non-bento #26: the very hungry caterpillar
August 25, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - american, bento blog - non bento Tags: avocado, sushi, the very hungry caterpillar
6 comments
When I did the Bento Contest for EpiCute and My Food Looks Funny site, I saw some very interesting requests. And one of them was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I thought it’d be a bit too easy to make a bento of it, so I didn’t pick it. But it turns out my boyfriend loved the book as a child, and that was enough reason for me to make it with food!
The local market I always shop at has a decent fresh fish selection and they also have a little sushi counter where a guy makes sushi and sells them in a package. When I was looking at it, this idea came to my mind.
Non-bento #26: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Created and eaten on: 8/21/2010
For this, I decided to try using the hangiri (wooden shallow bowl to mix sushi rice in) I got recently. Hangiri literally means “cutting rice.” Because when you mix the rice for sushi, you move the spatula to cut/slice rice sideways rather than “mixing” it. I always wanted to get one of these so I was happy to find this one at Sunrise mart (Japanese supermarket) in NYC. I don’t make sushi that regularly, so this was good enough for me.
It's up to 3 cup of rice, comes with a wooden shallow bowl, two spatulas and two sushi roller. It was $19.99, and you can also buy it from Amazon.com too.
*If you’re serious about making sushi and considering buying a hangiri, make sure you buy the one made with cypress. The one I bought is made with pine, which is a lot cheaper than cypress, but it won’t last as long as the one made with cypress.
The spatulas and sushi roller that came with it were very small. I was wondering why, but then I realized it was for “hand rolls” as you can see in the package. Duh.
On the left: The spatulas and sushi rollers that came with it. On the right: A regular spatula and sushi roller.
I wet the hangiri first, then dumped the freshly cooked rice in it. I cheated and used the sushi rice powder though. (for those who want to make sushi rice from scratch, check out “how to make sushi rice.”)
The rice came out definitely better than the rice mixed in a metal bowl. It’s very easy to mix rice in a shallow big space without crushing rice grains. Also with a regular bowl, even if you wet the bowl, some rice still stick to the bowl. But with the wooden hangiri, the wood absorbs the moisture so the rice won’t stick to it at all.
This really isn’t meant to be a how-to post, but I took some pictures as I made it, so I’m going to post them here.
I put avocado, fake crab meat, and scallion inside this time, but I don’t think there are any rules to what you can put inside. (Sorry for some photos being a bit orangey. We didn’t use the lighting kit we have this time.)
Put sushi rice on the half of seaweed.
Put it upside down on a plastic wrap.
We put avocado, fake crab meat and scallion inside this time.
And roll it!
Take off the plastic cover, and carefully put thinly sliced avocado on top of the roll.
Cover it with a plastic wrap.
And very gently roll it again. (Don't squish the avocado.)
You definitely want to use the sharpest knife you have. I cut it with the plastic cover on so I could hold the roll as I cut it.
After you cut the roll, carefully place them onto a plate just like the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
No special technique involved! Just make a wave with the avocado roll.
And make a small sushi with tuna, make the eyes with egg sheet (see “how to make an egg sheet”) and lettuce, cut seaweed for the mouth, and purple cabbage for antenna. If you don’t have an egg sheet ready, you can also use cheese.
He looks kind of surprised than hungry. Maybe he realized that he's the one that gets eaten this time.
I cut seaweed for his tiny little legs.
This very hungry caterpillar sure makes me hungry.
Even his cute little butt looks tasty.
The avocado we picked was maybe too ripe. Ripe avocado is melty and tasty, but very fragile and starts to change its color rather fast.
I know lemon juice is known to preserve avocado’s color, so maybe I’ll try sprinkle some on avocado next time.
I didn’t really make anything special for this Very Hungry Caterpillar dinner. I just put them in a certain way, and added a couple of things for his face and legs. If you’re feeling super lazy, you can even buy avocado rolls! 
You can use a mini tomato for his face if you aren’t into raw fish. We also made salmon and tuna sushi addition to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s amazing how cheap it is to make sushi at home.
