Innie or Outie

This is a combination bento meal from a local vendor that offers a choice of preselected combinations or an individual’s own choice of various dishes. The entrée bento was one of the preselected items that are very representative of typical local cuisine. The preselection consisted of green beans and julienned carrots sautéed in sesame oil, a stir-fried cabbage, carrot, and tofu dish, thin slices of pan-fried pork, a sunny-side up fried egg, rice, and a pickled plum (umeboshi). Accompanying the entrée was a cup of miso-tofu soup and as a side-order a sautéed dish of broccoli, bacon, tofu,and spinach.

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Another of the local convenience store versions of “oba-bento”. This one had fried chicken, stir-fried greens, pork luncheon meat (spam), meat sauce spaghetti, umeboshi, deep-fried hard-boiled egg, and rice.

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Here is another of the local convenience store “oba-style” bentos. This one had yakisoba, sautéed veggies, shrimp tenpura, fried chicken drumstick, rice, hamburger steak with sauce, sunny-side up fried egg, daikon (pickled radish), and umeboshi (pickled plum).

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This is a convenience store bento plate that consisted of spicy Chinese-inspired tofu chanpuru, rice with goma, pork, and moyashi (bean sprouts).

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This is another of the local convenience store versions of a bento meal consisting of spaghetti, garlic chicken, potato salad, green beans, and rice sprinkled with goma (sesame seeds).

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This is a convenience store bento with a local obasan influence consisting of jushi (a style of prepared rice that is more often found in onigiri) pickled radish, tenpura, chicken, potato croquette, mackerel, pork luncheon meat, and konnyaku with seaweed.

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These are a local restaurant’s version of scones. Many of the restaurants have begun to offer take-outs of their “tea-time” goodies. These particular scones ranged in flavors such as chocolate, lemon, raisin, and blueberry.

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This convenience store version of bento had a distinct sense of East meets West. Included in the meal were German-style potato with onion and bacon, steamed string beans and corn niblets, meat sauce spaghetti, deep fried chicken, hamburger pattie with grated daikon (radish) and julienned nori (seaweed) on an iceberg lettuce bed, and rice sprinkled with dried parsley flakes.

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This convenience store version of bento had somen with tuna, tofu/goya chanpuru, potato croquette, deep fried chicken with mystery sauce, mashed potatoes with ketchup, deep fried shrimp and white fish with tartar sauce, rice, and pickled eggplant.

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This grocery store version of bento was less-filling then what is usually seen. The meal included two types of sautéed vegetables, hot dog, potato croquette, tofu, tenpura, kamaboko, pickled ginger, mackerel, and rice.

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