Thinking outside the "bento" box 便當的藝術The Art of Bento(不看會後悔)

之間課堂上教了大家跳脫框架思考這個英文
to think outside of the box
我曾說日本人的便當藝術超級了得，提到莫札特便當時，
眼見當時有些同學聽得一頭霧水
於是重新整理此文，讓便當藝術the art of bento重出江湖啦
這篇文章寫得異常鮮活
我也提供pdf檔案給大家下載
Enjoy!!


便當這個字，我經常聽人說是lunch box
其實lunch box指的是便當盒
不是便當

如果要把盒裝的餐點飯食說成正確英文
記得要說boxed lunch
兩個英文字顛倒
然後稍微修改一下詞性就可以了

有時候覺得當日本媽媽很可憐
因為每天除了要把家裡打掃得一塵不染之外
還要為了寵壞了的孩子做這種便當。
相較之下
美國媽媽就聰明多了
乾脆讓小孩子帶花生醬果醬三明治去上學就好
何必為了把飯糰揉成卡通人物而費心咧?

NPR網站上有一篇文章提到了便當的藝術
我覺得非常有趣
於是整理了一下跟各位分享
順便在網路上找了一些讓大夥兒嘆為觀止的便當藝術
這些圖片讓我這個家事女神domestic goddess都感到寒顏
我自認沒有甚麼特別天份
可是非常喜歡打掃與烹飪
在美國唸書的時候
大多自己開伙
我念國中的時候就會做咖哩餃跟叉燒包了
即便煮個泡麵也能讓人讚不絕口
大家要記得美味泡麵的秘訣在於麵條要用泡的
千萬別煮
麵煮爛掉了就算放松露進去也救不回來......

閱讀這邊文章前
先來觀賞一下美麗且幾近自虐的便當設計

喔喔對不起，上面這張圖不是便當
因為消火栓三個斗大的字露了餡啦
在欣賞便當前
大家要知道
日本是一個熱愛藝術且重視細節幾乎到變態地步的民族
因為就連馬路上的人孔蓋manhole cover
也可以弄得這麼漂亮
沒錯，這跟便當沒有關係
不好意思
我發誓下面的圖片全都是便當...

動物園飯丸大集合。那個海苔拿來作臉部的線條勾勒實在太厲害!

粉紅豬好可愛，我捨不得吃捏...那白色跟綠色的花型裝飾非常高明

請問貓腳是用啥做成的?魚板嗎?

憤怒鳥便當我投它一票，因為有花椰菜跟水果，既可愛又兼顧營養

這個便當不知怎的一直讓我聯想到小熊維尼躺在白色棺材裡
熊的鼻子效果很3D，工法精湛!

電腦的便當創意不錯，可是，怎麼蓋起來啊？水煮蛋拿來當滑鼠非常厲害!

看完了可愛版的便當，下面是藝術版的創意，美麗歸美麗
但是只敢遠觀不敢細嚼。

這樣的便當應該是純創作，因為花椰菜那些根本是生的
當然也沒有調味not seasoned. 還有藍色的米粒，意境非常高，但是
藍色不是一個會刺激食慾的顏色，我看我還是回去吃白色棺材裡面的小熊維尼好了

美輪美奐的便當藝術，味道好不好就不得而知了。

閒雲野鶴飛鳥現秋意，嗯...左上角的一輪明月是蛋黃嗎?

最後一張圖，是我覺得最驚駭的一個設計

上面這個設計
是我心目中的冠軍便當
因為菜色看起來不錯，音樂天才莫札特的臉
請問是怎麼畫出來的?實在是畫得太好了!
請注意莫札特
的白色領口布料處理，顏色、構圖與質感都屬上乘
和我今天的午餐相比
我吃的東西好像是垃圾...
Never mind...
看完圖片後別忘了閱讀下面這篇文章
最後 Bon appetit!(法文的祝你好胃口，可在對方吃飯前說這句話)


下載此文pdf檔案請點我

Thinking Outside The Bento Box

跳脫便當盒來思考
(原文是think outside the box中文譯為跳脫框架思考)

by Michele Kayal

I'm sure you're a very good cook. But if you want to feel bad about yourself, spend five minutes cruising the Internet for photos of bento boxes.

They won't be hard to find. Originally just a convenient boxed lunch放在便當裡的午餐(如果是lunch box則是指飯盒本身，兩者大不同喔) for Japanese field workers, bentos today can be high art, with flower-petal carrots, hard-boiled eggs shaped into bunnies, broccoli sculpted into trees. The moms who make them — because they're mostly moms, and not necessarily Japanese — are eager to share their edible masterpieces可以吃的曠世傑作.

Confession: I have a problem with food that is cute. I even pick the buttons off gingerbread men把薑餅人身上的裝飾用的糖霜釦子給剝掉. I'm also against expending that much effort just to coax哄騙 my kid to eat. (Yes, my daughter thinks I'm "mean.") That said, I truly believe that we eat first with our eyes. And because of that, there is much to learn from the art of the bento.

Bento boxes go back to at least the 5th century A.D., when Japanese field workers, hunters and fishermen would pack dried rice into boxes. Somewhere around the 19th century, makunouchi,幕間，也就是每一幕之間的休息空檔 or "intermission," bentos emerged, packed with side dishes and treats for theatergoers to munch 嘎吱嘎吱地咀嚼(形容津津有味的吃著)between acts. When the railroads arrived, ekiben — station boxes — filled with local specialties became popular. Today, many Japanese men and women carry bentos to work, and schoolchildren tote攜帶 colorful arrangements of checkerboard-carved apples將蘋果的表面用雕刻刀雕成一個棋盤式的圖案 and rice balls shaped like Hello Kitty.

