Finally, a lunch box apt for geeks who like organized packed lunches! The laptop lunch bento box comes in a thermal laptop bag-like tote with an inside sleeve for gadgets and pens and notebooks. The main compartment holds a colorful modular lunch box with multiple compartments and a small spill-proof sport-style juice bottle, which also comes with the kit. A small stainless steel fork and spoon are also included. The containers are microwave and dishwasher-safe.
I used the laptop lunch box to pack Brian a meal to take on his morning surfing trip. There are four main color-coded compartments &mdash I put dumplings (left over from a feast we made last night) in the blue rectangle, cabbage & chicken & rice & pickles in the green (has a lid), farmer’s cucumbers and sauteed pea shoots in the purple, and fruits in the red. The little yellow bin with the sealable lid was perfect for dipping sauce. Mango juice in the drink container.
The kit comes with an instruction booklet with some simple recipes. There are other books on Japanese-style boxed lunches, too. I have one called Bento Love, but today I just stuffed the bento box with leftovers.
When Brian came back from surfing several hours later, he reported two problems: 1. The warm food next to the cold drink made the drink warm and the food cool. 2. Because the compartments are designed to hold food horizontally but the bag’s strap is on the vertical, the food gets shifted around and the flavors tended to mix. The fruit tasted slightly like chicken, he said. To avoid this, make sure to keep the saucy, juicy stuff in the sealed yellow or green containers.
Overall, yummy food + a little TLC + a great way to carry it all = one very happy surfing geek.
[Laptop Lunches bento box from ReusableBags.com]
$38 for a few little tupperware type containers and a non insulated squeeze bottle in a little carry case. By my rough calculations thats a $35 hipster tax over the same components from the dollar store (or 100 Yen shop, whatever).
I am curious about how tight the seals are,
especially with red, blue and purple containers.
Are they strictly for dry foods?
You TOTALLY spoil Brian!
Thanks to BBG, I finally found my chibi kawaii 4 kotoba bento box and my gohan is not wet. Thanks you BBG!
You guys carry a hipness I can never hope to attain.
-the both o’ yous.
This product seems to need a little refinement in both thermal and materials containment departments.
I am glad I found this article, I always needed a lunch box that would separate into different compartments.
Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go
Holy crow, I need somebody to pack lunches like that for me. Other than myself.
My wife DID buy me the Zojirushi Mr. Bento set. I have to fill it myself.
I really like the Mr. Bento, which solves some of your problems- it’s vertically oriented, and each of the 4 compartments is individually sealed. There’s no drink container or a separate sauce container, though.
Mine came from an import store, and comes with a nice set of chopsticks- the set at amazon appears to be americanized enough have a spork. (I adore sporks.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000246GSE?ie=UTF8&tag=bentoboxlunch-20
The only problem I have is that in the morning, I tend to always try and overfill each container. Even though each container seems relatively small, once I start eating all of it, I get pretty overly stuffed. So looks are a bit deceiving.
The blog Vegan Lunchbox features the laptop lunchbox along with lots of awesome ways of filling it. http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/