bento #46: Totoro with cherry blossoms
April 30, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...) Tags: inari, makkurokurosuke, mini-totoro, nekobus, studio ghibli, totoro
6 comments
After making three Castle Crashers related bento in a row, I needed to take a break. I do adore the characters from the game, but every bento is a challenge for me. I struggle, get frustrated and learn (from big mistakes, usually) while making them. Those three bento definitely were not an easy challenge. So, again, it was time for Totoro for me.
Bento #46: Totoro with Cherry Blossoms
Created and eaten on: 4/29/2009
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my bento tools
April 28, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all) Tags: bento tools
4 comments
I was asked to provide some pictures of my bento for an Italian magazine, and they also asked me for photos of my tools. I’ve been meaning to take pictures of my tools, so I’m glad that he asked me. (Otherwise I wouldn’t have done it 
)
I bought some of them at a store, online, and my friends gave me some hole punchers for Christmas, but I don’t use them all the time. I was so busy making bento, sometimes I’ll realize later “I should’ve used that one to do this!” or “I totally forgot I had this!” I probably should organize them better.
Anyway, the tools I can’t make bento without are…
Hole punch – This is a true lifesaver. Before I got this, all pupils on the characters looked so deformed that they looked like they were crying. I can also cut out small ” c ” shaped seaweed with this.
Exact (Xacto) knife - I use this to cut out small pieces of seaweed or food. Seaweed art (cutting seaweed just like a drawing or photo) is pretty popular in the Japanese kyaraben world. They usually put seaweed on cheese because it’ll easily stick to cheese, and is less likely to curl up or get wrinkly when the seaweed is placed on the cheese firmly. I tried making seaweed art for the “Shadow of the Colossus grilled cheese sandwich” and “Professor Layton bento.” It’s actually not as hard as it looks, but you have to be very patient to do this. Seaweed art is definitely not something you want to try in the morning when you’re making bento in a rush. (Don’t ever do it. It’s very dangerous!)
Scissors - Just ordinary scissors, but I use them only in the kitchen.
College tweezers (the one that’s long and skinny with curved head) – I usually use this to apply seaweed on characters’ faces. But since it’s very long and skinny, it can go into the hard to reach places like the surface of the face of the Big Daddy in my “BioShock bento.”
Single blade razor – This is great for cutting a short straight line. The tip of a regular knife is usually curved, and you always have to make sure the food (egg sheet, cheese, etc…) is actually cut and separated. But with this, you just have to push it down. The blade is much thinner than a regular knife, so you don’t have to worry about breaking tiny veggie pieces apart.
Fruit knife – A smaller knife is definitely more useful than a big knife in bento making.
Straw – It works like a hole puncher for solid food like cheese or veggies. Also you can just cut the tip after you use it to keep it sanitary.
Toothpicks – Toothpicks are a great multi-purpose tool. You can make a tiny hole with it, you can use it to shift food, you can apply chocolate (not for bento, but baking stuff) or mayonnaise on food, etc…
Plastic caps / strip of a plastic bottle - Cutting something circle with a knife is extremely difficult, and cookie cutters can be too big, so I use plastic caps of various products. I collect a lot of them and I just throw it away when it gets old.
*By the way, I wash blades (exacto knife, single blade razor, etc…), and disinfect the blade by holding it in a flame and wiping it with rubbing alcohol after each use.
And these tools aren’t absolutely necessary, but it’s very helpful to have…
Cookie cutters – I have many cookie cutters but I only use some of them to cut veggie and cheese. I usually use just part of the cookie cutters. For example, I’d use the tip of a star shaped cookie cutter to cut a ” ^ ” shape out of sliced carrot or cheese to make flowers or stars. (It only works for bigger pieces though.)
Various hole punchers – The ones with faces on them are made specifically for seaweed. It’s just a slightly easier to get seaweed out of it, but they’re basically the the same as the craft punchers.
Sauce / mayonnaise containers – I rarely use the sauce containers actually. I usually forget that I have them. It’s a shame, because they’re adorable.
Like I said, maybe I don’t use my tools as much as I should, but sometimes I get inspiration from my tools. If I really want to use a certain tool, I’ll think and see if I can make a bento using the tool. You can get tons of kyaraben products in Japan for very cheap, so I can’t wait until the next time I go. 
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
how to make Mokona sandwich
April 26, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: CLAMP, mokona, sandwich
9 comments
I’ve gotten a couple of requests for kyaraben now, and I greatly appreciate anyone taking time to write me. But the thing is, I can only make what my boyfriend likes for kyaraben. It’s not that I won’t, but I really can’t. I have to “get “what I make.
