That got me craving that efficiently packed, comfort food in a box, which is more typically made by moms for their elementary-school kids to take to school.
So I decided to try a takeout bento place I'd spotted in Costa Mesa, a couple of doors down from Ango-tei, near Mitsuwa Marketplace (natch!).
The clever name, Bentoss, caught my eye, but I was skeptical about how good the food would be.
Positive J signs as I walked into the small, bright shop: samples of the many bento options in an enclosed glass case; notices and posters in Japanese; a perky female clerk who spoke English with a marked Japanese accent (trouble with the Rs).
Another very J touch: advisory notes (written in English) posted throughout the bento display case, recommending that the food be consumed within 2 hours of purchase.
There are a couple dozen types of bento boxes to choose from, ranging in style from the traditional makunouchi of broiled fish, rice, pickled and stewed vegetables, to more "Western-style" bentos with a hamburger patty served on fried rice, or pork katsu with curry.
Prices range from $5 for a simple chicken bento (more like a better version of a food-court chicken bowl), to $15 for the Bentoss Special Makunouchi, offering rice, beef, pork, fried shrimp, broiled salmon, egg omelette and stewed veggies.
I ordered a classic Japanese bento: the Wafu Makunouchi, $8.95 - a pared-down version of the Bentoss Special.
Here's what I got ...
First, the packaging: very colorful, very Japanese, complete with slightly awkward English greeting on top:
"A handmade and fresh meal. Healthy and Safety. Have a lunch today with Bentoss."
I peeled off the Bentoss sticker securing the cardboard box flap and inside found the food and some thoughtful engineering: chopsticks, napkin and soy sauce packet tucked in a protective plastic pocket on the lid:
As for the food...
Starting at the left side of the box: The requisite rice was topped with a big, puckery-sour (yay!) umeboshi pickled plum and a nicely broiled piece of salmon, seasoned simply, as it should be, with a bit of salt. I definitely enjoyed this part of the bento the most.
In the center of the box, clockwise from upper left: niku-jaga (potato, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and potato noodles stewed with small pieces of beef); potato salad with cherry tomato; kinpira gobo (slivers of root vegetables cooked with soy sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds); pickled cucumber; a piece of tempura shrimp and a piece of tempura kabocha pumpkin; one kara-age chicken nugget (the J version of fried chicken, with the bird marinated in soy sauce before frying); one piece of tamago (slightly sweet omelette).I gobbled the tempura pieces down. Even without a dipping sauce, they were both tasty, and yes, best eaten immediately so they don't get soggy.
The kara-age chicken is also a traditional favorite for everyone; how can you not enjoy flavorful fried chicken?
The egg was fluffy and slightly, not strongly, sweet - perfect.
A good niku-jaga is such a Japanese home-cooking classic; this one was pretty good, though the flavors were on the thin side.
I love Japanese potato salad so much more than the runny, bad-tasting American deli salads; the J version is lighter, drier in consistency and refreshing, studded with cucumber slices.
I'm also typically a pickled cucumber fanatic, but the Bentoss version was just OK - crunchy and tart enough, but there was a slight chemical aftertaste.
A chemical aftertaste was just one reason I was completely disappointed with the kinpira gobo, usually my favorite homestyle dish. The dish clearly hadn't been cooked long enough with the right ingredients; it was strangely bland, finishing with the weird aftertaste.
The worst kinpira gobo I've ever had (at left below, with the pickled cucumber at right); I couldn't even finish it:
I also bought one onigiri rice ball (one with flavored seaweed tucked inside) to snack on later:
It's wrapped in that ingenious onigiri packaging that you see at all the fast-food places in Japan that sell onigiri (food stands and the ubiquitous "konbini" convenience stores): the outer seaweed is covered in plastic and then wrapped around the rice ball, to keep the nori separate from the rice and prevent a sticky mass while in transit.When you're ready to eat it, you unwrap the outer plastic, remove the seaweed and wrap it around the rice ball, like so:
Mmmmmmm ... such a satisfying comfort snack, one that always takes me back to my early days of elementary school, when I wasn't self-conscious yet about being the only kid at lunch with a strange rice ball to eat, amid a sea of peanut butter-jelly and bologna sandwiches.Bentoss
675 Paularino Ave. #3
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-444-3401
and
1620 W. Redondo Beach Blvd.
(Inside Marukai Pacific Market)
Gardena, CA 90247
310-329-1165
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