Over the last few months, I've noticed "bentos" mentioned on this site regularly. I understood that they were packed lunches of some sort and thought that perhaps bento was an American word for packed lunch. Anyway, I noticed that all the bentos people posted pics of were super cute and followed a set kind of formula (like little portions of finger food). I finally googled bentos and discovered that they are, in fact, a traditional style of packed lunch from Japan, Korea and a few other gorgeous places. I had no idea!!

Well that got me to thinking.... a traditional English packed lunch, when I was a little girl, looked like this:

They were usually packed in "lunch boxes" - plastic boxes with handles on, that often came with a matching flask.

They frequently contained:

- A soggy ham or cheese (sometimes jam) sandwich, wrapped in tin foil or cling film.

- A bruised apple or another, similarly boring piece of fruit. You had to remember to throw this away in the playground bins, otherwise you'd be told off by your mum for not eating it.

- A penguin bar - or some other biscuit type bar.

- Weak orange or lemon squash - in the flask! Really posh kids might have had a capri sun! You envied these kids!!

- Very occasionally, you got crisps. Those were the best days!!

Where are you from? What did the traditional lunches of your childhood look like?