You don't have to make Japanese dishes to fill your bento. In fact, some minature versions of traditional British snacks are great in bentos - they almost seem made for them!

Here, I've packed a mini pork pie and Japanese-style potato salad in the top of a two-tier bento box. The pork pie came from Tescos and has pickle inside it - I was a bit wary but it's delicious! A good touch is the poppy seeds on the top, which I guess makes it look a little more Oriental, looking a bit like black sesame seeds.

Japanese potato salad seems to differ from British style mostly because the hot potatoes are mashed in with the mayonnaise. Most English people I know make potato salad with cooked,cold, cubed potatoes which are then dressed with something like a French vinaigrette. But either way, I love potato salad! How do you make yours?

The onigiri here are made with shiso furikake, but instead of rolling the rice balls in it, I mixed it with the hot rice. I reckon it makes a pretty cool purple speckled effect.

And a final note, on the tomatoes - these are mini, mini cherry tomatoes (bought at Sainsbury's), which are called tomberries. They look perfect in a bento because they're just the right size, and they're not too pricey either!

If you're an obsessive bento lover, the kind of person who studies eBay for hours on end to absorb the vast array of bento goodies on sale, or an avid Flickr user, you may well have seen some of Shinzi Katoh's bento boxes.

Shinzi Katoh is a Japanese designer who has created a large range of bento boxes in various shapes and sizes. The above two are a couple I picked up because I wanted an onigiri box (which stores triangular shaped rice balls in the top), but once I had them I began to appreciate the kind of whimsical cuteness that has made Katoh a hugely popular artist and designer.

In fact, Katoh is one artist who is part of a larger design movement known in Japan as 'zakka', which means 'many things'. What this represents is a style of design that is hard to define, but is growing in popularity in the west too - although I don't think we exactly have a name for it here. Described by the International Herald Tribune, zakka is "the art of finding savvy in the mundane" - something which brightens up your day and improves your outlook in life. Think of the last time you looked through a homes and gardens magazine or picked up the lifestyle section of your paper - polkadot prints, handmade baskets, handpainted flower pots, chintzy fabrics - all these things used to be naff and then kitschy, but now they are not only trendy, but they seem to hold a deeper meaning as people try to recapture the comfortable domesticity of the '50s and '60s. Zakka seems to be related quite heavily to homewares, and transforming the everyday into something a bit more special. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but you can see zakka everywhere these days, and you might even have been a fan yourself without even knowing it. (I know Jamie Oliver is, his habit of planting tomato plants in old vegetable cans is even mentioned specifically in the Tribune article as zakka.)

If you want to learn more about Shinzi Katoh, you can visit his site at www.shinzikatoh.com/english. And, for all you UK readers, you can buy Shinzi Katoh products (and bento boxes!) at www.shinzikatoh.co.uk, which is a fantastic little site which has managed to escape my notice for a while. At the moment, the amount of stock they have in is quite limited, but they're ordering in new bento boxes which should be arriving in a few weeks' time.

Next time you prepare your bento lunch in a Shinzi Katoh box, just remember that not only does it look cute and taste great, but you're part of a growing, international Japanese fashion trend, and be sure to mention it in conversation, along with the words 'subtext' and 'domesticity'. I know I will be...

Recently, I haven't been making many bentos, because of various issues like time and a lack of inspiration. But recently, I've rekindled my interest and tried to make my bentos more interesting visually. One part of that is attempting to make the contents cuter, and the other part is trying out various backgrounds instead of good old white.

Of all the bentos I've made recently, this one is probably my favourite. It's cute, but not too cute, and was fairly easy to make. It contains an Indian style potato omelette with spices cooked in with the onion inside, along with onigiri, cheese, tomatoes and a hotdog. I've been wanting to try shaped hotdogs for a while, but it seems like anything other than the classic octopi escapes me at the moment! Anyway, this shows that simply by adding black sesame seeds to hotdogs and tomatoes makes some cool little faces, which would perk up any bento box without going too over the top.

