My Bento Cookbook - BENTO DELIGHTS

45 comments
Yup, you've read that correctly, my very first and my very own bento cookbook :-)! After months of hard work, it's finally done! This was also one of the reasons why I had been in an on-and-off again relationship with my blog the last couple of months. So, let me introduce you to my new little baby: Bento Delights - adorable + stylish lunches on the go. You even get to know my name too :). Hello, my name is Syntia, even though so far I have only been known as CG virtually. After knowing my name, I don't appear that mysterious distant anymore right ;)??

I'd thought about writing a bento book since mid 2011. Numerous people (blog readers, Facebook followers, etc) have contacted me via e-mail or Facebook messages, and inquired if I would publish a bento book in the near future, since they'd love to have one. I told them that it was something that I would think about and would try to fit into my schedule. However, due to professional commitment, I was regularly short on time and I just never had the chance to work on this project until a few months ago. But now, I've kept my promise and I hope this book would be helpful for everyone who wants to embark on a journey of bento-making or is just curious about it :)!

If you wish to know more about this book, read on, but be warned, this will be a quite long post!


Bento Delights is a 118 pages full-colour paperback (8.5 x 11 inches). It contains 31 bento menus and 100 recipes. The book is divided into 2 main sections: Character Bento (Charaben) and Traditional Bento. But, you will also find other information related to bento, such as Bento Basics, Tools & Accessories, Bento Helpers, etc. Please find below the complete list of Contents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Bento Basics
Bento Boxes + Tools + Accessories
Character Bento
Traditional Bento
Additional Recipes
rice
pickles + salads
stir-fries + other favourites
tamagoyaki
Further Tips + Tricks
onigiri
colouring rice
bento helpers
idea list for a colourful bento box
pretty bento accents
Resource Guide
Glossary
Afterword

Keep scrolling to get a sneak peek of my book.









WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS BOOK
  • 16 Charaben menus including step-by-step photographs
  • 15 Traditional Bento menus and each features a full-colour photo of the final bento
  • 100 recipes (Focus: Modern Asian - especially Japanese, Chinese & Korean)
  • Other bento related information.
PLEASE NOTE
  • Even though half of the book features cute bento ideas, this book was not written with the aim to give parents fun lunch ideas for kids who are picky eaters. A lot of the recipes are more geared towards older audience who are into bento, Japanese cusine or modern Asian foods in general.
  • Out of the 31 bento menus, 5 have been previously featured in this blog (even though I just briefly talked about them and didn't really include any recipes). The other 26 bento menus were exclusively made for this cookbook.
  • Before you buy the book, check out the CHARABEN and TRADITIONAL BENTO sections in my blog - if you like my bento style, chance is you might like this book too.
WHERE TO BUY
Note: Amazon has a "Look Inside" function, which is great, since you will be able to see more sample pages of my book. Unfortunately, I don't have any control on which pages to display, and since Amazon doesn't really show the pages in order, the design might look rather inconsistent.

BUY DIRECTLY FROM ME
If your country is not listed above or if you would like to buy my book outside the mentioned online retailers, you can directly purchase the book from me. My printer is based in the US, but I can arrange the shipping/handling for you - and yes, my printer ships worldwide! Contact me for a quote!

DISCLAIMER
  • Even though I now have one bento book published, I by no means would like to claim that I am a bento expert. Bentoing (and cooking) is just a hobby of mine and an outlet to express my creative urges - my educational/professional background actually has absolutely nothing to do with the culinary arts, but I've always been rather artsy since I was younger. I also love to cook, I love to eat and I love to create pretty things. So, the result is this bento book :).
FURTHER INFORMATION
  • If you have any questions regarding  this book, leave me a comment below, or simply shoot me an e-mail to: cookinggallery@yahoo.de
  • If you would like to have a hardcover edition, you can contact me and I can arrange to order it for you, but the price for hardcover is of course higher than paperback. E-mail and ask me for a quote, and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
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45 comments:

  1. Wow, congratulations! I'll put it on my wishlist :)

    Nadja

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    1. Thank you, Nadja :)! It's lovely to see you here again. Ich muss jetzt auch deinen Blog besuchen!

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    2. Leider ist dein Blog aber nicht mehr da :(?

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  2. Well bravo and I am not surprised and it looks wonderful!

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  3. Thank you so much, Monique :-) !

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  4. Congrats!!! I am happy for you and it is filled with delicious and healthy recipes.
    Blessings, Catheirne

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  5. OH! Oooohhh! *happy dance* That's so awesome, you must be so proud! :D Full colour, and there are so many lovely patterns on those pages--it suits the blog (you use patterned paper a lot, I think?). Congrats, what an achievement!

    I'll order it of course, by the end of this month (am determined to save a fixed amount this month). BUT! How do you earn the most? If people order it via Amazon, or straight from you?

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    1. Thank you so much, Tze!! The book was loads of work, I almost died in the process of making the book *lol*. Actually I didn't use any patterned paper, I illustrated everything myself using illustrator and I also did the whole cookbook layout and design :), I am glad you think that the design sort of suit my blog.

      Thank you for planning to buy my book :) :)! I feel so flatttered! Actually I earn more when you order from me, but the shipping would take too long, so the best option for you is to order via Amazon. I used Amazon Germany regularly and I loved their fast service. After you've got the book, do let me know if you think there are other things I should do better next time. Thanks for taking the time to comment here :)!

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    2. Ah! Well, I can't read your book until I'm done with my own project anyway, in order to avoid stealing ideas (by accident, but still)...so there's no hurry.
      If it's better for you to get a custom order, I can send you a mail with details (just don't add like $30 shipping costs, okay? :'D)

      Wow, you made all the illustrations in the book yourself? So awesome that two of your skills (illustrating+cooking, totally unrelated) could come together so well in one product!
      (And er, sorry for sending several messages across platforms. I didn't receive notifications for any of your replies, and only saw them one after another.)

