Bento Corner

So my husband wanted to try making a kyaraben after my failed attempt at making the meppuru bento. He had a lot of confidence in making it since he spent a great deal of time painting miniatures. I told him that it's really difficult to get in the detail of the character especially the eyes and the hair. He told me of his strategy and confidently said that he  would like to give it a shot, what with his extensive background in...oh, yes, painting miniatures.

Here is a picture of the actual character, Cure White:

And here is my husband's interpretation of Cure White:

He showed this bento to me first. He admitted that it was more difficult than he thought. But he did point out that he did the shadowing with soy sauce and everything...The face is made of sliced turkey; the shirt, as well as the whites of the eyes, and ribbon is made of sliced cheese; and finally, the hair and dark parts of the face is made of organic fruit strips.

My daughter took one look at this bento and said, "Wow, daddy made a bento!"

After observing it for a few seconds she asked, "What's this daddy? A rabbit?"

Elephant onigiri with chicken and cucumber/radish salad.

Elephant onigiri with pink kamaboko ears and trunk and konbu for the eye and mouth. The tomato has a smiley face made with black sesame seed and konbu for the mouth. For the cucumber/radish salad, I sliced both vegetables and then lightly salted them for 30 minutes or so. Squeezed out the excess water and binded them with some mayonnaise.

 The chicken is stewed in a sweet teriyaki sauce. Then sliced mango and blueberries for dessert.

My daughter actually ate the tomato because it was so cute. Amazing considering she hates tomatoes.

Botched bear onigiri with okra ohitashi and red beans.

I call this botched bento because I was really trying for a meppuru kyaraben. It failed miserably, and it was taking more time than anticipated so I changed it into a bear onigiri at the last minute. Oy! The eyes are oh so uneven... Anyway, the blue bow tie is made of kamaboko; the face is made of nori and jack cheese. Bento also includes chikuwa with jack cheese, sweet red beans from the Japanese market, and okra ohitashi from the frozen food section of the same market. And a strawberry for dessert. My daughter thought the bear was cute despite what I (and my husband) thought about it. I guess my daughter sometimes cuts me some slack...

Lion yakisoba bento with gyoza.

This bento was so easy to make! The lion face is made of egg -- just mix it as if to make scrambled eggs and just fry in a pan. Cut out a square for the face and cut nori pieces to make the face. The mane is made of yakisoba. I placed all the veggies and meat underneath the egg face. The gyoza is from the frozen food section at the Japanese market.

The kiwi is cut out in the shape of birds but you can't really tell. Also cut some mango which can hardly be seen in the photo and apples. My daughter was so curious to see this bento before I packed it, so I showed her. She recognized right away that it was a lion and admired it for awhile. Then she requested that I peel the skin of the apple. I told her that she should challenge to eat the peel so I just packed it as is. When she got back she had eaten everything without complaints.  yay!