Luscious Lunch Gets Eco-Friendly

The basic idea of the bento box lunch has been around for more than eight centuries, which not only means Japanese notions of cute way precede Hello Kitty but also that people have hankered for a convenient mid-day repast since, well, before the time-clocked lunch hour. Picking up on that idea, Spiritland Bistro (230 E. Victoria St., 966-7759, spiritlandbistro.com) is now offering a series of bentos served up in biodegradable boxes, generally built around the classic starch-protein-sauce-veggie combo. That means for $8.95, you can enjoy boxes such as roasted yam, tempeh in a Thai curry sauce, and vegetables or perhaps quinoa spaghetti and chicken in marinara with veggies. Sure, it’s all good for you, but when it tastes this good, you won’t really feel like you’re suffering for your health too much. There are more possibilities if you want to add on, from appetizers to soups to sides, and that means anything from a sea vegetable salad to butternut squash chili to manna bread (sprouted, yes; yeasted, no). You can even wash it down with hemp milk, but that might just lead to a desire for another bento box (bad joke, that, I know).