Hellobee

Most people are familiar with the decorative food dividers (called “baran” in Japanese) that come in take-out sushi boxes. These thin green sheets of plastic are cut to look like grass and are often used to separate California rolls from pickled ginger and wasabi. But did you know that you can buy a nearly endless array of decorative baran? Most of the decorative dividers I’ve seen feature imagery that is appealing to young kids, and the bright colors and smiling animals can make any lunch more cheerful.

So how do you use these decorative food dividers? Here are a few options:

The most common use of food dividers is to separate foods from each other. Keep dry foods like bread or crackers from touching moist foods such as fruits or veggies to keep them from getting soggy. Or separate foods with incompatible flavors that are placed next to each other in a bento box. For example in the lunch box above I placed a divider between a cereal bar and some pieces of sausage. Those are two flavor profiles that would not blend well together! (Please note that the lunch above is intended for an older child. Use your common sense when serving potential choking hazards like raw carrot or sausage to very young eaters.)

You can also place food dividers on top of wet or gooey foods to help contain any mess they might make in a lunch box. In the breakfast bento pictured above I put a divider over a silicone cup filled with yogurt to deter it from squishing over the rest of the meal.

Finally, you can add a piece of baran to a lunch box purely for decoration. My son loved this piece featuring a happy hamburger and cup of cocoa, so I slipped it in just to make him smile while he was away at school.

It can be difficult to locate decorative food dividers in local stores, but they aren’t too hard to find online. All Things for Sale is an online shop with a good selection if you’re looking for a place to start.