April 6 - Ann and I recently had the chance to eat a "Friendship Bento." It was simply delicious. You might ask, "What is a Friendship Bento?" It's a special commemorative Japanese lunch box.

This Friendship Bento commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Iowa-Yamanashi sister-state relationship that resulted from the 1959 Iowa hog lift. In that year, when Iowa farmers heard that Yamanashi had suffered major livestock losses during two typhoons, they sent 35 breeder hogs by airplane to help replenish the breeding stock. Three years later, the original 35 Iowa hogs had multiplied to more than 500. Thus began a long history of friendship between farmers in Iowa and Yamanashi. Thirty years later, when Iowa farmers suffered from devastating floods, Yamanashi farmers raised money to send to their friends in Iowa.

The Friendship Bento combines delicious foods from both America and Japan. The American ingredients include grilled pork, broccoli, prunes, and walnuts (for the sauce), while the Japanese ingredients are boiled white rice, burdock roots, carrots, pumpkins, mini onions, potatos, Nameko mushrooms, bamboo shoots and sweet wine kuzu mochi made from arrowroot.

If you want to sample the delicious combination of American and Japanese foods in the bento, you can purchase it for 900 yen in the train stations of Tokyo, Shinjuku, and Ueno as well as on some Chuo line trains that travel between Tokyo and Yamanashi. I hope you will have a chance to try this bento and see for yourself how well American and Japanese products go together.

Another option is to make the bento yourself, following this recipe.

Until next time,

Jim