The cloth this is resting on is has a Totoro pattern. I picked it up in Tokyo last year, and I had no idea why I was buying it other than it looked sweet. Luckily for me, it's a great background for bento boxes. Obviously my subconscious knew this all along - I guess that means there's a deeper meaning for the impulse purchase black shoes which don't really fit me, too. Time will tell!

After seeing what a difference the background and cute touches made to this bento, I'm going to make more of an effort to style my photos, and I've already bought a few new backgrounds to see how well they work!

If there's one book I'd really recommend for anyone struggling to create interesting looking and tasting vegetable dishes for their bentos, it's Easy Japanese Pickling by Seiko Ogawa.

Japanese pickles are completely different from the strongly flavoured, long lasting preserved foods we call pickles in the west. Often, Japanese pickles are only lightly pickled, and the most common way of doing this in the book seems to be using a small amount of salt. They don't last as long as the pickles we have here, but if you store them in bags in the fridge, most of these recipes will last a day or so, depending on how delicate they are to begin with.

The good part about this book is that the recipes really feel authentic, and they don't all call for exotic ingredients impossible to buy here. There are a few recipes for things like daikon and lotus root, but you can do a lot of them with supermarket veg like peppers, aubergines, cucumber, potatoes, carrots, spring onions and so on. You will need some specialist storecupboard ingredients like miso paste, mirin, soy sauce, sesame seed oil and sesame seeds, but I've seen these in supermarkets in the UK, so the recipes aren't out of anyone's reach.

The nice thing about making these pickles is that you always have healthy veggie side dishes on hand for your bento, and you'll end up boosting your veggie intake. Plus, you can eat them alongside your dinner, as well. And, they really are quick and easy to make.

Just to give you an idea of the recipes in there, so far I've tried include salt-sesame peppers (would be lovely as a picnic or salad dish), spicy soy sauce cucumbers, sesame vinegar aubergine, miso saute carrots and spicy soy broccoli. I would definitely make these all again, because they were all lovely. I'm also a big fan of the mayonnaise shrimp recipe in there as well - delicious!

This week, the Japan Centre was kind enough to send through all manner of bento accessories for a feature for the magazine I write for. All of them are Daiso products, and all are priced £1.49 online - although for some reason the prices in store are sometimes different. You might be able to find a few of these cheaper online, but to be honest, I've been scalped on a few of these before - especially egg moulds! I've bought a couple exactly the same from eBay for about a fiver (around $10) from Hong Kong. I guess the moral of the story is... don't trust eBay for bargains when it comes to bentos - but I think we all already knew that anyway. 

The accessories pictured that are available from the Japan Centre are: Star and heart egg mould (pair), sakura and heart onigiri paddles (pair), bento triangular corner cups (25), deco vegetable baran (24 sheets), Ciao! Farm plastic cups (4), Deco tulip baran (24 sheets), bear cookie and rice mould, artificial sushi grass (200 sheets), Ciao! Farm dressing bottles (6), Ciao! Farm furikake bottles (2), lunchbox belt, Friends of the forest bento picks (10) and Friends of the sea bento picks (10). At the moment, they should all be in stock at the Japan Centre online at www.japancentre.com  at £1.49 each.

Please note that the boxes shown here (except the top two) are from J-List . The triangular topped bento box in the top left is for onigiri, and was bought on eBay, and the white bento on the right is a Daiso one, also from the Japan Centre. At the moment, their Daiso bento boxes (including the Lube Sheep range, which I've seen at J-List) are going for £2.50. It seems so cheap compared to the prices I've paid in the past for the same ones! Of course, you have to factor in the postage, which is £4.95 for the UK, but very very expensive for the States. The good thing about the Japan Centre is that they also sell Japanese groceries, and have an enormous range of foods. You can do your bento supply shopping at the same time and it would work out quite reasonably. Plus, they don't charge by weight either - hence my purchases of 20kg bags of rice every now and then!

