New Bento Box Review: Life Without Plastic

More summery bento! And a new bento box! 

There's a brand-new (to me) new lunchbox in town, and it's pretty cool. It's called Round Stainless Steel Airtight Takeout Container with Dividers. I was intrigued because I've used airtight stainless steel containers before (Lunchbot Clicks) and divided stainless steel containers before (Lunchbots, Planetbox, and Ecolunchboxes) but I was always wishing for a bento box container that combined those three highly desirable qualities: stainless steel, airtight, and divided.

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Finally, there is one!

The two dividers fit together loosely so the four sections may not separate completely; just enough to keep most of the foods from touching each other and mixing together. If there is any liquid in any of the sections, however, it will probably leak into the other sections.

There is a gasket that fits snugly underneath the lid, though, ensuring a watertight seal once the three latches are secured. So any liquid inside the container should theoretically not leak out into your (or your child's) lunch tote or backpack.

The inaugural bento I made in this container is something we've been eating a lot of this summer:

somen salad!

I think it looks beautiful in this box, and if you chill it, the salad will stay cool for awhile, which I love. Okay, I didn't make use of the dividers this time, but that's on the list next time for sure.

The container I used in the center doesn't come with the box, but if you had one, with a lid, it might be ideal to hold sauce for dipping (or pouring). I packed the tsuyu sauce in a little bottle but you could also just pour the sauce on top before packing, since it is a watertight box! I lay the somen noodles on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce, since that's how I like to eat this salad, but you could also shred the lettuce and lay it on top with the other toppings. I used halved grape tomatoes, sliced steamed Okinawan sweet (purple) potatoes, sliced deli ham, chopped green onions, julienned carrots, and sesame seeds. Sometimes I sprinkle furikake too. The box performed well, is easy to open and close, is watertight as described, and looks elegant enough for adults to use as well as kids. This one is definitely going to get a lot of use, maybe more by me than anyone else! 

Disclosure: Life Without Plastic generously provided me with this product for use without cost to me. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own.

      

Somen Salad of Love Bento

Somen Salad of Love Bento, a photo by sherimiya ♥ on Flickr.

Note: I entered this bento in Bento & Co's contest to "Make a Bento For Someone You Love". It placed within the top 20 finalists, and won a gift certificate to the Bento & Co store!

Today's bento consists of what I think of as quintessential summer food: somen salad. Here are some other ways I've packed somen salad in bento: here and here. Have you had it? In Hawaii we eat it a lot when the weather is hot and humid. My dad had a method of making the somen noodles. These noodles are very thin, so you must not overcook them or they'll become mushy and sticky. As soon as they're done you have to cool them down to stop all further cooking. During this cooling step, my dad always pulled single serving size bundles of somen out of the basket and twirled each into a kind of little nest, keeping each bundle separate from the others. When they've cooled to room temperature, he stored the bundles next to each other in an airtight container in the refrigerator, with a paper towel just under the lid to absorb any condensed moisture. Then, when you're ready to make your salad, you can quickly and easily pull out as many servings as you need. Ta-daa! For today's salad, I used non-traditional toppings along with some of the usual: julienned omelet, ham, carrot and lettuce, grated purple carrot, and fresh corn off the cob. I arranged them atop the somen in a pleasing rainbow array. I chose the round tiffin because I like the way the ingredients look in a circular pattern. Plus, the stainless steel serves to keep everything cool. The top tier fits on top and is just deep enough to accomodate a variety of summer fruit: strawberries, cherries, lychee, black- and raspberries, and sliced yellow peach. The tiny blue container contains dressing for the salad. I almost forgot about the heart radish in the center; something needed to go there. Just now, as I was typing this, MisterMan walked over and looked at the picture of this bento he ate today. Immediately he said "Oh, I liked this one! I especially liked the radish heart because it reminded me how much I love you." ^_^

Ume Somen Salad Bento

Ume Somen Salad Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

It's still mighty hot here, but gradually getting cooler. Today's high was only 87F, so pretty nice actually. I had boiled some ume somen yesterday so it was nice and cold today for lunch. It's a pretty pink color and I've never had it before so I was interested to see how it tastes. Straight out of the package it smells sweet to me, kind of like strawberry. Maybe that's just psychological due to the color; I don't know. After cooking, it still had a sweet taste to me -- not salty or sour at all. Anyone else have this experience? Anyway, it does retain its nice pink color after cooking, so that's cool! I lay some inside a lettuce leaf, then added shiitake, julienned cucumbers and carrots, green onions, and sesame seeds. I added some ocean salad in the corner, and in the other corner I slipped in a strawberry bottle filled with somen tsuyu. I finished with a maple cut radish for red color. The top tier contains the rest of the bright color: dapple dandy pluot, red grapes, purple cauliflower and yellow carrot stars. I think I got all the rainbow colors in this one! I hope it serves its purpose and cools down my boy at school tomorrow.

Panda Somen Salad Bento

Panda Somen Salad Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Okay, starting to cook a little for bento now. Does boiling somen noodles count? It's been so hot here that somen salad is really the best thing to cool down with. I topped this one with shredded carrot, ocean salad, green onion and furikake. You could also add lettuce, egg, ham, krab, kamaboko, or whatever you like. I put some tsuyu in the round blue container for him to pour on the somen just before he eats it. To the side I put the standard three: steamed broccoli, yellow cauliflower and romanesco. In the bottom tier of this cool skinny bento I put all the fruits: cherries, white nectarines and -- yes -- lychee!! It's not summer if I don't make my traditional lychee/blueberry panda. So here he is. I also added some other panda pals too, so they can have a panda party in the skinny bento! Not sure how I feel about this shape yet. I've seen others use it so elegantly, but I feel like I have to handle it carefully or it'll flip out of my hands and fall straight on the floor. It is unique though, isn't it?

An Array of Noodles

From left to right: cha-soba (green tea soba), udon, (regular buckwheat) soba, somen.

Aren't they pretty? Somehow they look very pleasing to me like this ~ calming and comforting.