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We devour a three-kilogram spaghetti and meatballs obento lunchbox

Oona McGee Sep 5, 2017
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The boxed feast lets you recreate a famous scene from a Hayao Miyazaki anime movie.

When it comes to eating copious amounts of food, our Japanese-language reporter Mr Sato has a belly that knows no boundaries. Whether it’s a Whopper with 1,000 slices of cheese or a cup of 16-year-old instant ramen, Mr Sato is always on the lookout for an unusual feast, but this time his latest culinary find proved to be so hefty he had to enlist our coworkers in the office to help him devour it all.

The unusual meal comes from the memorably named “Kitchen Dive”, a 24-hour bento retailer with a handful of locations around Tokyo. Despite its seedy-sounding name, Kitchen Dive is actually known for its impressive array of cheap bento lunches packed with generously sized portions, making them one of the best value-for-money meals you’ll find around town.

With a great variety of options on offer, and the price of bento boxes starting at just 200 yen (US$1.83) each, Kitchen Dive enjoys a steady stream of budget-conscious customers each day.

▼ For just 550 yen, customers get to enjoy a huge lunch bursting with ingredients.

Kitchen Dive is currently grabbing everyone’s attention with a new and unusual offering: a three-kilogram (6.6-pound) spaghetti and meatballs obento lunchbox.

As soon as Mr Sato heard about the weighty meal, he knew he had to make the trip to Kitchen Dive to purchase one. Not only was this an impressive-looking food challenge, the meal itself was inspired by a dish enjoyed by the main characters in The Castle of Cagliostro, a 1979 animated film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki as his feature film debut.

With so many things going for it, Mr Sato’s gut was telling him this was going to be a memorable meal. When he laid eyes on the beast-sized bento, though, he was shocked by the size of it, as it was clearly bigger than his head.

Drawing another size comparison, he placed it next to a Sony PlayStation 4 to show just how big the bento meal was.

At 1,480 yen, this was great value for such a huge serving of food. Inside, amongst oodles of sauce-covered spaghetti, there were three long sausages, a variety of vegetables and more than a dozen meatballs.

▼ Providing an element of crunch to the meal was a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds.

In The Castle of Cagliostro, the characters eagerly shove forkfuls of the massive, heaped plate of spaghetti into their mouths, making it look so appetising that it remains one of the most memorable moments of the film to this day.

Kitchen Dive’s very own spaghetti and meatballs dish is directly inspired by the film, and part of its appeal is the fact that customers can recreate the mouthwatering scene from the movie while devouring the meal.

Using a pair of chopsticks in place of a fork, Mr Sato was quick to recreate the enthusiasm of the animated characters from the film, shovelling as much spaghetti into his mouth as he could.

Given the cheap cost of the bento, Mr Sato was expecting it to taste bland, but he was happy to report that it was surprisingly tasty, with the sauce making it taste just like a good-old Neapolitan-style spaghetti.

After several large mouthfuls, Mr Sato estimated that there were probably around ten servings in the meal. If it were five, he reckoned he might be able to finish it, but with his hungry colleagues staring longingly at the feast, he caved in and decided to do a good deed for the day and share the meal around the office.

With ten people eating the meal, the cost per person would come to a mere 148 yen each. That’s a lot of pasta for less than $1.40!

Curious to find out how the dish was made, Mr Sato hopped online and found that Kitchen Dive actually shared details of all the ingredients that went into their creation on their Twitter account.

▼ The meal contains 1.5 kilograms of spaghetti…

3キロミートボールナポリタン作るか😆 pic.twitter.com/z1rRVVUrBW

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) August 31, 2017

▼ Along with mixed vegetables, sausages and five different types of meatballs.

今から3キロミートボールナポリタン弁当作るよo(^▽^)o pic.twitter.com/cyzYSghxRF

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) August 31, 2017

▼ Once the pasta has been made, the meat is placed on top and then weighed until it reaches its final weight.

3キロミートボールナポリタン弁当生産中o(^▽^)o pic.twitter.com/xZO8EPKAJ8

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) August 31, 2017

3キロミートボールナポリタン弁当生産中o(^▽^)o pic.twitter.com/W6i5U3nuwV

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) August 31, 2017

3キロミートボールナポリタン弁当生産中o(^▽^)o pic.twitter.com/MPidZgU0Iv

— キッチンDIVE クマ店長 (@divemamuru) August 31, 2017

Given that Kitchen Dive is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anytime is a good time to try the huge spaghetti and meatballs obento lunchbox. Grab your friends and let us know if you manage to finish the feast!

Store Information
Kitchen Dive / キッチンDIVE
Address: Tokyo-to, Koto-ku, Kameido 6-58-15 Land Sea Kameido
東京都江東区亀戸６丁目５８−１５ランドシー亀戸
Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week