American Bento?

You're going to notice as we post our lunches/dinners/whatever meal our bento is for the day that I don't really have a lot of the pretty supplies that Colleen does. Rather, mine aren't traditionally "bento." I do actually have a two-tiered, very typically male bento (with the henohenomoheji face even!), but components were lost in the wash by family members and thus it's far from air-tight. That, and since I'm trying to be a little healthier and slim down a little bit, allowing myself a nearly 900-calorie bento meal isn't very helpful.

But then I stumbled upon the most random end-cap at Waldbaums ever (not that I'm complaining):



Now...what does this look like to you? Because to me it looks like a bento set -- complete with box, snack container, and silverware. In fact, it looks like a perfect facsimile of a single-tier, even down to the size. (The Cars container, which was supposed to come with the round bowl and lid you see on the greenish set in back, is about... 5"x7" I want to say. I'll have to take a proper ruler to it to be sure.)

I passed this end-cap every time I got groceries, and I can't seem to keep myself from going at least once or twice a week. It was part in amusement and part in total fascination -- "What's with these American bentos?" I ended up buying a couple of snack containers for Colleen because they ended up being about thirty cents each. Eventually I got myself a sandwich box...which I've so far used for guacamole.

Finally, because Lightning McQueen there kept watching me go, I checked the price, assuming it'd be at least ten bucks. So when it said it was less than two...well come on, I did need a new lunch box.

It just goes to show you that these things can crop up in the strangest, most unexpected places, so keep your eyes open. Granted our friends on the clearance end-caps might not have been popular enough to make it in the mainstream supermarket, but the better for us!