Taking Your Bento to Work

[acbuiten]

When I pack my husband lunch, he gets lots of good comments. He's in grad school, and most of the other grad students don't cook, so having yummy homemade food is a dream to many of them. Also, it helps that when I know he's eating with a mutual friend of ours, I'll tuck in an extra little whatever I gave him for dessert, so he can share.

The cutest story was when he was going through orientation. I made him a lunch bento and a few snack bentos since he was going through 10 hour long nonstop orientation hell. During lunch, he happened to sit next to some students who had just moved here from Japan. They were all freaking out and passing his lunch around to look at, especially when they found out I wasn't Japanese! That made me feel very proud of myself.

[varenikje]

Ah, yes, I have not-so-fond memories of less than appetizing "meals" in school. When someone would ask, "Does your mom know you are having a candy bar for breakfast?" I would say, "Probably not, but I think she suspects..."

Good for you! Sounds like your bento even passed the "students from Japan" test!

[TisiphoneNemesis]

I frequently get comments along the lines of:

a) I can't believe you spent time making that
b) is there enough in there to feed you?
c) You're insane
d) how do you find the time to cook / bake etc (I frequently take cakes etc in and have actually bribed the M&E team to turn up to a training session with the promise of home made cakes)
e) you're wasted in this job

my fave came this christmas which was

f) how much do you want to make me a batch of mince pies and truffles?

I love to cook but have no discipline at all so the ability to swap and change while still making the large batches possible with Bento's really suit me. I often make a batch of cakes, biscuits/cookies, stews, curries, rice etc and just dish up the small amount needed each time.

I find it fun that people wonder where you find the time because they are so busy but they always find the time to spend on facebook or watch TV each night.

Guess it's about priorities

[Kiana]

on the days that I brought my lunch to work all the girls always told me how cute my lunches and accessories were! They would ask me why I did it, how I do it, where did I get my bento boxes and accessories, so It was always fun to answer their qustions. So it was kinda educational for them! Some even asked if I could make them one!

[kawaii09]

I've gotten a lot of compliments just on how cute my bento boxes are. Then they see the food inside and find it adorable. I made a Bee onigiri for V-day and a bunch of people were like "OMG it's so cute!" or "Is that actually food?" lol, and "Did you make that?" I feel kind of awkward sometimes when I use my chopsticks, but what the heck I don't care I guess. People stare at me but there's a lot more weirder people where I work...WALMART LoL!

[smoke]

My husband hasn't said anything about it so far. Then again, I haven't asked how many roommates he has, and he eats in his room.

Well, he's said something about how spaghetti squash doesn't really go with onions and garlic. I'm still learning, and haven't made any really obscene lunches yet.

[smoke]

A little bit of an update. He hasn't gotten many comments about how his lunches look, but this morning I got a request from his roommate to not make his lunches so "aromatic."

They need special permission to not have their meal allowances directly taken from their pay. I don't blame the unmarried guys for getting a bit jealous of my hubby that gets to brown-bag it instead of eating at the galley.

[varenikje]

Yes, he must really appreciate getting your home cooked goodies in a bento box.

Hey, Kawaii! _I_ shop at Walmart!!