Bento Boxes!

They are handy, perfect lunches and amazingly arranged. Bento boxes are not just your typical rice and spam in a container, bentos are a work of art. Even with a simple bento containing just rice, seaweed, egg cakes and soybeans, take a lot of effort and work. You can put anything you like in the bento and use your mind of imagination and create a work of art! I can never forget my first bento. It was a couple of days after Valentine's day in the 8th grade, a friend of mine was carrying 3 colorful bento boxes. One pink, blue and green. She handed my friend the blue bento and to me the pink bento. They were two skinny containers both perfectly stacked on top of each other. We both opened our bentos and the smell of egg cakes, hot dogs and onigiris (rice cakes wrapped with seaweed) entered our noses. A couple of round small cookie balls were places right by the onigiri. I dropped my mouth as I saw this bento. It was very simple yet it was very arranged perfectly. We slowly opened the second container and the smell of white rice came. There were little soybeans sitting on top of the white soft rice. I take the fork out of the top container and was about to take a taste of the food but I had a feeling that this wonderful setting of food can not be eaten since it was too wonderful to be eaten and digested but my two friends already started eating. I poked my fork through the egg cake and put the soft egg cake into my mouth. It had a salty sweet-ish taste and it was very soft and chewy. After I swallowed, I took a bite off the onigiri. The soft rice was soft and sweet but the seaweed was difficult to tear with my mouth but it added the taste of the sea into my mouth! The half-cut brown hot dogs were cut in an octopus way and with the tiny seaweed circle eyes, made them look like little octopus. The hot dogs were very chewy and soft but I felt very sad feeling like I ate a tiny octopus. Next was were the small light brown cookie balls. I ate one as I felt it melt into my mouth bursting out the sweet flavor of cookies! Last were the green kidney shaped soybeans. I never really like beans but my friend cooked it so might as well eat it. I eat one and I bite the hard green bean but it was not so bad. I ate a couple more and now soybeans are my favorite. I can never forget that experience of the wonderful lunch my friend prepared for us. It wasn't a work of art but it was a gift from the heart.