Some people think I’m creative, but I’m really not! I’m just good at copying stuff in a nerdy way. In order to transform 2-D art into bento, I have to understand what makes it “it”. But some of the requests I got were anime related, and I’ve watched those shows, so I decided to make an exception, and do a how-to.
This was a request by an 11 year-old girl I received quite some time ago. Mokona is a rabbit-like creatures from CLAMP’s sister series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, xxxHolic, and Magic Knight Rayearth. The first thing I thought of was a Mokona rice ball, but she mentioned that can’t get Asian groceries where she lives, so I decided to make it with bread.
[Mokona]
- white bread (I used two slices)
- ham
- seaweed OR crust OR blueberry skin OR chocolate (whatever you can get to make the eyes)
- ketchup OR tomato
- mayonnaise *optional
– strip of cut out plastic bottle (see “how to make Totoro peanut butter sandwich”)
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bento #45: Pink Castle Crasher and Tom Fulp
April 25, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - video game Tags: castle crashers, dan paladin, newgrounds, the beard, the behemoth, tom fulp
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After I made the Castle Crashers bento, the image was posted in the forum on Newgrounds.com. Newgrounds is a flash game/animation site which was created and is owned by Tom Fulp, who is also one of the creators of Castle Crashers.
The members of Newgrounds saw the bento, and were greatly upset (in a good nerdy way) by the fact that I left out the Pink Castle Crasher. The Pink Castle Crasher only shows up in a very short flash game called “Castle Crashing: The Beard.” The game is “all about Tom Fulp’s commitment to not shave his face until his next console game, Castle Crashers, is completed.” (from the description of the game at Newsgrounds.com) It’s more like a parody game, and when you level up with all regular Castle Crashers, you turn into the Pink Castle Crasher! This smiling Pink Castle Crasher’s got a big lollipop weapon that makes rainbow streaks. Anyway, long story short, people decided to have a contest for an edible Pink Castle Crasher on the forum at Newgrounds. You can see the entries here. (People’s entries can be seen from page 2 and later) I’ve been enjoying everyone’s entry, but since I caused the mess (in their kitchen), I decided to make one too.
Bento #45: Pink Castle Crasher
Created and eaten on: 4/23/2009
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bento #44: Animal Orbs bento
April 23, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - video game Tags: animal orbs, castle crashers, the behemoth
5 comments
After I made the Castle Crashers bento, I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Dan Paladin, the developer at the Behemoth (the studio that created Castle Crashers). He liked my bento, and told me that he was posting the picture of it on the Behomoth’s dev blog. (See here) I wrote in my reply to him that I wasn’t completely satisfied with the bento because I could make only one Animal Orb…
Bento #44: Animal orbs bento
Created and eaten on: 4/22/2009
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kick in the head 2000th comic!
April 21, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else, stuffed stuff Tags: Dude, kick in the head, plush toy
2 comments
No bento blog today, but instead, I want to celebrate my boyfriend’s webcomic, kick in the head’s 2000th comic! (Make sure you read the comic for 4/22 too!) He’s been drawing a comic daily (except weekends) since 2003! And I think that’s pretty darn impressive. I’ve made bento of Dude, the main character from Kick in the head, twice, and steamed buns of him before, so I didn’t make Dude themed food, but I decided to finish a little plush of Dude I’ve been working on and gave it to him.
In his comic, Dude is easily irritated, but my boyfriend isn't. 
There’s a Japanese proverb “Keizoku wa chikara nari.” It means something like “perseverance is power.” Doing anything almost daily for 6 years definitely isn’t easy. (to me, definitely) That’s more than enough reason why my boyfriend deserves my bento and this little Dude plush! I hope I’ll be still blogging 6 years from now…
Bento #4: Kick in the head bento!
Bento #11: Kick in the head, Wii fit bento!
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
how to make domo-kun marshmallow
April 19, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in how-to (all), how-to - characters (Ghibli, video game, Wall-E) Tags: domo-kun, marshmallow
9 comments
My boyfriend and I went to New York aquarium today. We watched fish, sharks, walruses, sea otters, penguins, the sea lion show, and the “4-D experience”. 4-D experience was cool but a bit short and confusing at some point. I heard a kid shouting “What is happening!?” during the show, which I found it pretty funny. (Read my boyfriend’s comic about our 4-D experience.)
Anyway, I was feeling lazy after we came back from the aquarium, so I just decided to do a how-to on the Domo-kun chocolate covered marshmallow.