There's been an exciting development this year for bento fans in the UK, when the Japan Centre in London announced a collaboration with Daiso, a Japanese 100 yen shop that specialises in high quality, low price products. I've been to Daiso stores in Japan and they are fantastic - full of everything from stationary to kitchenware. Obviously, it's the kitchen stuff I'm most interested in, so I was pleased to hear Daiso products were on there way to the UK

The Japan Centre had previously carried Daiso products, but this new affiliation and refit of their flagship store means that they have more room for more lines. Unfortunately, the Japan Centre pays for the shipping of the products to the UK, which means they take a long time to get here, and that cost is then transferred to the customer. Most Daiso products in the Japan Centre are a lot more expensive than they would be in Japan, but hopefully prices can be lowered eventually if the idea becomes more popular.

I've been in touch with the Japan Centre over their bento ranges, and they've been ordering like mad to get products in. I've been told this week that they have a shipment arriving in two or three months which will include more bento boxes, salad dressing bottles, picks with animal and sea themes (sounds like the ones at J-List), mayonnaise cases, onigiri moulds, bento belts - basically all the cool stuff that we've been longing to buy in the shops in the UK, but previously could only get online after a long wait for delivery from the US or Japan. I've also checked out their site at www.japancentre.com and seen that they offer this online too, so when you're picking up some groceries you can also get bento boxes, foil cups, etc. Here's the direct link: http://www.japancentre.com/?cmd=cat&cid=522&refer=cat

Great news for bento lovers in the UK, especially considering that the end is nigh for Oriental City - previously the only place to purchase bento supplies, and soon to be demolished and possibly relocated.

I said I've been brewing a recipe for Christmas gyozas, and I've finally come up with a recipe that I'm really pleased with. It was inspired by the filling of a Christmas turkey club sandwich I had in Starbucks, and I thought - now why can't you put that in a gyoza? 

This is the Christmas bento box I came up with, based around the caramelised onion, stuffing and turkey gyozas. I've also included star shaped onigiri, a pig in blanket, stuffing ball and a side dish with mince pies and biscuits. Really tasty!

Here is my dumpling recipe for the special festive gyozas:

Small box sage and onion stuffing

2 medium onions

40g butter

1 tsp sugar

Pinch salt

Olive oil

150g raw turkey breast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp soy sauce

Mix up your sage and onion stuffing - you need to keep 70g of it for the gyozas and the rest can be made into stuffing balls.

Finely chop your onions, then cook on a very low heat with the butter and sugar until they go a golden brown. This could take an hour or more, but you don't have to stand over it and stir it the whole time, thankfully! I added 1 tbsp of sugar to my onions, and I really liked it but other people said it was a bit sweet. I say, experiment and see what you like.

Shred the turkey breast with a knife so you end up with meat that's finely cut but has a bit more texture than mince (and is leaner).

Once you've done that, mix the caramelised onion, the raw turkey breast, 70g of stuffing and the salt and soy sauce together, and voila, you have gyoza stuffing! Now all you have to do is full your dumpling skins and cook your gyozas for your bento.

I've had my eye on J-List's calendar selection for a while now - the obvious thing that caught my eye was the 'Joy of Bento' calendar, which is one of a couple of food related items there to help you mark the days:

Moving into my own place, I've had to give myself a tight budget for food, which means that I've been trawling through recipe books especially for students and the like. One of my favourite cheap dishes is definitely Spanish omelette, or tortilla de patatas. I'm going to post my recipe on the site soon, as this dish is fantastic the next day in your bento box.

I recently had a huge haul from JBox delivered to my house, full of tasty treats and stuff to put in my bento boxes. Half of it hasn't arrived yet, but all the edible stuff has (and has since depleted somewhat...). I weeded out the bento specific stuff to post a picture for my blog.

It seems like it's been months since I last updated here (no surprise there, it has been months!), so here's a non bento-related post just to fill the gaping void. I've not had the chance to make bentos recently - moving house, having a few family-related traumas and having a drastically reduced food budget (thanks, mortgage) is not a great incentive for bento making - and I've not even had a good camera knocking about the house to take any pictures. Still, enough of the woe, onto the good stuff.

