Japanese bento (lunch box) art - delightful edible art

In Japanese cuisine, artistic presentation is important. It allows you to enjoy it with your eyes first. Appearance is almost as important as actual taste. In Japan, food and the dishes on which it is served are considered to be a type of art. (source: Japanese Food Culture Association)

Japanese people truly enjoy the artistic sense of the display of the food. They even put extra work to their kid lunch box to make it more appealing. SBS commences its article on Bento Box Art with comparing Australian parents who make simple sandwich as lunch box menu with the ever-creative Japanese who have taken school lunches to a whole new level with charaben (character bento) boxes, which feature food that has been artistically styled to resemble people, animals or other objects.

This article is informative and entertaining at once. It gives a new idea to mothers who are struggling to get veggies into their kids. It explains that charaben originally evolved as a creative means of persuading children to eat their sushi, sashimi and vegetables. The images of bento, which used in this article are also pleasant to sight and arouse excitement.

Debbie Elkind, the journalist, also interviewed Christopher Salyers, a New York-based designer and author of Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes to give trend perspective. Salyers says that charaben is becoming more of a sensation. Kids love them because they want to have the 'cool' lunch and parents find them to be a fun challenge while coax their kids into healthier eating. These reasons are driving the trend. He expects to see them on an outlet like Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray very soon.

Australian parents might want to try this innovative idea if they got time..