Were we still hungry after eating the hungry caterpillar, dozen pieces of salmon sushi and dozen pieces of tuna sushi? NO. We were stuffed. We actually couldn’t finish them all that night and ate them next day. But we know we can always get hungry for the very hungry caterpillar any day. Especially my boyfriend!
As I mentioned in the beginning, there are some very interesting requests on EpiCute and My Food Looks Funny sites. Maybe I might try making them later!
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
20 easy bento for kids!
August 10, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - original Tags: 20 easy bento, parenting.com
13 comments
It may not seem to you like I’ve been making any food at all, but this is why!
Click on the image to go to the article on parenting.com!
A friend of a friend of my friend works for parenting.com and asked me if I was interested in making 20 bento for kids. I was hesitant at first because all my bento are for my boyfriend, and I had never made bento for kids… but I do like a challenge so I decided to do it.
The difficult part was I could only use rice for a couple bento. Most ingredients had to be easy to buy at a local supermarket. As you can see, no hot dog was allowed because hot dog is choking hazard and not appropriate for kids. So are whole grapes, whole cherry tomato, popcorn, nuts, raw vegetables, etc… (Read anti-choking guide on each page for more information.) The age target was 3~10, so I made very small bento, middle size bento, and biggish bento.
Click on each image to go to the article of the bento.
Bunny bento
Caterpillar bento
Tic tac toe bento
Jelly flower bento
Pizza bento
Train bento
Lion bento
Nest bento
Cat bento
Sheep bento
Bear bento
Hedgehog bento
Piggy bento
Cake bento
Tiger bento
Cow bento
Giraffe bento
Burger bento
Baseball bento
Panda bento
I also have a couple of how-to’s I did for this project. Click on the bold text to check out the how-to!
How to seal a sandwich – I made a lot of sandwiches for this project. I think sandwiches are easy to prepare for busy parents. Also you can put pretty much ANYTHING in “sealed sandwiches”! You can put hummus (as they suggest in the article), egg salad, small hamburg, even pasta! You can buy various shaped sealed sandwich makers from bento store online, but I used stuff in my kitchen to make it.
How to make a ham flower – Ham and a tiny piece of uncooked pasta (optional) can make a pretty flower!
How to make a jelly sandwich flower – If your kids love jelly sandwiches, try this!
How to make rusks – As I was making sandwiches, I realized that I had a lot of leftover crust. I didn’t want to waste it, so I used it to make a very easy sweet snack for kids. All you need is margarine, sugar and a little bit of cinnamon.
You may notice that I used something that I don’t usually use for for my boyfriend’s bento… silicone baking cups! Small ones are great for holding ketchup, peanut butter, small snacks, etc… and you can use the big ones to cook the food in and put it in a bento box. Omelets are very easy to make with a silicone cup too. You just mix the ingredients and bake it until it’s cooked. I also used silicone cups to hold different kinds of fruit, so that juice from fruits won’t get to other fruit. The best part is it’s reusable!
I have some regrets, and things I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve done differently or better… but it was a lot of fun, and great practice for me. 
All bento listed here are very easy, but some of the bento might take a longer than the others. If you never made a bento like these before, or a bento beginner, I have a couple of advices for you.
- Don’t try to re-make the entire bento. Just make one or two elements from each bento.
- Don’t stress yourself out on details! So what if your bear looks like a cat. The important thing is to make it with love.
- You don’t necessarily have to use the food you (or your kids) don’t like. Bento is like a training for you/your kids to eat small portion of various food, so it should be fun. (If you’re a parent, I’m sure you know how&where to hide the veggie in kids food. 
)
- Try making them with your kids or friends, and have fun!
I’d like to thank Ganda and Kathleen at Parenting.com for giving me this opportunity!
Go to the main page to check out 20 Easy Bento Lunch Boxes (at Parenting.com)!
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
Bento #77: the Moomins
July 21, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - anime Tags: Litte My, Moomins, Moomintroll, Snork Maiden, Snufkin
8 comments
I almost forgot to blog about the Moomins!