I was recently lucky enough to get sent through an okonomiyaki set by Yakibox.com to road test for the magazine I work on - I've had okonomiyaki in Tokyo and London, so was really keen to see if I could recreate the delicious dish at home. Using the Yakibox kit was great as it contained everything you needed for the Japanese pancakes except the fresh ingredients - everything you see above except the ingredients on the white plate was included in the kit. Even the wooden spoon and metal mixing bowl came with it, plus the sturdy cooking plate (which I've also used to make yakisoba).

If you've never had okonomiyaki you should definitely give it a go. Above you can see on the top right the batter mix - flour, water, cornflour, tenkatsu (tempura drips), cabbage, spring onion and egg. You basically fry this on the hotplate, add a topping (you can see ours below the silver bowl there - bacon, chicken and pork) and then smother it with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes and ao nori. 

I'm thinking of expanding the recipe section here for Japanese recipes you can have for dinner, as I don't just cook Japanese food for my bento boxes, and some (like chicken katsu curry) you just can't put into a bento unless you're going to reheat it. Whether or not I actually ever get around to this will entirely depend on how much energy I have over the next few months! 

Everyone knows the best thing about anything is the accessories. Whether you're buying gadgets to adorn your desk at work or shoes and a bag for a new outfit, accessories are always the most exciting bit. And sometimes they can spiral into obsession, of course - speaking as someone who has managed to get obsessed with plastic picks and sushi grass. The trouble with bento accessories, especially if you're a UK-bound bento obsessive, is that importing them can be pricey, plus not all of them are reusable.

Here are some of the bento cups I use regularly. On the left at the top are some really cute oval bento cups I bought in Japan. The trouble is when you use them, you never get to see the pattern inside, so I laid them all out and took a picture for posterity - which is on the left. You can also make out larger pink Hello Kitty bento cups in front. If you ever buy these from eBay or something, bear in mind they're from Daiso, which means they cost about 40p in Japan. Don't get cheated into paying a heap for them!

Oval bento cups are probably the shape I use the most, after the large plain white muffin cups at the bottom - more on those later. Unfortunately, oval is also the shape that's the trickiest to get your hands on as you definitely need purpose-made bento cups: oval cupcakes are fairly unusual! Like most bento cups, these are paper with a form of wax or plastic coating which stops food from leaking out - as long as you're not trying to fill it with soup or something. (Like you'd do such a thing...)

The foil containers in the top left were bought at Toko Lifestyle in Oriental City, Colindale, London. They came in several shapes; oval, square and round. Obviously I was obliged to buy all three - but they weren't cheap - around £1.75 per packet. The idea with these foil cups is that they won't catch on fire should you want to pop something in there and grill it. In Naomi Kijima's Bento Boxes book there's a recipe for a toasted broiled egg - that was the plan for these, but they are so flimsy I think they'd collapse under the weight of an egg. I'll report back if I'm ever brave enough to try it!

In the top right and bottom left of the picture you can see silicone cups - these are usually used for baking with, but are hugely handy for us British bentoers because they are reusable. The larger cups are sometimes too tall to fit in the bento, but I've heard you can cut them down to size with no problems. Being a bit of a snobby purist, I was initially reluctant to try these silicone cups, as I thought they weren't really 'authentic', but in Japan I saw plenty of these cups on sale specifically for use in the bento, so there you go!

Another set of reusable cups are pictured here too, the triangular, heart and square shaped plastic cups are fab and can squeeze in to tiny spaces. You can also add liquidy stuff in here too, which is helpful, and if you're worried about juices leaking and staining your bento I'd definitely recommend them (I used mine for the hijiki seaweed recipe as I didn't fancy black stains everywhere - although it didn't seem to stain in the end anyway...) The downside with these is of course that they can't be squashed to fit the available space like paper or silicone cups.

