Archive for the 'giveaway' Category

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Bento gear on Menu for Hope 6

The holidays are a time for giving, and in the food blog world that’s come to mean the Menu For Hope food blog annual fundraising campaign, now in its 6th year. Started by Pim of Chez Pim, Menu for Hope raises money for the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest food aid agency (it raised over US$250,000 over the last three years for the program!). Specifically, this year’s donations will go to the WFP’s Purchase for Progress (P4P), a new initiative that helps smallholder and low-income farmers supply food to WFP’s global operations, improving farming practices and putting more cash into their pockets.

In Menu for Hope, food bloggers around the world offer a variety of food-related items for the online raffle. Every US$10 you donate earns you one “ticket” to bid on an item of your choice. At the end of the campaign, tickets are drawn and results are announced on Chez Pim on Monday, January 18, 2010.

A full list of bid items is will be posted at Chez Pim, and the Western U.S. regional prizes will be shown at Gluten-Free Girl. A mere US$10 gives you a shot at some pretty cool food-related prizes! Check them all out and see what appeals to you.

I’m happy to offer another bento kit for bidding this year, with products courtesy of Skater Company, Japan’s largest manufacturer of bento boxes, and ZESPRI, the New Zealand kiwifruit company. I’ll also give each of the winners a personal tour of San Francisco’s Japantown if you’re in town (details below).

What’s included:

“Winnie the Pooh Goes Bananas” Bento Box Kit and tour of San Francisco’s Japantown, by Biggie (me).
Pack adorable lunches with unusual Winnie the Pooh food shaping tools and a banana-themed “Putifresh” bento set. The yellow bento set includes a watertight bento box, two matching bags, chopsticks, elastic bento belt and a Zespri “spife” (spoon/knife combo) for packing whole kiwifruit. The tools include a boiled egg shaper, sandwich cutter, onigiri rice ball shaper, vegetable cutter, pancake ring and silicone food cups, all shaped like Winnie the Pooh. The Pooh-themed tools are high quality, direct from the Skater Company in Japan. Make lunch as tasty as your own pot of honey! (prize code UW20)

(Read on for full details and instructions on how to enter.)

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Published by Biggie on December 14th, 2009 tagged SF Bay Area local, admin, bento, giveaway, shopping | 16 Comments »

RIP Ichiban Kan online

My apologies to everyone for dropping off the face of the earth lately — it’s been a weird time and I’ve been going through something of a crisis. (Arg.) Time to get back on the bento ball! Lots of updates today; with Ichiban Kan closing its online store and opening a new San Bruno retail location in the Tanforan Mall, a kiwifruit recipe contest that I’ll be judging with a US$2,500 grand prize, a recent Lunch 2.0 round table blogger discussion I moderated, a new bento cookbook that’s out, and more.

1. Ichiban Kan closes online store

First off, I’m sad to say that Ichiban Kan recently closed its online store, although its retail stores in the SF Bay Area remain open. They were a good US source of cheap bento gear (like US$1!), and I’m sad to see them go. Products seemed to fly off the shelves, so there’s hope that they’ll be back — check their blog for updates. Fingers crossed that they change their business model and reopen the online store, maybe at increased prices to remain viable. I mean, cheap is good and all, but not if it drives them out of business!

In any event, Ichiban Kan has opened a new retail store in the Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, CA, so if you’re nearby you might want to check that out (1150 El Camino Real, San Bruno, CA 94066, tel: 650-244-9920). For additional sources, check out my list of online stores for bento gear, as well as the Bento Store Locator with Google Maps and reader feedback for retail sources near you. (Read on for details of a recipe contest with $2,500 prize, a Lunch 2.0 round table that I moderated, a new bento cookbook, and the upcoming BlogHer ‘09 panel on food blogging.)

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Published by Biggie on July 17th, 2009 tagged Amorette, Laptop Lunchbox, admin, giveaway | 39 Comments »

Giveaway winner & Sacramento Bee article

We’ve got a winner in the Kids Konserve metal lunch kit giveaway (see my full review), and some additional giveaways around the bento community. If you didn’t win this one, the company is giving away another of their metal lunch kits for Earth Day on April 22nd, 2009. Comment on their blog post for a chance to win.

