Bento Envy

In a moment hour of writer's block today I unwittingly stumbled across the most adorable food trend ever. Bento boxes. Seriously, I couldn't stop staring at Flickr, drooling over the poetry of it all. . .

More bento eye candy.

Doesn't this make you want to run out and buy a bento box? (Me too, go crazy for cheap here)

One of the things I love about cooking is putting nonsensical things in a sensical place, so the color coordination and texture of these boxes is just driving me nuts.

Is the bento trend catching on here in the States? Who knows, this is the first I've ever seen of this. Then again, I live in Texas, and news trickles down slow. But I think Bento afficionados are on to something here.

When my parents were kids, they used to walk home from school for lunch. Today, pretty much every country in the western hemisphere (except the U.S.) allows work and school breaks for family meals in the middle of the day. Bentos seems like some small way to put some love back in the lunchbox. Not to mention a sure method of making leftovers more appealing in the midst of an economic recession slowdown...

Until next time, Buen Provecho!