I’ve been told that as a child I went through a phase of only eating food that was colored blue. I can only imagine how difficult that must have been for my parents. Well, as luck would have it, I’ve now been blessed with an equally “selective” eater, who thinks of food as nothing but a nuisance.  I’ve tried so many different things ad nauseum to get him to eat, but I didn’t realize that my answer was waiting for me in Japan.

While on my Kit Kat mission in Japan, I came across these unusual pre-packaged square sandwiches, with the crusts cut off and the sides pressed. You couldn’t tell what was IN the sandwich, and since I don’t read Japanese, each time we bought one we were in for a (mostly good) surprise. My “selective” 4 year old was equally enthralled each time we got one and was eager to take a bite to reveal the filling. We were shocked at how enthusiastic he was about….food ! Well, I just had to find this little gadget so I could make these at home.

So mission no. 2 in Japan was born.  I figured the gadget HAD to exist, especially in Japan, where there seems to be a gadget for just about anything. I asked the incredibly friendly convenience store attendants and although everyone at the shop tried to explain it to me it somehow got lost in translation. I spent days looking for the gadget at 100 Yen Shops (basically the Dollar Store) and almost every large department store I could find, but no luck.

I finally asked a few of my high school friends living in Tokyo and they suggested that the one place it was most likely to be, if it even existed at all, was a store called LOFT. So off I went, cranky 4 yr old in tow, having very low expectations, and there it was -  an entire WALL dedicated to pressed sandwiches! I was beyond thrilled – my son wasn’t going to starve any more.  Admittedly I went a little crazy with the sandwich cutters, the bento boxes, the rice shapers, and the egg shapers (yes, little molds that shaped your hard boiled egg into a race car or a fish – another hit with my son).

So to honor Japan for saving my son from starvation we now have bento lunches filled with pressed sandwiches and race car-shaped eggs at home. It’s really amazing what we can achieve with a little imagination and fun.