Bento - 6 Catbus from Tonari no Totoro

I promised myself that I would be more creative this year so I decided to update the bento section in my blog today. Honestly, I love making bento but my problem is cleaning up afterwards. Since I am currently experiencing a glorious day, I decided to make something  that I have always wanted to make since I started blogging about my bento creations. If you are a big Ghibli fan like me, then you will definitely  enjoy this one, too.

For this bento, I made Catbus for Tonari noTotoro out of fried spam. The accent on the cat’s body includes potatoes for the eyes and windows, nori for the stripes and boiled egg for the mouth.  I also got chives, spring onions and sweet potato tops from the garden and made decors and side dishes out of them. For the flowers, I cut out yellow squash and slightly boiled them in salted water. I also inserted my sketch  so that I will have an idea on what to do once I assemble the bento. And look, there's also Olaf from Frozen about Catbus' sketch. He's going to be my bento project next. 

Cooking the side dishes and the spam took longer than usual.  I was afraid that the spam would break down if I am not too careful in handling them. I assembled everything on top of boiled rice and used some of the side dishes to prop the cat’s body. Applying the finishing touches is very easy and this is the part that I love the most. It looks like cat bus is happily strolling in the meadow. It is so ironic since it seems that he is the busiest character in the anime. Below are some pictures on how I assembled the entire bento in the lunchbox.

Honestly, I do not have the heart to eat any of the bento creations that I make so until now, my cat bus bento still sits in the fridge. I guess I will have to reheat it later for dinner but if someone wants to save me the trouble of eating it, then you are welcome to drop by the house. ^__^ 

Note: I just realized now that I am missing Catbus' whiskers. Oh well...

Bento - 5 Inuyasha Fruit Bento Plate

Chibi Inuyasha made from turnip, watermelon and grapes

We are currently eating raw diet which means that most of what we ingest are fruits and vegetables. God, I miss rice! With a surplus of fruits in the fridge, I decided to make myself an interesting lunch – an Inuyasha fruit bento plate. 

I just love Rumiko Takahashi's manga character Inuyasha. The reason why I tried to make fruit bento patterned out of him is that aside from having the supplies available, I have also fond memories watching the anime series. And since this is the first time that I am going to test my knife skills in making bento, I choose an easier pattern of Inuyasha to work with.   For this lunch project, I used the following fruits and materials:

Inuyasha Fruit Bento

A giant hand trying to pick Inuyasha up.

Thin slices of watermelon

Thin slices of turnips

Grapes

Molasses

Sesame seeds

Nori sheets

Cutter board

Clean toothpick

Ceram wrap

Parchment paper

Sharpie

Inuyasha pattern

Scalpel (I have one for bento-making purposes)

Assorted fruits (optional)

Use the sharpie to trace the pattern on the parchment paper. I got my pattern here. Once done, set aside the

pattern and cut thin slices of watermelon (clothes) and turnip (hair). Pat them dry using a paper towel.  

Place each segment of fruit on to a clean cutter board. I have a cutter board and scalpel that I use solely for bento-making so I am sure that they are clean. Place a ceram wrap over the fruits before placing the pattern on top. Trace the pattern to make Inuyasha’s hair and clothes.

For his face hands and foot, I just dipped a slice of turnip into diluted molasses to color it brown. Once you have everything, assemble it in a platter. Use sesame seeds and cut-out nori sheets for the nose and eyes, respectively. Use a clean toothpick to attach them carefully on to the face. Decorate the plate with assorted fruit slices.  Honestly, I did not have the courage to eat it (but we did eat the assorted fruits)  so it is still in the fridge until now.

Bento 4 - Super Mario Onigiri

We were doing spring cleaning a few months ago and I found a relic of an old Nintendo family computer in one of the cabinets at home. It was so old that it collected dust over the years and it has lost its luster already. Most of the wires were gnawed probably by mice and I doubt if it will run again if we give it a little buff. 

Interestingly enough, the family computer still has the old Super Mario game cartridge embedded on it. I could not remember the last time we used it but it seemed that we really loved playing it when we were still young because we never bothered to remove the cartridge from the machine. 

It brought back many nostalgic childhood memories in my mind. I made this Super Mario onigiri a few months ago but I think this is something worth sharing. To make Super Mario rice ball, you will need the following:

Super Mario Rice Ball

* Paprika rice for the face, ears and nose

* Ketchup rice for the hat

* Nori for the face details

* A clean toothpick

* Ketchup

* Cheese slices for the hat details and eyes

* Ceram wrap

* A pair of scissors

Season cooked white rice with a pinch of salt and paprika. Add just enough paprika to give the rice a light reddish-brown color. Using a ceram wrap, form  Mario’s ears, nose and face. Set aside.

On another bowl, season rice with ketchup to make the hat. Form Mario’s hat using a ceram wrap and set aside.

Cut Mario’s face details using small pieces of nori sheets. Use a pair of scissors to cut his eye balls, side burns and moustache.  On the other hand, cut three circles on your cheese slices as they will be used for the hat detail and for Mario’s eyes. Assemble everything on the plate or lunch box. Use a clean toothpick to put the details on to Mario’s face.

As usual, I had a hard time eating this onigiri because it looked so cute. Anyway, I am still thinking of making a Luigi onigiri but I have yet to decide whether I should use mashed broccoli or cabbages to  dye the rice green. 

Bento 3 - Panda Onigiri

Pandas! Who doesn't love them? I dreamed about black and white yesterday so I woke up today having the urge to make something in the kitchen and I ended up with this: 

This panda-inspired onigiri (rice ball) is made from nothing more than white rice, black sesame seeds, nori sheets and green beans. The legs, ears and arms of the panda are made from white rice mixed with ground black sesame seeds while the face details are made from cut out nori sheets. I used stringed beans to mimic green bamboo shoots. After I was finished, I did not have the heart to eat it... it's just too cute!

