Why Ryuji Published a Bento Book He "Never Meant to Write," and a Microwave-Only "Desperation Curry Bento"

Ryuji says the reason for avoiding bento books was that bento is "the cooking method that least lets you enjoy food at its best." Food tastes best freshly made. Ryuji believes people still eat bento "to live." That's why, Ryuji explains, this book was written as a bento book for people who are working hard every day just to get by.

This thinking shows in how the book is made. There's no photo of a bento on the cover. The inside pages are full of brown dishes, and there's even a recipe for turning curry, which is hard to pack into a bento, into one.

The book's concept starts from the idea that "a lunch bento doesn't need all that color." The bento you see on social media are pretty, but they require preparing lots of ingredients and are a hassle, Ryuji says. Bento is a dish with a "shackle": it has to taste good even cold. Given that constraint, Ryuji's position is that there's no need to go out of your way to think about color as well.

Most of the recipes in the main section are single-color bento, mostly brown. Still, for people who care about color, side dish recipes are included too, and combining them lets you make a good-looking bento. But Ryuji says that, as a rule, you only need to make the main dish. The most important thing in a lunch bento is energy, so meat and rice are enough. You can eat vegetables at dinner, and it's fine as long as your meals balance out over the whole day. For that reason, the book also includes recipes that let you eat plenty of vegetables at dinner. Ryuji also called this a bento version of Ryuji's own "void recipes": "void bento."

Staff from Writes Publishing were present for the recording. According to Ryuji, Writes has published Ryuji's Supreme Recipes and Devil's Recipes, among others, and many of the books it puts out become hits. The company currently has seven employees, and it reportedly started with four.

Ryuji says there have been almost no recipe books without food on the cover. Supreme Recipes also has no food photo on its cover, but this series is practically the only example of such a book selling well. The staff explained that one of the books mentioned has reached 340,000 copies and has the most Amazon reviews of any recipe book. It has about 3,000 reviews, with the second-place book at about 2,000. Ryuji said this new book is good enough to aim for the top spot in review count as well.

The dish demonstrated was the no-stir-fry "Zero-Motivation Curry Bento." The only ingredients are thinly sliced pork offcuts, onion, curry powder, salt, and rice, and a plastic food container will do.

Curry normally doesn't go into a bento. This curry has as much moisture removed as possible and is finished using only the liquid that comes out of the meat and onion. That way, it stays tasty even after time has passed. Asked whether this is really curry, Ryuji explained that it's closer to an Indian-style curry, if anything. The starting point for this bento is that there are times you want to eat curry even when you're out. Ryuji also said it was developed so you can make it without even getting up.

Here's how to make it:

1. Cut about 60 g of onion against the grain so it cooks quickly. This is the only step that uses a knife.
2. Spread the onion in the container and place 100–110 g of pork offcuts on top.
3. Add 2 pinches of salt (about 2 g), 2 teaspoons of curry powder, and 2 tablespoons of water. Without the water, it dries out.
4. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, leaving a gap, and heat for 7 minutes at 500 W or 6 minutes at 600 W.
5. Break it up so the curry powder and liquid blend together, then put warm rice on top.

No frying pan is used. "You don't want to wash a frying pan, right?" Ryuji says. No umami seasoning goes in either; since there's plenty of pork, salt alone is enough. This time, the onion released less liquid than expected after heating, so Ryuji added a little hot water to adjust. Instead of pork offcuts, pork belly or loin also works.

On plating, Ryuji said that if you care about appearance, you can transfer the filling to a plate or plastic wrap first, put in the rice, and then place the filling on top. Ryuji personally, though, just puts the rice straight into the heated container. In that case, you end up with an "outrageous bento" with the filling on the bottom and the rice on top, but Ryuji says that's fine. The staff remarked, "It's funny that it's upside down," and the finished dish was named "Desperation Curry Bento You Make to Live."

Lately, Ryuji has been using Indian brand curry powder. It comes in a large size, is cheaper than the regular S&B red can, and is available at Kaldi and on Amazon. Its biggest advantage is that it has almost no heat, so even children can eat it. Ryuji often heard that the red can was too spicy, so Ryuji looked for one that wasn't. If you like it spicy, Ryuji said, you can add ichimi chili pepper or the like.

Saying that the book's recipe alone might feel lacking, Ryuji also made an arrangement with mushrooms for people who "still want some vegetables." The meat and onion are the same; the shimeji mushrooms have their stems trimmed and go in as is, without being separated. Use a little more salt to account for the mushrooms, sprinkling it over them. The curry powder goes up to 2½ teaspoons. Since the mushrooms release water, the water can stay at 2 tablespoons. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and heat for 6 minutes at 600 W.

