This week I've selected some Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Festival (Girl's Day) decorative bentos for your viewing pleasure.

One sign that bentos are becoming trendy, if they aren't already, may be that they are being made into iPhone apps. There is of course the database app from FileMaker, Bento (which messes up searches for bento recipes!), which uses the divided bento box as a metaphor for organizing data. But there are a few apps that actually use the edible box of food we love as the main theme. Here I review three of them - A Bento Box: Virtual Sushi; Obento!; and Charaben.

This is a guest post by Smalerie, who blogs about bento making and her other hobbies in her blog Boston Bento. Here she shows us how to make fun sweet dessert bentos to share with friends...or, well, I guess you could reserve one for yourself for a super-indulgent occasion too ^_^; -(maki)