Friday, August 10, 2007

Bento, Bento Baby

One of my true loves has to be bento box lunches. I collect bento boxes, I think I have about ten now and there is nothing I like better than filling them with artistically arranged tasty food. It's a real obsession. I have bento'd in awhile because for the unpracticed, it's rather daunting, and I don't like to do it, unless I can do it super cute. I even draw out each bento design before I do it!

But I am VERY amatuer compaired to some people! Check out www.cookingcute.com, her stuff is truly awe-inspiring.

I love the idea behind bento. A nutrious meal on the go, that is pleasing to the eye, as well as the stomach.

Here are a few of my old bento creations.


This one is my very first. Bottom: A bed of steamed short grain rice, with nori heart cutouts, a pineapple gummi, some light garlic and onion cheese, and some candied papaya. Middle tier: Two crab rolls, a lot of japanese candies! YUM! Top tier: A fortune cookie hiding under the lide, some yummy baby corn with almond slivers, and some salmon with a mandarin orange marinade.




My second and cutest! A pirate themed bento box. Bottom tier, steamed short grain rice, with "sand" made from toasted sesame, nori stars, and a little curry powder. So tasty when mixed into the rice! Chocolate coins make buried treasure, and a little food color used on really clean foam stamps make a cut sun and crab. Middle Tier: Chocolate and mint fudge, next to that is more baby corn and almond slivers, a sliced up mini cheese wheel (That's the red) bluberries, more candied papaya, and a koala's march cookie. One pineapple gummy in package. TOP tier: A delicious stir fry with these neat noodles I got at the asian mart, crab and bamboo shoots, topped with sesame, almonds, and a nori skull and cross bones.

This is a few more bento's into the future, I didn't record the others for some reason. X( I made two this round, this one is for me and catered more to my tastes.
Left to right, clockwise: A yummy mochi cake filled with red bean paste! YUM! Gummies (kiwi and pineapple, I'm obsessed) and wasabi peas. I love the burn. The next section is filled with chicken ticka masala, topped with 2 fried spinach cheese puffs, and some cilantro. Next a baby cheese wheel, two caramel filled hershey kisses, and some fresh red declicious apple slices and organic fruit gummies. A delightful bed of curry flavored couscous with several picks of steamed edameme on top! Oh my goodness this was such a good dinner!


My boyfriends version of the last dinner! This was the box I made to cater to his tastes. Green container, my beloved fruit gums, and mini cheese wheel. Fresh sliced asian pear with organic fruit chews, and lady fingers filled with nutella. Mmmyum. Blue container: Chicken Tikka Masala Cilantro for garnish. Yellow container: Curry Couscous with sushi grass as garnish, little nori flower cutouts, and grape tomatos made into little flowers. Looks like a garden, yeah? I love the colors on this one!!!

I have a lot more, but these are the ones that were particularly tasty and or pretty. :3

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thats great! I love Bento boxes too!! They are truly small works of art. Check out my bento box art section at Sushi or Death:
http://www.sushiordeath.com/nama/bento-box-art/

Bento Pet said...

Wow!! Very nice!

Dolores said...

I like the bento concept too... great for portion control! But I'm no where *near* as creative as you are. Great themes!