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You've seen those bento that are incredibly detailed, with rice balls sculpted into cartoon characters and such? Well, this homie don't play dat. I work for 8 hours with a 2-hour commute on both ends. Some days it's all I can do to throw pasta 'n' ragu together, so forget about edible masterpieces. This is as artsy as it gets.

Ahem. Um, sorry about the sorta-rant. Really, I think those lunches are nifty, but who has the time? If you're out to impress someone or please your kids, go for it and more power to you. Me, I pack my lunches for taste, not loveliness, and I'm usually reading a book as I eat anyway.

Wow, two digressions before I even get to the lunch box. That's some kind of record, I think. Anyway, clockwise from the upper right we have a steamed pork bun (Made with real pork this time!), steamed broccoli, rice with umeboshi, takuan, and snow peas, and blood orange segments.

One more digression. Takuan are pickled daikon radishes. Daikon are huge, often larger than my forearm. Who needs that much radish, picked or non? I wondered that the last time I was at the market, so, what the heck, I got one so I could try it for myself and find out what the appeal is. Well, try it I did... and I still haven't found out. Maybe it's just because I'm not fond of radish, but... blah. A sliver here or there mixed in with other flavors, fine. But I can't see myself buying another, or even making a dent in that baseball-bat-sized monster in my fridge. If anyone can give me hints as to how to use it, please do!

Wanna talk about it?