Finally, the cupcake cups. You can pick these up from most large supermarkets in the UK, and if you're starting out making bentos and still waiting for all your lovely goodies to arrive, use these! I've got a range of sizes, muffin, cupcakes and mini cupcakes, all of them are useful for something. I've used the tiny foil backed ones to store mayonnaise - as long as you don't shake everything around they're pretty good. Plus, you can use as many as you like and never feel guilty over the cost! Downside - not as cute as Japanese ones, but I can live with that when the Japanese ones cost £2.50 a packet from eBay...

The cool mosaic image was created by fd's Flickr Toys.

I keep meaning to update the blog with my trip to Colindale - I took a load of pictures in Oriental City especially for the blog, but I've still not managed to get them on the right computer... Oh well. In the meantime, here are some beautiful sakura treats I bought in the supermarket there. They were pretty pricey, but they are so delicious, plus individually wrapped, so you can add them to the bento box no problem.

The outside is like a chewy pavlova kind of case, and inside is a sweet filling. The wrapping is so sweet, and I love sakura blossoms too!

I also have to mention a great Japanese cooking blog that Lalalady (from the Bento Group on Flickr) pointed me towards. Oyamake not only contains recipes, but there are several videos too, and some of the recipes could easily be used for bentos!

Scattered sushi is an awesome summertime treat. Actually, now I come to think of it, you can enjoy it any time of the year, but the fresh, raw vegetables you can chuck over the top are great to cool you down. (Plus this time of year there are plenty of veggies in season!) Also, the vinegar in the rice helps to preserve it and keep it fresh in the heat.

This is the lunch I had which incorporated scattered sushi, and it was damn tasty! On the left is the sushi rice covered with mangetout, vine tomatoes and toasted sesame seeds, and on the right there's teriyaki chicken, edamame beans and soy sauce eggs. Also above is a cupcake I made in honour of my OH's birthday, which, completely by accident, manages to balance the colours in the bento and make it look even cuter.

If you're interested in making some scattered sushi dishes, there are some great ideas in the book Sushi: Taste and Technique by Kimiko Barber, which is where I got the mangetout and tomatoes idea.

Bento dividers are really cute, but I don't use them as often as I want to. Either I forget to use them or I use side dish containers instead - easier for containing foods with liquids and preventing stains.

These are some of my favourite dividers, which I bought in Tokyo - I especially like the lucky cats! They're easy to fit into the bento too because they're not really long and they can fit in small spaces.

I also bought these in Tokyo too - I don't think I've ever used these at all, but they are definitely the cutest ones I own. And they remind me I want to make some hotdog octopi for my bento sometime soon, too - except I've not found any mini hotdogs yet!

In other news, after taking part in a discussion on Flickr I counted my bento boxes and realised I have about fourteen... But after further contemplation, it became obvious to me that they are all pretty much the same shape, and after being inspired by the fantastic Chiisai_Bara and her use of her onigiri bento box as a sandwich holder, I couldn't help but consider buying some more... I don't have any ones for onigiri, you see. (You see how the troubled addict justifies her latest fix.) 

If I haven't said it before I'd like to take the opportunity to say so now - I love the fact that you can purchase Japanese language books on bento boxes from J-List  and J-Box (basically the same site, except J-List carries more *ahem* adult-orientated products). So far I've picked up a couple and my favorite so far is one on train station bentos - but that's another post. For now, I'm talking about this offering in particular:

I know bento art is hugely popular and that bento artists have made some truly amazing creations, but... I just don't like most of them. There's not much about bentos I don't like, but bento art really doesn't do it for me. I'm not sure when my love of cute things and cleverness with food turns into a dislike of this hugely creative aspect of bentos, but show me a cute egg flower and I'll like it; show me a picture of the Mona Lisa made of ham and seaweed and I'll probably be unenamoured. There are countless of bento art pictures on the net, and some of them are cute and cool, but most of them are actually fairly freaky. Perhaps it's because so many of them are based on people - call me weird, but eating an anime character's head just doesn't fill me with excitement. (I'm pretty much the same with things like novelty cakes.)

