have tried many of the bento menus suggested and I've been nothing but impressed as everything (no exceptions here) was delicious.

Regarding a few comments made by other reviewers:

1. The bento boxes menus in the book are not as easy to prepare as chucking a frozen pizza in the oven for 8 minutes but it is possible to use the recipes (or at least most of them) to prepare a bento box to take to work every morning -- I have done just so for a couple of weeks. The secret, I believe, is having an electric rice cooker and putting it on timer so the rice is ready in the morning when you are. The rest takes about 10 minutes to prepare if you arrange things the night before. (Tip: if you have an electric rice cooker without a timer, just get a separate timer. Works great!)

2. Indeed, some of the items are not your everyday Sainsbury's produce but I was able to find all of the items which I was looking for. Living in London does make it easier (you can find everything in China Town and the area) and the hardest to find items were actually found in Asian shops rather than the speciality Japanese delis, so do try it out. (Tip: Searching for images of the raw ingredients might help as the same thing might be under a different name. Tip2: Online shopping could get you many of the items you're looking for, if not fresh than dried or preserved, which is still better than nothing...)

Finally, this book achieved what I was looking for... introduction to Japanese recipe ideas I have not tried before and giving me inspiration regarding the recipes I have already known, but if I could point at one specific highlight of this book is that it introduced me to Lotus Root, which has become our favourite vegetable in the house, so don't give it a miss!

This is probably my fourth Japanese cook book. I was specifically looking for a book on bento lunches, and behold, look what I found! Many of the recipes are similar to ones in my other books, but I have found some are simplified (though JUST as tasty!) and the proportion is perfect for a lunch serving!

I don't agree with marking a book down for a lack of local ingredients. After all, it's not local cooking. You can make your own judgements about certain substitutions (like types of mushrooms) but otherwise, get yourself to a Japanese market (or use an online retailer) to get the harder to find items!

This book has really inspired me to finally get my Japanese cooking into gear. There are useful inset 'instruction' photos at various points and every dish is shown in a good color photograph. Best of all, the lunches have been fantastic!! For the amazing low price and what you get inside, I can't recommend this book highly enough.