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World's Greatest Bento - Plastic Japanese Meal

Sep 24, 2009 09:13 PM

Anna The Red is the greatest Bento artist I have come across on the web. She's so highly regarded she even did an ad for Google. Check it out:

For those of you who don't know, Bento is a "single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine". When bento is arranged in an elaborate style (such as people, animals, characters, plants, etc.) it is referred to as kyaraben or charaben (a shortened version of character bento).

Bentos are always edible, and created with all sorts of different foods. Creativity and true artistry are key. Let's just say the best bentos truly transcend the material (in this case, the material being food).

Anna's Bento Factory is full of images of her work, and best of all, incredible step-by-step tutorials. If you're interested in diving into the world of Bento, check out Anna's How-To section. If you prefer video to text, I'm a fan of this How-To by Cooking With Dog.

Anna's incredible work from her flickr page:

Creative food art featuring characters made from rice and vegetables.

Creative food art featuring animal-shaped rice and vegetable characters arranged on a plate.

Creative food art featuring a Wall-E character made from rice, vegetables, and meatballs.

Cat-shaped bento box with vegetables and decorative elements.

Creative food art featuring cartoon characters made from various ingredients.

Kirby and Yoshi food art in a bento box, featuring vegetables and rice.

Pikachu-themed bento box with rice, vegetables, and meatballs.

Creative food art depicting a landscape with a meatloaf, vegetable leaves, and decorative edible flowers.

Artfully arranged bento box featuring grilled fish, vegetables, and decorative garnishes.

Creative vegetable dish featuring lettuce, cherry tomatoes, lotus root, and decorative flowers.

Monster-themed bento box with rice, breaded cutlets, and vegetables.

Colorful vegetable and egg platter arranged artistically.

Bento box featuring a creative food arrangement resembling a character with rice, vegetables, and other ingredients.

The next big software update for iPhone is coming sometime in April and will include a Food section in Apple News+, an easy-to-miss new Ambient Music app, Priority Notifications thanks to Apple Intelligence, and updates to apps like Mail, Photos, Podcasts, and Safari. See what else is coming to your iPhone with the iOS 18.4 update.