This was another bento I made for the Dream Bento Contest!
Bento #77: the Moomins
Created and eaten on: 7/6/2010
I was actually surprised to see some people requested the Moomins. I grew up watching the Moomins the animated show, thinking that the Moomins were hippos and it was Japanese. But it turned out, the Moomins are actually trolls and from Finland.
“The carefree and adventurous family live in their house in Moominvalley, in the forests of Finland, though in the past their temporary residences have included a lighthouse and a theatre. They have many adventures along with their various friends.” (from Wikipedia)
There are many interesting looking characters in the Moomins, but I decided to focus on the ones I really liked. The main Moomin, simply named “Moomin”, his girlfriend the Snork Maiden, Snufkin, Little My (pronounced “mee”) and of course, Hattifatteners! (“Nyoronyoro” in Japanese).
*Trivia: Moomin’s girlfriend had no name and was just called “the Snork Maiden” but it was called “Non-non” in the Japanese series (and that’s the one I remember), but then the author complained that the name sound negative, so they changed it to “Florence” later.
To make the bento look like Moominvalley, I put lettuce around the bento box first.
Moominvalley is surrounded with nature.
For Moomin, I mixed rice with ground black sesame seed and and mixed it with rice and a little bit of salt.
I thought Moomin was a hippo when I was little.
For the Snork Maiden, I mixed rice with the yolk from a hard boiled egg. When I was done mixing the rice, I wrapped two different kinds of rice in a separate plastic wrap and molded into the shape of a Moomin.
Awwww aren't they lovely?
*Trivia: Snorks are identical to Moomintrolls. The difference is Snorks come in different colors, and they can also change color according to their mood and feelings.
I wrapped mashed potato in plastic wrap, made the shape of Snufkin, and put it in the bento. For his face I cut out a half-circle from ham and put it on the mashed potato. Then I cut seaweed into the shape of his signature hat with scissors, put it on a slice of cheese, and cut the cheese around the seaweed. After I put his hat on his head, I cut cheese for the feather in his hat.
"One can never be truly free if one admires someone else too much."
For Little My I used leftover yam from the Lorax bento. I made a tear drop shape with a small oval shape using plastic wrap, and put it in the bento. Then I cut out ham in the same shape I used for Snufkin, and put it on her face.
She looks so mischievious.
I used a toothpick to make the lines on her hair.
For meat/veggies, I made my usual asparagus and carrot wrapped with bacon to make flowers, and put them in the bento.
I cheated and used a cutter for the flowers.
And those Hattifatteners… They’re white long living things with a lot of arm-like things on the side. They have eyes but no mouth, and they don’t talk but kind of move their body around to communicate. I cut fish cake into their shape, cut cheese for their eyes and put black sesame seeds for the pupils.
Later I learned that they travel in odd numbers... T_T
After all the characters were put in place, I stuck some asparagus and broccoli to fill empty spaces, made flowers with carrot, fish cake and cheese. Then I made everyone’s eyes with fish cake and seaweed.
As I was writing this blog post, I realized something… Something very embarrassing.
But I was in such a rush!
I forgot to put the blond hair on the Snork Maiden!
So I suppose Moomin is just hooking up with some random Snork in my bento.
Or…
There I fixed it.
If you like it, you might also like this site.
Aside from the horrible mistake I made, I do like my Moomins bento. The Moomins’ facial expression reminds me of Totoro. I guess Moomintrolls are kind of like European Totoro.
Only after I made the bento, I found out that Moomins the movie is coming out this summer! I’ve actually seen the music video of Bjork with footage from the movie before, but I thought it was just made for her video, and didn’t realize it was actually from the movie!
“Moomins and the comet chase” will be in theaters on August 2010, which is only a couple of weeks away! The movie is in 3D, but not the usual 3D. It’s done in claymation style!! I think it’s amazing that someone’s still making claymation films where other studios are rushing to make everything in CG/3D (with glasses).
Read more about the movie at the official site -> http://www.originalmoomin.com/
If you’re a fan of the Moomins or a fan of good old claymation style film, you should definitely check it out!