It seems that I have been making charaben these days and I have been neglecting the other categories in the blog but I promise to make other posts aside from this category as soon as I get free some of my schedule. Writing about bento stuffs is fun and easy and it is a great diversion for me but I think I should be writing more serious stuffs next time. ^_^

Bento 2 - Yellow Bear Tamago Onigiri

Last night, I was doodling on a piece of paper and I realized that I have drawn a poor sketch of Kerberos from Card Captor Sakura and so I decided to make a Kero-rice this morning. I was so excited while making it but I realized after slaving in the kitchen that I got several parts of him wrong and so I aptly name this bento rice Yellow Bear Tamago Onigiri (Yellow Bear Egg Rice Ball). Blame it on the poor sketch! 

I will definitely try another Kero-chan rice using the right colors next time.  For those of you who have no idea how this manga character looks like, click here and you will see what I mean about getting his color or even his ears wrong. Even if this is the case, I still loved the way this bento rice turned out and so for this particular recipe, all there is to it is for you to prepare the following:

Yellow Bear Rice

* 1 egg

* 1 cup hot rice

* 1 sliced cheese

* nori sheet (for the face details)

* side dishes

Beat 1 egg and make a scrambled egg out of it. Once done, mince the egg into small pieces and add it to 1 cup of rice. Mix well until the egg is incorporated with the rice. Add more eggs if you want your rice to have more color. When the rice mixture is no longer too hot to the touch, moisten your hands and form the rice into three balls (one big for the face and two for the ears). 

Using a clean pair of kitchen scissors, cut out three small circles (two for the eyes and one for the nose). Set aside. Also, cute the desired shape of the bear's mouth. This step is a bit challenging to do because you have to work with very small pieces of the nori for the face details but if you have a clean pair of tweezers to handle the seaweed sheet, it makes your job easier. 

I almost forgot. Don't forget to  cut out the cheese for his ears. Assemble everything inside the lunch box and put in the desired side dishes. The side dishes include round fish cakes and squid adobo to add Filipino flavor to the dish. 

Bento 1 - Totoro Rice

I have always been a big fan of Japanese animation and, well, anything kawaii (cute) from the Land of the Rising Sun. I practically grew up watching Astroboy and Doraemon  all the time. One of the things that I love about Japan is the way mothers prepare lunch for their children. And so today, I decided to add another category on this blog which will be called Bento.

Bento does not mean lunch box in Japanese. Bento is defined as a home-packed meal that contains rice, meat and vegetables that are placed in a box-shaped container.  Probably bento is associated with lunch boxes because housewives often prepare them as lunch for their children. In most cases, mothers prepare lunch boxes that are inspired by anime characters. This particular bento is called kyaraben (chara-ben).

Anyway, I woke up early today and decided to make Totoro rice for my daughter. Even as an adult, I always love watching Studio Ghibli films and Totoro happens to be one of my favorites. To make Totoro rice, all you need are the following:

Totoro Rice

* 1 tbsp. Ground black sesame seeds

* 1 cup rice

* A pinch of salt

* Nori (seaweed) sheet (for the face details)

* Sliced cheese
* Clean toothpick or tweezers
* Pair of scissors
* A lot of patience (for first timers like me ^_^)

Toast the black sesame seeds for two minutes. The sesame seeds will be used to color the rice black (or gray). Using a mortar and pestle, grind the sesame seeds until fine. 

You can use more than a tablespoon of black sesame seeds if you want to make your rice black. However, the flavor of sesame seeds can be overpowering so just use enough to slightly add color to your rice.

Add the toasted sesame seeds to the steaming rice. Use a spoon and mix the rice and seeds together. You can add salt to flavor the sesame rice. Wet your hands and start forming Totoro’s body and ears. Set them aside.

Using a pair of clean kitchen scissors, cut the nori sheets to form the details of Totoro’s face and body. You need two small circles for the eyes, whiskers and the body details.  For the eyes and stomach, use cheese sliced cheese to create the details. Assemble everything and it is ready to serve with your favorite dish.

Recently Addicted To Bento Stuffs From Saizen

From the majority of my posts here, you would think that this is a food blog. I guess cooking and baking is becoming a favorite diversion these days. Anyway, recently I have been frequenting Saizen (An 88PhP-everything store) that sells nifty Japanese knick knacks and, yes, I love collecting their cute bento stuffs. Bento - a Japanese word for lunchbox - is revered all over the world for its cuteness.

Saizen has existed in the Philippines for nearly a decade already but here in Davao City, a store has opened the same a big Robinson's Mall also opened  a couple of years ago. Although a little bit cramped compared with the other Saizen branches in the country, our local Saizen store still has a lot of stocks of things like pepper and salt shakers, cosmetics and other kitchen thingamajigs that I have not idea what they are. Currently, I have a seaweed puncher (the type that cuts seaweed wrappers to a particular shape) and several cookie molds.

Thanks to the Saizen store, moms with picky eaters like me will be able to make something cute and edible for the kids. I am still new in bento making but here is a preview of some of the things that I have made from the stuffs that I bought from Saizen. 

Hello Kitty toasts go great with hot chocolate

These little piggies will definitely be eaten!

I'd love to post some of the things that Saizen sell but apparently I felt very awkward every time I take it out in the store. I have to muster up the courage to ask the in-charge if it is okay to take pictures. And by the way, for those who do not know, they are located at 3rd Floor Robinson's Department Store in Abreeza Mall. It's beside the hardware.