I get childishly excited whenever I’m at a Japanse restaurant where a Bento Box is a prominent menu option. It’s just such a convenient way to enjoy a few of my favorite dishes from the Japanese kitchen.

At some point in my earliest school years at Rosewood Avenue Elementary, near Melrose Place, I remember having a blue, metal Charlie Brown or Snoopy lunchbox. Once you flicked up the two flimsy fasteners and opened the round lid, the box’s innards had two dividers which created three separate compartments. One was probably used for either peanut butter and jelly or a baloney and mustard sandwiches. The second might of contained fruit or a Ding Dong and the third possibly a can of some kind, like Welch’s Grape Juice – a super sugary lunchtime beverage favorite with probably zero real grape juice in it.