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    3. Now you make me really curious about your project :D)!! I wanna know! Is that a cooking/bento-related comic?? I would totally buy it :)!! Let me know when you're finished with the project :)! When do you think it's due to publish?

      Lol about the $30 shipping ;)! I have to check it again, but I think if I have to send the book to Germany the shipping costs lower than $10 (for standard shipping - but this would probably take 1.5 months to get there). The priority shipping is not thaaaat expensive, something like $15, but you get the book within a week).

      The illustration part was actually fun to make, even though it took a lot of time. But doing the layout was extremely challenging since one bento menu consists of so many dishes/recipes and you have to plan really well how to design/ where to place the content (text). If it's just one recipe per photo, you would have much more freedom in designing a much more interesting layout. In the end I decided to do it really simple and added some kimono/Japan related illustrations to make the book appear more interesting. Well, we will see if the book is going to be well-received or not ;).

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  6. Awesome must grab one copy!!!

    Congratulation dear Syntia ^_^ Finally get to know your name :)

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    1. Thank you so much, Karen !! Let me know what you think about the book after you've got one, you can also tell me honestly if you don't like some parts of the book :)!!

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  7. A big congratulations! That's absolutely wonderful news! :D

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    1. Thank you so much, Lorraine :)!! I still have a lot to learn from you!

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  8. Congratulations! So happy for you, Syntia :)
    I am sure, the book is great. It would be my pleasure to add this into my bento book collection.
    Will it be available in book store, such as Kinokuniya or others? Please..?
    I am so so so hardly order any book online.

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    1. Hi Yenny, thanks for the inquiry :)! Unfortunately the book is currently only available via Amazon. However, if you are still interested to purchase the book, you can custom order from me and I can arrange shipping for you. E-mail me to discuss further about other possibilites :) - cookinggallery@yahoo.de

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  9. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! Ich glaube davon träumt wohl jeder Foodie und Blogger :-)
    Der Traum vom eigenen Kochbuch, bzw. Bentobuch *träum*
    Ich wünsche dir damit viel Erfolg. Gruß

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    1. Vielen, vielen Dank, Melonpan :) :)! Das war aber unglaublich viel Arbeit! Ich freue mich eigentlich, dass es vorbei ist ;). Schönen Tag noch :)!

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  10. Congrats always I find your bentos amazing!! Beautiful!!
    xo

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  11. Congratulations! Your book of little lunch boxes looks amazing!
    :) ela@GrayApron

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  12. Congratulations! You're amazing!

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  13. Wow! An artist at work! What fun. Congrats!

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  14. Congratulations Syn, this is so awesome! :)

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    1. Thanks, Susi :)! Lovely to see you here :). Maybe next time I should ask you to do the photography as you are a pro :)!

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  15. Congrats! You certainly are a bento master, so you're definitely the one to do a book like this. Hope you sell a ton!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words - greatly appreciated :)!

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  16. Dear Sythia, congratulations! What a project - respect! I hopped over to amazon to take a look at your book, that must feel so amazing to see your own book published and then being sold through amazon - I took a look at the preview pages, and it looks like you invested a ton of time and love into this project!
    Congratulations, again - I saw that you answered in German to one of the comments - I did not know that you spoke German - how delightful.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Andrea :)! Yes, it was a lot of work but absolutely worth it as I learned so much in the process. It's certainly a cool feeling to suddenly see your book sold online (and in Amazon as well - I was only a regular customer before, but now seeing my book there, I feel connected more than ever to Amazon *lol*).

      Und ja, ich kann Deutsch sprechen, obwohl ich noch sehr viel zu lernen habe! Ich hab für über 5 Jahre in Deutschland gewohnt und gearbeitet. Jetzt wohne ich aber in Australien. Du kannst immer auf Deutsch kommentiert, wenn du möchtest - es ist immer eine gute Übung für mich, wenn jemand mit mir Deutsch spricht :)!

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  17. Yeayyy.... Congrats Kakak Syntiaaaa :D. So so so proud of you *hugs. *selalu terharuuuuu setiap ada yang akhirnya bikin buku berawal dari ngeblog..... Taulah rasanya bagaimana perjuangannya :D. Indahnya berbagi, tulus, tanpa syarat. Penuh syukur semoga Tuhan selalu membalas semua kebaikanmu kakaaakkk....... Semangat maju terus, best seller! Aamiin :D

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    1. Makasih sekali Tabong yg imut dan baik hati ;)!! Kita mmg musti tukeran buku nih, jadi bisa saling meng-improve satu sama lain :)! Mungkin suatu saat kita bisa ketemu dan bisa ngebento sama2 *lol* ;)!

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  18. Congratulations!!! I'm really excited for you, and enjoyed reading the whole book! Now I can't wait to make bento using your book. Ordered some necessary bento items (the nori puncher!) and will try soon! xoxo

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    1. Thank you SO MUCH, Nami :)!! I can't wait to see what you will come up with and I am so excited to see which bento you will make out of those 31 bento menus (I suppose a charaben, since you just bought a nori punch :)? *super excited *) Your site and work ethic have always been a constant inspiration...!!

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  19. Hello, congratulations on your cook book. It looks fabulous and I think you are a very artistic person who is not only good at bento but also art in general. Making a book is not an easy project and I really want to congratulate. I read that you did all the designs and layout, wow! I can imagine how much time and work you put into this. Congratulations! I have some questions and if you do not mind could you share some thoughts with me? I will write it through your message column. I hope you don't mind. Rie

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    1. Thanks for dropping by and commenting :)! I just read your email and will answer it in greater depth tomorrow. Have a lovely weekend :)!

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