Breaking:: Bentos Are Not Cheap

I have been shaken to the core by this new revelation. Making your own bento (or at least the way I do it) does not save you money. When I lived in New York, bringing my lunch to work saved me at least $10 a day. New York delis are making a killing on pay by the pound salads. When I got into the habit of packing bentos, not only did I save $50 a week, I also had a lot of fun and was eating much healthier.

Fast forward to today. I always just assumed that packing a bento for work saved me money. I never really thought about it, but it just made sense. But then last week, I got a little lazy with cooking dinner which then meant no bento. My laziness is what lead me to discover that buying lunch in Japan is SUPER affordable and most of the times much cheaper than packing a bento. 

Here's a little bit of Five Footer Eater math: 

I bought a Hainan Chicken Bento that came with more rice than I would ever pack in my lunch, hot chicken curry, pickles and soup. This cost me 700 yen. (About $9...or something.) 

A six-inch turkey breast sandwich with sliced cheese (you have to pay extra for cheese in Japan - WHAT?) costs 420 yen. 

These two items are both more than enough food for me for lunch and probably double the amount of food I pack in my bentos. The portions are more than generous. 

My bentos on the other hand cost me on average 3,000 yen for groceries. Now, that does also include my dinner for the night, but sometimes I don't even have leftovers from dinner because a certain Squidward is very hungry and it is really hard to make American standard sized meals in Japan. There's no buying bulk and it seems as if everything is sold in a 1 serving size package. For example, chicken wings/drumsticks cost about 400 yen...but you get 4 pieces. FOUR DRUMSTICKS? That's not even enough for a dinner for one, let alone me plus a Squidward. And don't even get me started on asparagus. 3 measly sticks for 350 yen. Unacceptable. The point is, I gotta buy a lot of food and it adds up quick and don't last long. 

All this, in my head, somehow adds up to much more expensive than a fresh bento from a local restaurant. Add in all the adorable cute bento boxes and accessories I HAVE TO buy and it ain't even a competition. It's true, it's not as fun buying my lunch and my Google Reader time has been cut in half because I have to go out to grab my meal, but still. It just never occurred to me that my bentos may not be the most economic hobby. At least in Japan. 

International House of Bentos

Just because bentos are a Japanese thing doesn't mean your bento has to include Japanese food. I've given Harumi a little break and for awhile, was really into pasta so I think I had spagetti for 4 days in a row. Then I got back into Vietnamese food, which explains the photo above.

A lot of times, my bentos rely on whatever is in the fridge and they don't always go together. In the box above, I had spaghetti bolognese, a carrot and cauliflower salad and edamame. I don't have a picture of it, but a few weeks ago my bento consisted of some soy sauce and butter potatoes, strawberries with nutella and half a PBJ sandwich. I don't actually mind the eclectic nature of these meals, but I do get some funny looks from some of the more traditional bento makers in the office.

Fed Up With School Lunch :: The School Lunch Project

The roommate tipped me off to a new blog in the US called Fed Up With School Lunch. An anonymous teacher in the midwest, Mrs. Q, is eating her public school's school lunch and secretly taking photos each day to show people what American kids are eating these days. I think this is a really great blog and am surprised that something like this hasn't popped up earlier. I just wrote about Japanese school lunch, which in contrast, is applauded (well...with the exception of whale meat which is sometimes found in parts of Japan) and hailed for its accessibility and focus on nutritional education.

Check out Mrs. Q's blog if you have a chance!

Midday Treats in Midtown

I subscribe to Midtown Lunch since I do in fact, work in midtown and need to eat lunch everyday. In my opinion, no one should be envious of those that work in Midtown because well...it's midtown. But since I've started reading ML, I've found myself longing for an office relocation north of 42nd Street. Dumpling trucks! Dessert trucks! Ramen! With the exception of K-Town, my lunch options are limited to 4 different Guy & Gallards, Chipotle, McDonald's and something called Maui Tacos.

In the spring and summer, things get a little better since longer lunches to enjoy the sun are more acceptable. My go-to midday treat of late has been Cafe Zaiya's soft serve - specifically, their black sesame flavor. For those of you that just puked in your mouth at the thought of black sesame sweets, I beg you to reconsider. This is a classic Asian flavor - subtle and not too sweet. Black sesame seeds are naturally sweet and very healthy. They're a good source of calcium, magnesium and protein, so according to my calculations, it totally offsets the negative effects of eating ice cream. I guess I could see how you might think it looks gross, but it's not like I'm asking you to try Durian soft serve. I would never do that to you.