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Bento shopping in San Francisco Japantown

It’s been a long time since my last bento gear shopping update, so there’s a lot to cover! Today I cover San Francisco Japantown, with a couple of new stores on the list. Highlights are the new Kinokuniya Stationery & Gift store with a variety of bento gear, the conveniently located (but partially hidden) Daiso dollar store, and the Sanrio store with a new shipment of heatable aluminum bento boxes.

Full store info and shop addresses are at the bento gear shopping guide for the San Francisco Bay Area, and you can also find reader updates at the Bento Store Locator with Google Maps. Photos of shop inventory were taken and used with store permission (click on any of the small photos for a larger version). (Click to read the full post.)

* Daiso (NEW)
* Kinokuniya Stationery & Gifts (1st floor) (NEW)
* Kinokuniya Stationery & Gift (2nd floor)
* Daikoku by Shiki
* Ichiban Kan
* Moritaya
* Nijiya Market
* Sanko
* Sanrio (NEW)
* Soko Hardware

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Published by Biggie on March 11th, 2010 tagged SF Bay Area local, equipment, shopping | 39 Comments »

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 | 13 Comments »

Silicone lunch accessories

On my last trip to Ichiban Kan and Daiso discount stores, I picked up some cheap new silicone versions of bento accessories that actually make sense in silicone. I’ve started reaching for them recently in favor of standard paper or plastic ones as they’re reusable, flexible, dishwasher-friendly, and you can heat them up.

The first are silicone food dividers (baran) that separate different foods in a bento lunch, keeping flavors from mingling and keeping textures intact. They’re washable and reusable — I’ve had good results with putting them in a utensil basket in the dishwasher to keep them from flying around. (Time to update my bento care & maintenance post…) At US$1 for a pack of three (bears or grass versions available online), they’re still reasonable. I’ve also heard of people cutting up flexible cutting mats to use as dividers.

Up to now I’ve been using edible dividers or lightweight plastic dividers (shown at right) that are meant to be disposable, but I wash and reuse them until they’re torn, worn or lost. The drawback with these is that they don’t do as well in the dishwasher, and they’re so flimsy that they do get torn and worn. They are adorable, though, so I’ll keep them in rotation to liven things up a little. (Read on for shaped silicone food cups…)

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Published by Biggie on February 22nd, 2009 tagged SF Bay Area local, decorative, equipment, review, shopping | 17 Comments »

Real-life Valentine bentos at preschool

I went to my son’s Japanese immersion preschool on Friday for their Valentine’s Day program, and asked permission to take photos of the children’s lunches in Bug’s classroom at lunchtime. I wanted to show the lunches anonymously here so that you all can see that even Japanese moms don’t necessarily go all-out for special occasion lunches. Don’t set the bar too high for yourself! This was the first time that I was in the classroom at lunchtime to see all of the different bentos, and I learned some interesting things… (Click for larger photos of each lunch, and info on cheap bento boxes sold at Disney Stores in the US.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Published by Biggie on February 15th, 2009 tagged bento, equipment, for kids, shopping | 21 Comments »

Daiso online store & Valentine bento contest

1. Daiso Launches Wholesaler Discount Program

Japanese discount store Daiso has launched a new discount program for wholesalers, resellers, and bulk orders. They’ve put their inventory up on on a new online store with bulk pricing; evidently if you are accepted into their discount program and login to your account, the prices will reflect the discount. I’d be curious as to how deep the discount is, as the prices they have up now are definitely higher than the US$1.50 per item I’m used to seeing in stores. (Shipping within the continental U.S. only.)

This move makes Daiso more competitive with smaller discount store Ichiban Kan, which already has an online store in the U.S. (correction: no wholesale program). Both companies have a good selection of cheap bento gear and household items, and Ichiban Kan recently announced that it will soon be expanding its shipping areas to include Alaska, Hawaii, and a “few selected countries” internationally. It’s interesting that Daiso’s online store only handles bulk orders, though; I suppose it’s more profitable to only deal in larger quantities. My hope is that retailers and resellers in the U.S. will take advantage of this opportunity to stock cheap bento gear, making it more widely available. (DISCLAIMER: I’m not affiliated with either store.)

2. Bento of the Month Contest: My Valentine

Congratulations go to bentolunches, the winner of the first Bento of the Month contest on the Lunch in a Box Forum. Readers voted hers the best representative of the “Speed” theme, and she will receive a copy of the cookbook Authentic Japanese Cuisine for Beginners courtesy of the Not Exactly Bento blog. Thanks to everyone who took the time to post your speedy bento lunches; it was interesting to read through all the entries and see your speed packing techniques.

The theme of this month’s contest is “My Valentine”, so make your Valentine-themed packed lunch, post a photo and any details to the February contest thread on the Lunch in a Box forum by Monday, February 23, 2009. Moderator QChan will compile all of the entries into a poll, and forum members can vote for their favorite.

The winner will receive the new green “Putifresh” bento set shown below, compliments of forum member Lethargic. The set includes a two-tier bento box, matching bento belt, matching insulated carrying bag, and matching chopsticks with case. Thanks Lethargic! (Donations of bento-related prizes and shipping to future winners are welcome; just e-mail me at lunchinabox [AT} gmail {DOT] com). (Read on for contest details and a photo of the February contest prize.)

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