office.bento

Eating is necessary. Might as well do it well.

[officebento]

Rice, gyoza, snap pea and edamame salad (recipe here).

[officebento]

Grapes, barbecue chicken, parmesan roasted potatoes.

[officebento]

Grapes, broccoli and tomato salad, Moroccan chicken and lentil stew with rice.

[officebento]

White rice, kimchi, bulgogi beef, grilled cauliflower, cucumber and carrot salad.

[officebento]

Yakisoba

It's only instant noodles, but needs must.

It's a miracle how a sad, forgotten onion

and slivers of napa cabbage wilting in the fridge

transform in the heat of the pan

with a few slices of sausage

bursting with fat.

The glossy, curly noodles clump together

as one tangled mess at the end of my chopsticks

so I urge them to cascade back down

to my plate

and scoop of veggies alongside.

I know what it's supposed to taste like

and this isn't it,

but my belly is warm and

it's only just April and

I will have time to do it properly later.

[officebento]

Fresh pineapple, garlic green beans, slow-cooked ginger pork, white rice.

[officebento]

Not the prettiest bento but still tasty! Leftover pot roast beef, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes with homemade bread.

[officebento]

A prayer over lasagna

Thank you to the field workers

who grew the tomatoes and onions and garlic

the factory workers who made the sauce

and bottled it

and the semi drivers who drove it to the store

and the workers who stocked the shelves

with gleaming red glass jars all in a row.

Thank you to the farmers

who grew and milled the wheat

for the flour

and grew and pressed the olives into oil

for my noodles.

Thank you to the farmers

who milked the cows

(I hope they grazed in tenderest care)

and the workers who made the cheese

and packaged the cheese

and shipped the cheese

and stocked the cheese

the multiple layers and layers of it.

Thank you to the farmers

who raised the chickens

and thank you to the chickens

who gave their lives

for my Italian sausage links

and thank you to the butchers

who probably have a hard job.

Thank you to the red pepper growers

the red pepper pickers

the red pepper drivers

the red pepper stockers

I try to keep you in my heart

as I select just one from a towering pile

at the supermarket.

Thank you to the power plant workers

who keep my oven on

The glass workers

who made my casserole dish

The laborers around the world

who I forget to thank at any given meal

because self-reliance is a myth.

[officebento]

Grapes, white rice with sesame seeds, Japanese curry

[officebento]

White rice, tofu and veg stir fry, grapes.

[officebento]

Artichoke

Once it's simmered in the pot

with lemon and garlic and salt

(and I have to look up online

how many minutes to steam it)

I melt butter in a small dish

until it's silky smooth.

The taste of the first leaf

is so comforting. It's like

butter, but what else?

Deep earth and green, and...?

Mostly butter.

I pile up a tower of spent leaves

bearing the grooves of my teeth,

and the melted butter dwindles

until there's just enough left

to coat the creamy heart,

divided into quarters

and savored one bite at a time.

As a child, an artichoke in my home

fed five or six of us

crowded around the metal pot,

taking turns dipping spiny leaves

into the pool of butter.

My aunt once told me

in her first year away at college

she splurged on a whole artichoke for herself,

excited not to share for the first time in her life

but she couldn't finish the whole thing.

Not me.

[officebento]

Mindful eating is good for you,

my book on the Buddha says.

I don't like sitting in the quiet with

only my thoughts but I

agree to give it a try and

notice the perfectly round

bubbles of oil floating in my broth,

the gentle curl of the noodles

that I pressed between my palms

"like you would compress a snow ball,"

the recipe said.

I'm getting better at slurping out loud,

once an ability I coveted

because a Japanese woman told me

the sound itself makes the noodles

taste more delicious.

I search the bottom of the bowl

for the last shreds of beef and onion

with my cheap plastic spoon

panning for gold in the pool of broth

cooling now

but still swirling with bits and

bubbles of fat catching the light.

That's how you know it's good, I say.

[officebento]

Steamed asparagus with feta, green grapes, vegetable curry, rice.

[officebento]

Green salad with sesame dressing, brown rice, cabbage and turnip greens, shredded beef.

[officebento]

My husband packed up dinner leftovers last night into this tupperware, and I just left as is for my lunch bento. Steamed veggies, white rice, and hamburg with sauce.

[officebento]

White rice, roasted veggies and sausage, blueberries

[officebento]

Pork and tofu stir fry, pomegranate, and white rice