monbento® has done a great deal of travelling in five years. From East to West, North to South, our team has travelled the world!
For you-and also because they make us smile, and even laugh out loud-we have compiled a little selection of the most significant anecdotes in a new series of articles called “monbento’s® adventures…”.
To start off our travels, our first destination of countries seeing the birth of the bento: we head to Asia!
With a strong presence in this part of the world, monbento® has crisscrossed these lands, creating precious memories!
We look back on these adventures…
Facetious
– During one of their very first trips to China, one of our partners decided to share his culture with Emilie and Fabien, taking them to a… karaoke bar! After plenty of laughs-and some off-key singing-a wonderful friendship was born!
– Also in China, our sales manager was crossing Tiananmen Square when a local family stopped her… It was the first time they had ever seen a western woman “for real” and they absolutely wanted to have their picture taken with her! Quite the selfie!
Dangerous (but it all works out in the end!)
– During a domestic flight in China, headed to Shanghai, the plane banked sharply just five minutes after take-off and the pilot announced that they were forced to turn back! With night falling, and still shaken by the experience, the monbento® team decided not to take the same plane, but to spend the night sleeping on benches in the airport. During the night, they learned that one of the plane’s turbines had actually exploded in flight!
– In Korea, two members of the monbento® team were taking a taxi to an important meeting. The weather was atrocious and the inevitable happened: the driver slid through a curve and-after what seemed like forever to our colleagues-the car smashed into a lamppost! Everyone came out without a scratch, but they received a good shot of adrenaline before heading into their meeting.
– Fabien, monbento’s® designer and co-founder caught a nasty flu bug in Hong Kong. Despite feeling terribly under the weather, he had to go to China for business. So, to pass the temperature checks before entering Chinese territory, he held a bag of ice cubes against his forehead for a good hour! The trick worked, but unfortunately didn’t make him feel any better. Seeing him in this pitiful condition, our Chinese supplier and friend thanked him for his valiant efforts, and considering it unthinkable for him to take the plane back with such a high fever, decided to drive him back from Shanghai to Hong Kong himself! Now that’s true friendship.
Tasty
– During a trip to Japan, we discovered Takoyaki: little balls made with a batter like crêpe batter, with savoury ingredients inside. Does this sound familiar? In fact, this is where we got our inspiration for our food truck’s “Bouchées de monbento®”!
Wonderful
– And since a picture’s worth a thousand words, we’d like to share with you some of the spectacular places monbento® has visited. 😉
In Japan, in good company!
Downtown Hong Kong!
In China, on the Great Wall!
A traditional barbecue in Korea!
We’ll be back soon with more adventures on a different continent 😉