When it was done, the mushrooms had released quite a bit of liquid, so there was no need to add water. Ryuji rated this arrangement very highly, since it adds the mushrooms' moisture and umami. Adding just one ingredient changes the texture and also removes the guilt of "having no vegetables," Ryuji says. You can also leave out the onion and use only mushrooms, but in that case it might be better to add about a pinch of sugar. Spinach, which a staff member suggested, also works well, and frozen spinach is fine too.

For toppings, Ryuji scattered chopped scallions and said fukujinzuke pickles also go well. Ryuji then added mayonnaise and sprinkled on ichimi chili pepper. Adding red to a brown bento makes it look better, and you can add red even without vegetables, Ryuji explained.

Ryuji used packaged microwavable rice that day but said that if you prioritize cost, frozen rice is better. If you freeze rice right after it's cooked, your daily bento rice costs go down.

A staff member asked whether the flavor changes if you pack it with piping-hot rice and then reheat it before eating. Ryuji answered that reheating does release moisture, but it isn't very noticeable. Every bento in the book was cooled once before being taste-tested, and only those confirmed to taste good were included. Ryuji also said that putting curry sauce on rice makes it soggy, so unless the curry has little moisture, it won't make a good curry bento.

Ryuji admits there's really no need to eat a curry bento when you're out. Plastic containers also stain easily, and this one will probably turn a bit yellow too. Even so, a yellow container doesn't change the taste, Ryuji says.

Ryuji thinks everyone sets the bar for bento too high. People who don't make homemade bento just buy one at a convenience store and heat it up, and convenience stores sell bento with nothing but meat on top. Ryuji's view is: isn't that fine? If you want vegetables, buy a packaged salad. Ryuji also says that having looked at various bento books, they care too much about appearance. The aim of this book, Ryuji said, is to spread bento that make people think, "Is a bento like this really okay?"

At the tasting, Ryuji ate the regular version and the staff ate the mushroom version. Ryuji says it's delicious as a curry even with only salt for seasoning. Ryuji also noted that because no oil is used, it's cut down dramatically compared with regular curry. Ryuji also said it was a little spicy because of the generous amount of curry powder.

A staff member said it was their first time eating mayonnaise with curry and that it was very good. According to Ryuji, curry normally contains fat, but this bento is made to be healthy with reduced fat. Adding fat back with mayonnaise brings it closer to the taste of regular curry.

A staff member from sales said they had tried making the book's bento for a month. Their favorite was the "Lettuce and Ham Fried Rice Bento," which they said was easy to make and had a flavor they'd never tasted before. Ryuji explained that this is because of the aroma of five-spice powder. Ryuji also mentioned the "Desperation Fried Rice Bento" from a previous video, saying that adding ham and lettuce makes it completely different. The staff member said it had a nice texture and was satisfying.

Looking back on this bento, Ryuji said they had wondered whether having the rice on top would make it less tasty, but when they ate it, it was just the same. Another point Ryuji emphasized was that it can be eaten with chopsticks. Spoons are bulky, so you don't have to bring one. That day, too, Ryuji ate the curry with disposable chopsticks. It's a bento book that takes even that into account, Ryuji says.

Ryuji said that while it's unorthodox as a bento book, they want to make that unorthodoxy the standard. Ryuji urged the staff to sell it hard and aim to win the Japan Recipe Book Awards, laughing that lately they've only managed to win the runner-up prize.

Finally, Otsuka, the book's editor, talked about its highlights. Ryuji noted that Otsuka and Ryuji have worked together for eight years, and the books they've made together have sold a cumulative 800,000 copies.

According to Otsuka, the project began with the comment section of a video Ryuji had posted about a sausage bento. It was filled with comments like "This saved me" and "So this is okay," and Otsuka was moved. Otsuka turned that feeling into the words on the book's obi band: "Oh, so this was fine all along." Ryuji also acknowledges that the book was Otsuka's idea.

The book centers on bento that let you get your protein from a single dish. Ryuji's remark in a video that "you can eat your vegetables at dinner" was also something the two of them thought through and followed up on in the book. Even though it's a bento book, the last page has a recipe for a hot pot packed with vegetables. Otsuka explained that this is "aftercare": since you get fewer vegetables at lunch, they want you to get plenty at dinner.

Ryuji said that projects Otsuka comes up with sell well, and that the books the two have made together have sold 100% of the time so far. Otsuka invited viewers to pick up the book at a bookstore, flip through it, and buy it if they like it, and the video ended.