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
Bento #76: The Lorax
July 10, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - american Tags: Dr. Seuss, the Lorax
13 comments
Have you checked out the results for the Dream Bento Contest at EpiCute and My Food Looks Funny yet?
It wasn’t easy by any means, but it was a lot of fun. I initially picked the Lorax by Dr. Seuss but after I got an extension for the deadline, I decided do the Moomins as well.
I’m usually against taking requests for bento, but that’s because it’s hard to make something that I don’t know too much about. Little details make a huge difference when making kyaraben, and it takes a lot longer than usual to plan and make a bento based on something you aren’t familiar with.
I’ll first do a blog post about the Lorax since it was my first pick.
Bento #76: the Lorax
After I decide to do a bento of the Lorax, I watched a video of the Lorax, gathered reference images, and studied what makes the world of the Lorax “Lorax-like.” His beard, the pile of rocks, Truffula trees, Humming Fish, Swomee Swans, Bar-ba-Loots (which I couldn’t make), the Once-ler’s house, and his green arms.
For the green field, I mixed rice with sea kelp furikake (seasoning), and for the sky, I mixed rice with black sesame seed.
I cut meatballs in half and buried them into the rice for the top of the Truffula tree. I tried making Truffula trees fluffy, but it didn’t really work out, so I used a cutter to cut out cheese and carrot and put it on the meatball. For the pink one, I made a small rice ball and put sakura denbu (sweet pink fish flakes) all over it. Then I cut an egg sheet to make the tree part.
For the bush around the tree, I cut purple cabbage into thin strips, dressed it in vinegar and sesame oil, and left it sit until it softened. Then I put it around the bottom of the tree.
I knew I didn’t have enough meatballs so at the lower part of the bento I cooked asparagus and carrot wrapped it with bacon, and grape tomato with corn.
For the pile of rocks, I carved a potato, fried it, and put it on the rice. It’s the same way I made the body of the Big Daddy from BioShock bento.
I made mashed yam, shaped it like the Lorax and put it above the pile of rocks made with potato. Then I cut an egg sheet for his beard, and used a straw to cut out carrot for his nose.
I made Humming Fish with cheese and Swomee Swans with egg sheet and cheese.
I previously had cut seaweed into the shape of the Once-ler’s house, so I put it on cheese, and cut it around the seaweed. To finish it, I cut fishcake for clouds and everyone’s eyes, put black sesame seeds on, and put pieces of broccoli for the Once-ler’s arms.
The hardest thing about this bento was that there were sooooooo many small pieces of food, which I couldn’t prepare in advance because the cheese would either melt or get hard, and seaweed on any food would get wrinkly.
The story in this bento may not be consistent with the book since I have all Truffula trees, the pile of rocks and Once-ler’s house in the same scene, but this was the best I could do.There are a lot of things I wanted to do better in this bento, but I do like how the Lorax came out.
"I speak for the trees!"
If you’re just making the Lorax, it’s very easy! You just need mashed yam, a tiny piece of carrot, cheese and black sesame seeds. For his beard, you can use cheese instead of egg sheet!
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
Ghibli feast #8: the Castle of Cagliostro
June 2, 2010
Posted by AnnaTheRed in bento blog (all), bento blog - ghibli (totoro, etc...), bento blog - non bento Tags: Ghibli feast, the castle of cagliostro
6 comments
Day 3 of Ghibli feast
Ghibli feast #8: The Castle of Cagliostro
This is the last feast in Ghibli feast! When I decided to do a Ghibli feast, I knew that I wanted to watch this film last. This film isn’t by Studio Ghibli, but the Castle of Cagliostro is the first theatrical film Hayao Miyazaki directed in 1979. I used to watch Lupin the Third on TV when I was little. Lupin the Third is a TV series version with most of the characters from the Castle of Cagliostro. I remember it was funny but also very raunchy sometimes. But Miyazaki turned the anime for grownups into a beautiful masterpiece filled with action, comedy and love.