Of course, these Japanese lunches will have Japanese food: rice balls飯丸 (onigiri) stuffed with pickled apricot醃過的杏桃果 or baked cod roe鱈魚肝, deep-fried pork cutlets炸豬排(有沾麵包粉的那種), vegetables simmered燉 in sweet soy sauce. But you don't have to cook Japanese food — or make cute cutouts將食物以特殊形狀的裁切工具來做成不同形狀 — to reap the benefits去享受日本便當藝術的美好感受 of the bento.

Cookbook author and Japan expert Debra Samuels says the five main elements of a bento are color, texture組織, seasonality當季的菜色, presentation擺盤 and nutrition營養 (and let's not forget portion control — how much can you cram into those little compartments這邊指的是便當的小格空間?). She says many Japanese believe that including five colors on your plate — red, yellow, green, white and black — means you have a balanced meal.

Many cultures — including our own — carry lunch in a box. In India, children and workers take tiffins — stacked stainless steel boxes filled with rice or bread, curry and vegetables. Korean dosirak韓文便當盒的翻譯 offer jubilant喜氣洋洋的 heaps of bibimbap韓式的石鍋拌飯 or perhaps sushi-like rolls called kimbap韓式的飯捲，很像日本的海苔捲壽司. Many American parents pack those Buzz Lightyear lunchboxes with organic, whole grain, gluten麥麩-, antibiotic- or trans fat反式脂肪-free foods(這一整句的意思是，美國的父母會給孩子吃的午餐，以下列舉的是非常具有健康意識的父母，會給孩子吃有機的，全麥的，無麥麩的(因為會導致過敏)不含抗生素以及反式脂肪的食物). But all of these lack what are perhaps the most distinctive features of the bento: organization and an appetizing aesthetic視覺與味覺的饗宴(能刺激食慾又具有美感的呈現).

Face it, PB&J (這是peanut butter and Jelly也就是美國小孩子最常吃的午餐，就是花生醬果醬三明治)wrapped in plastic — whether it's organic or not — just isn't that appealing. Maybe that's why my kid-size containers — bought especially for school lunches — still come back half-full of the snap peas, blueberries or tabbouleh非常具有健康意識的沙拉，內涵切碎的小麥番茄與巴西利與薄荷 I put in them. What if you could make that food fun and appetizing, though? Even without the hearts and flowers?

It doesn't have to be complicated. Just think of naturally hand-held foods. A wrap filled with meat and crunchy脆的, colorful vegetables becomes a lunch cone. Slice it sideways, and it's pinwheels風車. Farmers markets, supermarkets and even some big-box stores are filled with gorgeous and delicious kid-size vegetables like mini zucchini and summer squash, fingerling potatoes, clementines橘子的一種, bell-shaped yellow and red cherry tomatoes, slender Persian cucumbers綠色的小黃瓜, tiny sweet peppers, and yellow, orange and purple baby carrots (real ones — not the ones lathed into加工變成 bullets at the factory). Eggs provide easy, affordable, colorful protein — "cheap and cheerful," as a British friend says. You can boil them, turn them into an omelet or an herb-stuffed patty, all of which are delicious cold. Cheese comes in single-serving sticks and rounds個人份的起司(通常都是一條或是一小塊形狀的, with varieties from mozzarella to cheddar and even chevre這些都是常見的起司。Mossarella是白色的馬茲瑞拉起司，通常Pizza上面會灑滿這種，焗烤也會使用。Chedder的顏色是橘色的，漢堡裡面比較常見。Chevre則是國人比較不常見的起司，這是一種白色圓筒狀的山羊起司，味道比較濃郁。.

And then there's the box itself. Like the food, the boxes in Japan can be works of art. Delicate cedar vessels西洋杉木做的容器 and boxes of wicker柳條編織的盒子 and willow evolved from the simple wrapping of bamboo leaves竹葉 and falconers' feed bags獵鷹人餵食老鷹的袋子(上述這些都是比較有創意的便當盒，也說明了便當的演進過程，從早期的木盒、柳條編織的盒子，到用竹葉包裝與餵老鷹的袋子等) that are thought to be among the original bento boxes. The boxes can be slickly lacquered光鮮漂亮的漆器盒子 and painted with scenes. But today, a Japanese office worker is more likely to carry a sleek aluminum container with built-in gel packs 這是現代人便當裡面會放的科技產品，gel packs目的在於保溫或是保冷，我們使用的熱敷與冷敷袋就屬於這種材質做的or vacuum-insulated boxes真空設計的便當盒. For children, there are boxes in the shape of frogs and pandas, boxes decorated with their favorite cartoon figures, even boxes that look like stacked Legos.

Through the miracle of the Internet, many of these items are available online. One company even makes a bento — and that's what they call it — with colorful insert containers. Sleek精緻的, clean, the ultimate green lunch最環保的綠便當.

A little color. Some crisp, beautiful vegetables. Just a few minutes of attention to feeding your eyes before your stomach, and lunch suddenly becomes a whole new experience. Just remember to say itadakimasu!日本人吃飯前說的「那我開動了」