Back to School Shopping continued - Back to Cool

My well-abused stainless steel bento box, stainless steel chopsticks and reusuable mini-fork

I covered the basic school supplies in my earlier post on Back to School Shopping, the Green Way. But I neglected to cover lunchtime!

Have you ever had the gleeful experience of already owning something that's suddenly en vogue and sought after? Have you ever said, "What, this old thing?" and felt really, really smug? I have - and it's happening again!

For years I've had a proper, stainless steel bento box that my Grandma gave me. She probably got it from a Japanese friend of hers - all the really cool origami and Japanese items I saw as a little girl came from some lovely lady who worked with my Grandma in Vancouver.

I always liked the thing, but I don't think I once used it for it's intended purpose - a lunch container. In fact, I remember using it as a pencil case and coating the inside with an uneven, streaky layer of White-out, which I then scribbled on. Oops.

But here it is, having survived middle school and still shiny enough to capture my reflection in the photo! Now that's built to last!

The stainless steel bento box might be *the* hot item for back-to-school this year! I've seen them for sale on the internet starting around $35. Thirty-five! That's insane! So I did a little searching and found The Tickle Trunk (not the Casey and Finnigan variety!) selling one almost identical to my retro one for $8. EIGHT! Much better!

A few years ago for Christmas I put in a special request to 'Santa' for stainless steel chopsticks. It wasn't because I was on an anti-plastic kick but because I was lazy and wanted to bung them into the dishwasher. I figure they must exist somewhere.... Santa found a set of Joyce Chen chopsticks several years ago, and I have to say they've held up well!

The reusable mini-fork (it says `Lube Sheep`, rather inexplicably) I bought at YokoYaya123 (also available at The Daiso) for $2.

But I`ve found an even better deal, because The Tickle Trunk also sells stainless steel cutlery in an aluminum carry-case, and the set contains everything you need (fork, spoon, and chopsticks that unscrew in the centre to make two shorter pieces for storage) for just $6. SIX!

$14 and you could have the coolest Back-to-School lunch kit in the world. Sugoi!

Get them while they`re hot is my advice!