I try to be a good wife, but hey, don’t take my word for it. Just look at my bento.
It was 8am when I heard the front door click shut. Here comes the countdown: T minus three hours to make my husband the ultimate aisai bento. That’s Japanese for “love wife lunchbox,” and its laborious assembly has been a time-honored tradition for blushing newlywed wives throughout Japan. In a culture where things are often left unspoken and messages are conveyed through subtle acts, nothing says those three words as sweetly as rice balls in the shape of hearts.
“Yawwwn...” Man, I wasn’t attacking this romantic mission as enthusiastically as I’d hope. But alas, it was my wedding anniversary—an occasion that was nonexistent a mere two years ago and has since become the pass code and pin number for everything in my life.
Still, I always get nervous during these preordained moments of celebration when the whole world expects you to be head-over-heels in joy. Emails started popping up in Inbox last night with bolded “Happy Anniversary” subject headings. I had anticipated them the week before as I was secretly gathering my arsenal of stackable plastic boxes, aluminum cups, and colorful paper doilies throughout the week.
The final product was a masterpiece—landscape on white rice, with green avocados layered to simulate grass, and a ruby red half-slice of tomato for the setting sun. I pressed out X and O shapes from sharp cheddar to dot the romaine. I seared black pepper-crusted sirloin, which I then cut into medallions and arranged into a rose. Next to it, I piped a small heart with my squeeze bottle filled with homemade béarnaise sauce. I even cut a hardboiled egg into two, and fashioned faces on them with black sesame seeds as eyes. On one half of the egg, I gently laid a piece of squid ink bowtie pasta at the bottom to create the “boy-egg”, and stuck a carrot flower on the other half for the “girl-egg”. If Cupid and Hello Kitty had a love child, this bento would be said kid.
“Surprise! I’m coming up to hand deliver you your aisai bento.” I declared over the phone at the bottom of his office building.