How do you translate bento into English?

How do you translate "bento" into English? I am talking about the word that refers to the food people eat (usually at lunchtime), but not the box it is placed in.

Here you go!

http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E5%BC%81%E5%BD%93

Thank you for your answer. What I actually want to know, though, is what YOU say. On the site you sent the link for, it says "lunch box" AND "box lunch." I don't think either of those is really accurate. Please tell me what YOU say! Thanks in advance.

I'm hoping to get a lot of different people's answers!!

If you speak English, why don't you tell us so we can tell you if it is the correct translation.

i call it either lunch box or box lunch.

I say box lunch. Why is that not a good translation? What do you say?

I say "boxed lunch" or "lunch box" and people know what I am talking about (that I am not talking about the container), when I mention at work that "OK now we will break for lunch. We have arranged for lunch box for all participants..."

One would think by now that many non-Japanese people are familiar with the concept of Bento, and its double meaning of container or content.

If a translation is needed, I favor "boxed lunch" as it emphasizes that it is a lunch, but in a box (as opposed to on a plate, or tray, or wrapped in paper or..)
"Lunch in a box" would be fine to.

I usually use the word Bento as they are different to what I think of as a normal boxed lunch in Western countries but Boxed Lunch is probably the closest you can get without going for a more in depth description.

I want to thank all of you very much for your answers and your assistance. Reading your comments has been really helpful.

Re: ay (guest)---Some of my students are putting together some introductory information about Japan to show people in Singapore. On one of the pages, they have three pictures of Japanese-style lunches in boxes in their uniquely Japanese way. The only description my students wrote to go with the pictures is "lunch box," which to me sounds like it's referring to the box, but not the contents of the box. With "box lunch," the image I personally have is of the kind of lunch I'm used to seeing in North America, but with it being inside a box (like a cardboard box). I am trying to help my students write something that makes sense to native speakers of English that tells what a bento is. Of course, if people see the pictures, they should be able to understand what is shown, so maybe they don't even need the written description... However, the students were told to label their pictures...

Sorry---my most recent comment was for taro and for everyone else who has written a comment here for me. Thank you!

In UK (as opposed to US/Canadian) English, we don't use the phrase "box lunch". We'd use "packed lunch". That's what my co-workers call the lunch they make at home and bring to work (which, I'd say, is the direct equivalent of a bento). "Box lunch" sounds odd to UK people.

The word "bento" is fairly commonly used in Japanese restaurants over here, but Japanese food and restaurants aren't that common in the UK, especially outside London, so I don't know whether you'd expect to go to rural parts of the UK and find lots of people knowing what a bento is.

If someone said "I've made a bento for lunch today" in my office, I'd definitely take that to mean that not only had they made a packed lunch, but that the food was Japanese in style.

We also talk about a bento box (i.e. the thing you put your bento in). Again, however, if someone said they'd brought lunch in a bento box, I'd expect them to be talking about a multi-compartment box, which had some sort of Japanese styling about it. If it was just a one-compartment, plastic box, I think people would call it "a sandwich box", or, more generically, "Tupperware". In that sense, a bento box has a particular ethnic connotation, like a tiffin carrier (not sure if you're familiar with those, but they're multi-compartment boxes used for the Indian equivalent of a bento).

By the way, in the UK, we would avoid the word "lunchbox". It is sometimes used for the bulge which might appear in the front of a man's shorts, if they were too tight for him. I'm not sure whether this term is used in the US.

Hope that helps.

How do you translate "bento" into English? I am talking about the word that refers to the food people eat (usually at lunchtime), but not the box it is placed in.[/

The food I eat at lunchtime but not the box it comes in? I call it a sandwich or soup or a hamburger or pasta. But mostly I just call it lunch.

I'd call it noms. :3