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One million visitors and bento contests

1. Milestone

Today is a big milestone day for this blog: One million visitors and three million page views since Lunch in a Box started here at its own domain thirteen months ago, in June 2007 (source: SiteMeter)! Now that’s nowhere near the size of food blog giants like Simply Recipes or 101 Cookbooks, but I’m content with my first blogging foray. A big thanks to everyone for tuning in and sticking around as I worked out the technical kinks over the last year. Bento lunches are becoming more popular and mainstream; it’s an exciting time to be blogging about them. To commemorate my 1,000,000-visitor mark, I’ve created a page for community announcements of packed lunch blog events & contests. Details below.

2. Bento contest and blogging events

For all of you who take photos of your lunches and put them up somewhere on the web, I’ve put together a Lunch Blog Event page where I’ll link to current contests and blogging events specifically focused on packed lunches. Think of it as a miniature version of Is My Blog Burning focused solely on packed lunch events. If you run a contest or blogging event for packed lunches of any kind (bento box, Laptop Lunchbox, thermal lunch jar, Tupperware, brown bag, etc.), let me know via e-mail at lunchinabox (AT) gmail (DOT} com and I’ll update the page. Regular lunch-packers can check this page to stay up to date with the latest lunch blogging events.

We’ve got one new bento contest in addition to the ongoing Wholesome Lunchbox event over at Coffee & Vanilla. To commemorate her 100th bento lunch, “Bento Pet” of On a Bento Frenzy is holding a contest for “regular people packing regular bentos” (not kyaraben food art), and she’s put together a nice stash of bento gear as a prize. The entry deadline is July 29, 2008; check out the contest and prize details for your chance to win free bento supplies. (I’m also attending the BlogHer ‘08 blogging conference in San Francisco this weekend, and attending a restaurant meet-up of food bloggers on Sunday.)

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Published by Biggie on July 14th, 2008 tagged admin | 24 Comments »

Newsweek: Are bento lunches a trend?

Are bento lunches becoming a trend in the U.S.? I think we’re starting to see indications of that, as shown by this article in Newsweek magazine about bento boxes for the preschool set.

Newsweek contacted me a few weeks ago to discuss the growing popularity of bento box lunches in the United States. They wound up running a photo of this bento lunch for my three-year-old, who attends a Japanese immersion preschool in San Francisco where bentos are the norm (click for the lunch’s full contents, packing details, and speed tips). On the spectrum of kyaraben food art to Lunchables or PB&J sandwiches in plastic baggies, hopefully my everyday speed bentos fall right in the middle (ideally made in under 10-15 minutes, but still appealing).

The article gave some online stores for bento gear, and summarized the Japanese nutritional “Spinning Top” and bento packing guidelines described in my guide to choosing the right size bento box. (One minor nit: traditionally a bento has one part protein, not one part “meat” as written in the article. You know, Japan being an island nation with lots of fish and tofu and all.)

Anyway, while I definitely see elements of the overall picture, I’m not sure if they’re sufficient to anoint bentos as a new trend. Maybe it just feels like the start of a bento boom because I’m in the middle of it. Am I delusional? Here’s my split-personality argument weighing if bento lunches are becoming significantly more popular in the U.S… Read the rest of this entry »

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Published by Biggie on June 11th, 2008 tagged admin | 79 Comments »

New Bento Store Locator with Google Maps

After launching the lunchinabox.net site one year ago today, one of the most common questions I hear from people starting to make bento-style lunches is, “Where can I find bento boxes and accessories near me? Do I have to order them online and pay for shipping?” To make it easier for the lunch-packing community to share their knowledge of local stores in a common location, I hired a web developer to create the worldwide Bento Store Locator using Google Maps. This interactive map should help readers quickly find nearby stores that sell bento boxes and accessories, check out feedback from other readers, add new stores to the map themselves, and leave their own comments on individual store entries. (Like a very basic version of Yelp.com, but focused only on bento gear.)

My hope is that the Bento Store Locator (BSL?) will be a handy little tool for discovering local sources of bento boxes and accessories, potentially saving us money that’d we’d otherwise spend on shipping charges from online stores. If there aren’t any bento stores near you, though, I’ve put together an updated list of online stores with bento gear. Check back on the Bento Store Locator from time to time, as I expect the number of stores to grow as people share their finds. (Read on for details and posting guidelines.)

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Published by Biggie on June 2nd, 2008 tagged SF Bay Area local, admin, equipment, shopping | 41 Comments »

Bento contest

Pikko over at Adventures in Bentomaking is running a bento contest to mark her bento blog’s upcoming 100,000 visitor mark. Send her a photo of a bento lunch you made and a description of what’s in it, and you might be chosen to receive a grab bag with a bento box and bento accessories. Check it out! (EDIT: Pikko has put up a photo of what’s in the bento grab bag she’s giving away — quite the haul.)

Following up on my challenge to readers to top cassandrasimplx’s really clever song parody inserting Lunch in a Box lyrics into the funny Justin Timberlake/Andy Samberg D**k in a Box song, cassandrasimplx reigned supreme (read her silly song here). To thank her, I gave her a choice of anything from the Lunch in a Box store on CafePress, and she chose the Got Bento? wall clock for the kitchen, to remind her husband to take his lunch with him. What time is it? Bento time!

FURTHER READING:

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Published by Biggie on May 28th, 2008 tagged admin | 7 Comments »

Site: Review policy & links

For easier site navigation, I put together an ordered list of lunch gear, packaged foods, books and stores that I’ve reviewed on Lunch in a Box so far, augmenting the Top Tips page. I think I was able to find most of my past mini-reviews, but feel free to let me know if I’ve missed something.

I also came across this thread on eGullet today about food blogging ethics, which got me thinking about how I approach product reviews. I generally toss mini reviews into a larger lunch post, covering things that I’ve bought with my own money. But as the blog grows I’ve started to be approached by companies to review different books and products. Many are not all that relevant and are therefore easy to turn down, but there have been a few on target enough to get me thinking that it’s time to establish a proper product review policy for the site. My journalist husband helped me draft a policy to avoid conflicts of interest; I’m hoping this’ll head off any misunderstandings.

Enjoy the Reviews page; I hope it helps you find what you’re looking for. I’ve also created a new Review category which I’ll be using to tag posts containing reviews of food, gear, books or stores.

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