Congratulations go to reader Cyntilla in Italy (comment #278), who would pack a double-layer ham & cheese sandwich with crispy lettuce and corn salad, a fruit salad (strawberries, apple and kiwi) in one container, some meat and veg stir-fry in the other, and mint white tea in the drink bottle. Cyntilla, I’ll be in touch to get your shipping address for Kids Konserve to send your kit.

In other news, I was in a Sacramento Bee feature article the other week about bento lunches (”Bring Your Own Lunch“), and filmed a seven-minute video about making speed bentos (it’s on the online article). We filmed it in their kitchen studio in Sacramento, which took almost four hours plus drive time — we were so hungry by the end that Gina, the cameraman and I devoured everything I made right after the shoot. Still, it was the first time I’d done non-live video for bento stuff, which was a really interesting experience. Thanks, guys! Lunch in a Box was also featured on iVillage.com’s parenting site, in a slideshow called “The Rules of Bento”.

Other Bento Giveaways: (taken from the bento contest announcement section of the Lunch in a Box Forum)

Two Ichiban Kan bento kits from Mission: Vegan (deadline April 22, 2009, open to all)
Ichiban Kan bento starter kit from Maisie Eats Bento (deadline April 5, 2009, open only to people with blogs)

FURTHER READING:

How to care for your lunch gear and other bento supplies
Lunch in a Box Forum: Bento community contests and giveaways (publicize your own giveaway here)
All giveaway posts on Lunch in a Box
Bento FAQ and Biggie’s list of top speed tips, tutorials and reviews

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Published by Biggie on April 3rd, 2009 tagged equipment, giveaway | 14 Comments »

Giveaway: Kids Konserve metal lunch kit

Like the look of a stylish metal lunch set but don’t want to plunk down the cash? Kids Konserve has kindly offered to give away a lunch kit and metal condiment container that I reviewed in full here. The winner of this international giveaway can choose between their classic green set, or one of the cute butterfly- or caterpillar-themed lunch sets.

Bonus: If you don’t win the giveaway and want to order something on your own, they’ve also given Lunch in a Box readers a special 10% discount off items purchased from their website through September 30, 2009 (coupon code is lunchbox). (Read on for information on how to enter the giveaway, and other March bento community giveaways.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Published by Biggie on March 27th, 2009 tagged equipment, giveaway | 496 Comments »

Forum highlights: Low-cost Bento of the Month Contest

The Lunch in a Box reader forum is going gangbusters, with over 3,000 posts a couple of months in. A few recent highlights:

A step-by-step cheese character tutorial that PikaMama originally wrote for her bento blog, detailing how to make ornate characters out of sliced cheese and food markers (shown above). Thanks for sharing!
The new “What did you pack your kid today?” thread, where we’re jotting down what we packed for our children’s lunches that day, along with a note of how old the child is. Photos aren’t necessary (but welcome if you have them); it’s more of a place to get quick ideas for kid-friendly lunches.
We’re also discussing the social impacts of giving your kids bento; have you seen any interesting reactions with your own children?

Bento of the Month Contest: Cost

Congratulations go to Laura Bento, the winner of the second Bento of the Month contest on the Lunch in a Box Forum. Readers voted hers the best representative of the “Valentine” theme, and she will receive the Putifresh bento box set courtesy of Lethargic. Thanks to everyone who took the time to post your speedy bento lunches; it was interesting to read through the entries and see your cute Valentine-themed lunches.

The theme of the Bento of the Month Contest for March is “Cost: How Low Can You Go?”. I’m thinking of Japanese bento cookbooks I have that use sale items, cheap veggies, and staple foods to put together a cheap but balanced and tasty lunch. All containers are welcome (Laptop Lunchbox, Tupperware-type containers, thermal lunch jars, sandwich cases, etc.), not just bento boxes. (Read on for contest and prize details.) Read the rest of this entry »

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