[Domo-kun chocolate covered marshmallow]
- Marshmallow
- Two different kinds of chocolate, light and dark (doesn’t have to be baker’s chocolate, but baker’s chocolate I have is darker, so I
used baker’s chocolate for the darker chocolate)
- Red icing
- White icing
– toothpick
– wax paper
– pastry bag and tip or Wilton icing tube and tip attachment. (You can buy the attachments made for Wilton icing tube, and all you have to do is put it on the tube.) *I’m not sure if ziploc bag is suitable for this one, since the mouth and teeth are very small.
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me and rabbit
April 18, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in Everything else 4 comments
Sorry to disappoint you, but no bento blog today, but I just wanted to write this post, mainly to post this particular picture of me. As you can see on the “press” page, I’ve done a couple of interviews about my bento. Almost always asked for a picture of me. I guess it’s like the “author’s photos” in a book, but I usually tell them I’m not comfortable giving them the most recent picture of me, and I’d offer a favorite picture of myself.
I was probably 3~4 years old. I was at the amusement park in my hometown. I just love this picture. Me with a sinister smile and not-so huggable looking rabbit in his dirty rabbit suit. The way rabbit’s head is tilted and cut off from the picture makes it even eerier.
One time when I had a game magazine interview I offered this picture , but they told me that the picture was too old so they didn’t use it. =/
I was recently invited to “beautiful ladies behind the bento!” group on flickr. It’s a group where bento makers post their own pictures. I was honored to be invited, and I thought it was a cute idea, so I joined. The leader of the group, texasmomof4 (Donna) was kind enough to let me submit this “me and rabbit” picture.
When someone put a picture of one of my bento on reddit, people started discussing all sorts of stuff about me. Some people said I was probably a lonely housewife living in Japan, making bento for her husband because her life is so miserable and making bento was the only thing that can make her happy, and went on about how women in Japan are almost forced to be domesticated after they get married. HA! Back then, I was still mostly known as “kickintheheadcomic’s (my boyfriend’s flickr account name) girlfriend”, and some people were curious to see what I looked like. Someone finally found a picture of me and posted a link to the comment section. I wasn’t really trying to keep my appearance secret from cyberspace, but I was glad that before this happened I made my “party pictures” private on my flickr.
I quickly replaced my face with “Laughing man” from Ghost in the Shell as a very nerdy joke. More comments were added after that, complaining they could no longer see my face. Someone found another picture of me, and saved it on his computer, and uploaded it to his personal webspace so I couldn’t change it. I didn’t care about it so much, but I tried not to read comments after that. The pictures of me you can find online now are nothing weird or inappropriate. They are work related, so I decided not to hide them. The whole thing didn’t upset me at all, but it was very interesting to watch people’s comments and reactions about what they had though I was like. The internet is such a convenient and scary place, and definitely highly entertaining.
non-bento #14: domo-kun
April 16, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - non bento Tags: domo-kun, marshmallow
6 comments
Seems like I’m getting a lot of traffic on “How to make Totoro cream puffs” from “boing boing.” I just want to say Domo Arigato to everyone! I feel extremely flattered by people’s positive comments, and it makes me so happy to see some people are saying how they can’t wait to make them. (And some of them have already made them! I’m asking their permission to post the images on my blog now…)
To show how much I appreciate everyone’s love for food, I give you Domo Arigato, Domo-kun marshmallow!
Do~mo~
Non-bento #14: Domo-kun
Created and eaten on: 4/16/2009
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bento sketch book #3
April 14, 2009
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - sketch Tags: sketches
2 comments
No bento blog today, but I’d like to show more sketches from my bento sketch book. Most of the notes are in Japanese, but you can still see what went wrong and what went right.
Bento #28: Toon Link!
Something is different about him (in both my sketch and the actual bento)… Maybe his mouth? Maybe his head wasn’t big enough? As I explained in my blog post of this bento, I originally wanted to have Tingle in this bento, but I didn’t have time to do it… But I like how the clothes on him look like real fabrics.
Bento #29: Moyashimon!
What a half-assed job I did for this sketch… It seemed so easy that I totally underestimated this. Some of bacteria were made up by me, and didn’t even have face on them in the sketch. The bento looked cute, but I wasn’t too happy about it since it wasn’t very accurate.
Bento #30: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2!
This bento came out pretty much exactly like the sketch. I doodled Rayman and a toilet outside the bento just in case I had extra time to make them, but when do I ever have extra time when I make bento? NEVER.
Bento #31: Totoro Snowman!
I got lazy and didn’t draw snow in the sketch, so the sketch doesn’t look like anything that interesting. Totoro is my safety-blanket bento, and just drawing a sketch of Totoro makes me happy. Besides, this bento didn’t have that much details either, so I did this sketch in about 5 minutes. Gotta love Totoro!
For bigger pictures of my sketches, just click on the image of sketch or visit Bento Sketches! on my flickr page.
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