Especially the car chase scene in the beginning is probably the best animated car chase scenes ever made. If you’re a Miyazaki film fan, and haven’t seen the Castle of Cagliostro, you must see it! The main character may not be a strong willed innocent girl or boy, trying to save the world, but you can see how Miyazaki really enjoyed making this film. I think that the car chase scene describe the personality and relationship of Lupin and Jigen (his sidekick with a magnum) very well. They’re both crazily adventurous and trust each other. It was a famous (but unconfirmed) rumor that Steven Spielberg was blown away by this film, especially the car chase scenes. I’m not surprised if the rumor is true.
After Lupin and Jigen realize that the money they stole are very famous counterfeit money “goat bills,” they decide to go straight to the source and enter the Principality of Cagliostro. They learn about the wedding of Count Cagliostro and Princess Clarice when a waitress brings a mountain of pasta and meatballs.
[Pasta with meatballs]
This is probably the second most famous food in Miyazaki films. (The first is of course being Laputa bread) Unlike Laputa bread or other famous food in Ghibli films, this pasta is not very detailed, but how they eat made this simple pasta with meatballs look so amazing.
We made a simple tomato sauce with crushed tomato and basil, an used IKEA meatballs. (I know it’s cheating but they are so soft inside, and we like them!)
No technique involved in this dish. I just had to carefully make a mountain of pasta. It's not impossible, but it required patience.
I also had to carefully place the meatballs on top of the pasta.
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Not as much as the film but it's still a lot of pasta!
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I think this kind of food definitely goes into the category of the “food that makes you want to try because of the unrealistically large portions of it.”
This is a bit trivia, but didyou notice that Lupin’s friend, Goemon Ishikawa, is buried in the pile of counterfeit money in the backseat of Lupin’s car when they escape from a bank robbery?
This is about 2 minutes into the film. You can see his hair and his katana.
Goemon and Lupin have a different friendship than Jigen and Lupin. Goemon usually shows up when there’s a job, but he doesn’t hang out with Lupin outside the “work” like Jigen does. After they rob the bank in the beginning, Goemon disappears and doesn’t show up until much later. So the very first scene Goemon appears is the Castle of Cagliostro is actually in the very beginning! I was telling this to my boyfriend when we were watching the exact scene. He didn’t know about this, so he had to go back and check it. When he saw it, he laughed and said “AWESOME!”
And this sounds kinda off-topic but not. My boyfriend and I were working at Anime North in Canada past weekend, and I got to hang out with my friend who lives in Canada. It has nothing to do with my Ghibli feast but I thought it’d be perfect to post the picture of his car in this post.
Compare the car with my friend who's standing next to it. It's so tiny!
Does it look familiar?
That’s right!
This is the exact same car as Lupin’s car, Fiat 500 Cinquecento!
It used to be yellow like Lupin's car, but after many repairs and restorations, it's green now.
The engine is in the back.
The gas tank is in the front.
Space-wise, I’d say the inside is about the same as the inside of a mini-cooper, but four of us were able to fit in the car. Everyone at Anime North was waving at us as we drove by them. My friend (the car owner) was so used to it, he was waving back to them as if he were a president.
To sum up the Ghibli feast, it was so much fun! I got to make and learn how to cook food that I’d never cooked before. Such as making poached salmon, gutting mackerel, making fish pot pie, cooking shishamo, roasting soybeans, etc… And also guessing what’s in the food by just looking at screenshots was fun too. Studying the texture and the color of the food and how it’s cooked made us pay more attention to the food in the film.
Even though I try to cook something different as much as I can, when I get lazy I always end up making food that I’ve cooked many many times, so this was a great challenge for me. I’m so glad that I did this. My favorite dish from the entire Ghibli feast was the fish pot pie from Kiki’s Delivery Service. We had no idea how it’d taste before we made it, and when we ate it, it was something we’d never tasted before in a very pleasant way.
I hope you get out of your comfort zone, and try cooking something you’ve never cooked before. You might learn a new technique, and find amazingly delicious food to be added to your recipe books!
You can also see these pictures in Ghibi feast set on my flickr page!
