Bento Supplies

One does not need anything special to start making bento lunches. However, there are many utensils that could be considered staples to have in one's bento toolbox for taking it to the next level of intoxicating cuteness, elegance, and especially fun!

Bottles

Bottles for sauces are a great addition. Putting salad dressings, soy sauces, vinegars etc in bottles keeps the food stuffs in the bento crisp throughout the day and they are a cute addition especially in keeping themes for charaben!

I love these bottles because they have adorable animal shapes and little spouts that let one pour out just the right amount of sauce. They usually are very small and fit in the palm of the hand so they don't take up too much room in the bento box

Utilitarian bottles

These bottles are more ketchup and mustard style which is great for sandwich bento. These bottles are a little bit bigger but really go the extra mile when you need that condiment fix. I'm a hot sauce fiend and these are my bottles of choice when I am making a bento for a full day of meals in one of my 2 or 3 tiered boxes.

Animal shaped bottles

These bottles are sooo cute! They are made in several different animal shapes including the most popular for soy sauce: fishies! They are very tiny and only hold about a teaspoon of liquid.

Cutters

Cookie/ vegetable cutters add wonderful flourishes and polished details.

Nori and other food punchers

Silly faces are a wonderful treat to see when a child (or big kid like me!) opens a bento. The love and detail in such a simple addition makes even raw broccoli irresistible!

Shapes

Shaped nori cutters are just as fun and add a great backdrop or outline to veggies.

More faces

Great faces to add to the variety!

Cups

I love using silicone cups to separate foods. The silicone ones are much more environmentally friendly because they are reusable. They come in just about every shape and size you can imagine Jumbo to mini!

Square cups

These are great to fill those hard to reach corners

Hearts

Hearts are one of my favorite kind of cup.

Sauce containers

Sauce containers are great like the other bottles because they keep foods from getting soggy and allow the liberty of adding as much or as little sauce as you want. Some containers have little serving spoons while others do not.

Furitake

I honestly don't use Furitake all that often though it is a staple of many traditional Japanese style bentos. These containers give just the right amount for that seaweedy goodness!