Hello Kitty bentos I can cope with, but mostly I just like it when food looks like food. Even if it's a moulded egg in the shape of an onigiri...

As soon as I saw this book on J-Box, I had to order it, and it arrived yesterday. It's completely in Japanese, but it's full of great pictures of authentic Japanese bento boxes, and has some great ideas for presentation, arrangements and things to include. I'm a sucker for stuff like this, so I've devoured it from cover to cover already - I just wish I knew what it said! Anyway, it's a great purchase, and the most interesting thing I found about it was the fact that each person who submitted a bento had a different kind of box - not all of them what we would call traditional boxes. Tupperware, foil, takeout boxes... all different kinds of things were used, so anyone who doesn't have a proper Japanese bento box shouldn't worry about not being 'authentic'!

I hope to include a book review section in the site at some point which can be used as a reference for anyone who wants to build a collection of bento books!

One of my favourite types of bento is a simple minced meat and egg bento, which can be prepared in a single tier bento box. Traditionally, you simmer the mince with soy sauce and a sweetener such as mirin or sugar. (I use both!) You can also prepare greens to with it, but at its simplest you can prepare the minced meat, lay it on top of the rice, and add a boiled egg which is eaten along with it. The soft and mild taste of the egg contrasts well with the harder texture and sweet/savoury flavour of the mince. With the addition of the greens, you get another, fresh dimension to the flavours.

I've been experimenting with different ways of presenting and serving this dish, and today I decided to prepare it with chopped boiled egg instead of the usual scrambled eggs with sugar and soy sauce. I wanted more of a contrast in texture and flavour, so I allowed the egg to go unflavoured. Plus, you can use left over boiled eggs if you have any.

Here is the bento I made - minced pork at the top, a nest of sliced boiled mange tout in the middle with a cherry tomato in the middle, and chopped egg at the bottom. Underneath this is the rice. I find that laying ingredients on the top of your rice is a great way of keeping it fresh and moist if you want to prepare your bento the day before.

A tip for preparing boiled vegetables with your bento - drain your veggies straight away, and then rinse well in very cold water. If you can, sit them in iced water before you add them to your bento, this will help them to retain their colour.

A note about the bento box - this cute one tier box was bought from J-box . They do a couple of different kinds, I also have the Animal Crossing one for my OH. It might seem as though they aren't big enough to hold a whole meal, but if you lay your ingredients across the top like this then they're definitely adequate!

This bento consists of a lot of leftovers from Thursday's marathon cooking session, and the only things specially prepared were the rolled egg omelette and the rice cooker recipe for green beans and rice.

Top tier, clockwise, we have rolled omelette, green beans and mince, tomatoes, tea marbled eggs, dipping sauce in a soy sauce bottle and a gyoza. Bottom tier, we have some balsamic chicken hiding in the corner, then some green peas and rice, then simmered green beans.

I'll also upload the simmered green bean recipe too, which is from Bento Boxes by Naomi Kijima. It's also fairly easy and very delicious, especially if you like sweet dishes flavoured with bonito stock.

My first post on my new blog! I hope I can keep updating this with relevant bento stuff, and post bento meals that I've been making at home.

A note about the bento equipment - the orange box and belt are from Daiso (I think - I bought these on eBay), and the cute penguin pick is from J-Box .

In other news, I noticed today that J-Box have added a whole load of new bento boxes, some of which I've seen before, and some of which seem to be new stock. Particularly cute are the whole range of little sakura boxes, but sadly as I just made a huge order from them, I can't justify any more! This is the new bento box I've not seen before:

Very sweet! Thinking back to my collection, I don't have any rectangular two tier boxes. Or, ones with patterns on them. Hmm...

Also, this weekend I'll be making some updates to the site, including a post about Oriental City in Colindale, which is a great place to check out for bento supplies. I also want to add a section to the website about different kinds of bentos, as well as upload a slew of new recipes I've been working on this week. Eventually, I plan to include a recipe book review section too, but I think that's going to be a long way off. I do own plenty of Japanese recipe books, so it'll take me a while to get through them all!