The life which bounced

In my new-found bento obsession, I've been eating a lot of rice. And when I say that, I really mean that white sticky rice has begun to dominate my lunches. Onigiri, or rice balls, with all sorts of fillings, fluffy rice pressed into the bottom of a container and then covered with flavoured sprinkles both make up the majority of my lunch these days. Along with some miso soup, the occasional hard-boiled egg (sometimes a tea egg) and some vegetables or fruit, my lunch has become one of my favourite parts of the day. Strangely, I've never felt better. It's great - I'm never hungry until about 7 or 8 at night now. I used to come home absolutely starving after having eaten at least one packet of biscuits at work. So the bento-style lunches are definitely a winner. ^_^

The obsession with them is also growing in leaps and bounds. Last weekend, while dragging a friend from Cardiff two the two Japanese-food markets that are within walking distance of my flat, I saw that they were having an odd sort of yard sale (odd, because it was really kind of a sidewalk sale. In Piccadilly Circus. Where there is barely space to walk to begin with.) in front of the Japan Centre. Walking up, my eye was immediately caught by the four small-looking bento boxes they had for £2.99. My inner Japanese 5-year-old kicked in, I grabbed the hot pink box, and clutched it to my chest while digging in my bag for my cash. I felt like running home to immediately make lunch, just so I could put it in the box and then eat it. I also bought a pair of small chopsticks with penguins on them. They are not pink, and they also do not fit into the chopstick holder in the bento box. It was a very sad moment. I've been rubberbanding them to the top, which is working well.

Now all I need is to start cutting out star shapes, and hearts, and making faces on my eggs, and I'll be full-fledged into the obsession. Maybe I can knit a holder for my bento box?

Hmmm...this will take planning...