Bento

I am charmed by this New York Times trend story on bento boxes, and also vaguely pleased to say that I have friends who were in to bento boxes long before the Times picked up on them.  But it's a little odd that the phenomenon--as reported, anyway--combines two very different things.  One is having a convenient compartmentalized carrying case for bringing your lunch to work or school.  If you don't just bring a wrapped sandwich or a single big tupperware of pasta or stew or salad, it can be difficult to pack all of the pieces of your lunch in a reasonable way.  [My usual solution the past two years has just been to bring a ridiculous array of tupperwares and plastic bags, and my co-clerks were polite enough to keep their snickering to themselves.]  I liked the look of "Bento 2.0" from laptop lunches, which also seemed to have a good combination of compartment sizes.
The other half of the trend is cutting fruits, vegetables, and other foods into cute little cartoon-like shapes, or decorating them with little plastic thingies.  I find this just bizarre, although if it inculcates a love of fruits and vegetables I suppose I have no real complaints.