The post-pandemic delivery culture loves nothing more than a curatable, well-stacked meal that saves time, effort and money. And nothing does that better than a bento box. In the last few years, this efficient Japanese pre-portioned serving technique has become quite a cultural phenomenon, on Tik Tok, meal-prepping routines and in Studio Ghibli films. Bento boxes are usually packable boxes made of plastic or wood that are compartmentalised for serving several courses together. This makes portion control easier and helps people assemble a balanced meal.
Kolkata woke up to this trend a few years ago, and in the past year, bento meals have grown popular as they offer a way to have a course-based meal at home without having to step out or spend too much. Park Street’s new all-day Asian diner Octa briefly featured travel-friendly bento boxes when they launched early this year and independent kitchens like Girish Park-based Bring Your Bento started offering a series of bento options, November onwards.
Authentic Japanese hotspots like Ajisai, Haka, Pa Pa Ya have offered bento options from the get-go. But many other Kolkata eateries were able to adopt the bento to fit their menu. Popular resto-bar Hoppipola offers casual dining combos in bento boxes as part of their delivery menu, while Camac Street gastro bar, What’s In D Name, offers an Indian bento box that lines up a serving of kebab, along with a gravy entree, Indian bread and dessert.
“We sell the most bento boxes during the lunch rush, though it’s a part of our all-day menu. We also serve a classic Asian bento box that has raw papaya salad, Korean babycorn, a serving of noodles, red/green Thai curry and a brownie. The non-vegetarian box has a chicken nam prik pao,” says Angad Walia of What’s in D Name.
Royal China’s bento box
“Bento meals are essentially combination meals, which is why they sell so well during lunch hour. We only offer it only for dine-in, Monday to Friday till 4pm,” says Pa Pa Ya’s Sania Sheikh. Premium eateries like Royal China and The Park’s Asian fine diner Zen are using the bento styling to serve delivery-friendly sushi boxes that are ideal for business lunches and a good way to experience high-end sushi without burning a hole in your pocket (Royal China’s sushi bento has six pieces of sushi and start from Rs. 395, while Zen’s sushi box has 12 pieces at Rs. 2,000).
“We just introduced bento boxes in our delivery menu a couple of weeks back, they are available from 12pm to 5pm. They’re already quite popular, we get around 35-40 orders per week, most of them are for lunch-time deliveries,” says Abhismita Bhattacharjee of Royal China.
Bento cakes
The bento baking trend too has taken off as petite, modest-sized cakes (also known as lunchbox cakes) are a big hit at mini soirees, where hosts prefer a variety of flavours rather than one full-sized cake. A set of three bento box cakes (each weighing 350-400 grams) is great for a gathering of 12-15 people. They’re also a lot easier to customise and transport, making the ideal party favours.
“Most people just want something cute that’s also smaller. They usually go for chocolate because they want the colour profile that only comes from buttercream, so chocolate truffle with a butter frosting sells the most from my menu. All the cakes from my menu are available in bento format,” shares Priyanka Nahata, who runs the Kolkata-based home bakery The Baking Girl.
Khadeeja Banu, who runs The Brownie Factory, started making bento cakes after multiple customer requests. “My label specialises in brownies. I only started making bento cakes three months ago. At the moment, customers prefer smaller, cheaper versions of full-sized cakes. I recently got an order for five bento cakes for one occasion, so my customers usually prefer a sense of variety and bento cakes are also quite economical. My bento cakes weigh around 300 grams and can cost you around Rs. 350-400,” shares the baker.
DIY alert: Bento boxes are readily available online and you can use them to plan your meals for the day or even set up a bento party!