#2: 20,000 leagues under the bento
I've noticed that one of the problems I have with making bentos is that I want to stuff the entire contents of my refrigerator into my little owl box. While that would make lunch a fabulous lunch to rival Man v. Food, I don't think I have enough rubber bands to hold the lid on.
So, after narrowing down what I could, I proudly present to you Bento Number 2, affectionately known as 20 000 leagues under the sea/octopus bento.
Using turkey hot dogs I somewhat skillfully fashioned a couple of little octopus characters. This is a pretty typical bento addition in Japan; mine didn't turn out quite how I envisioned them, but I think they turned out pretty cute anyway. Tamagoyaki makes an encore appearance this week and the vegetables feature gobo, lotus root, taro, and mushrooms, courtesy of BCS Asian foods store. I felt so adventurous buying and preparing them!
I'd also like to take some time to highlight what I consider to be the ingredient of the week: Enoki mushrooms! I just think these little guys are so precious (not to mention delicious.
Tell me they don't look like something straight out of a Miyazaki film :)
The recipes I used for the vegetables and instructions for an octopus were found in this book; the pictures are a lot of fun even if you aren't making a bento yourself.
So, after narrowing down what I could, I proudly present to you Bento Number 2, affectionately known as 20 000 leagues under the sea/octopus bento.
Using turkey hot dogs I somewhat skillfully fashioned a couple of little octopus characters. This is a pretty typical bento addition in Japan; mine didn't turn out quite how I envisioned them, but I think they turned out pretty cute anyway. Tamagoyaki makes an encore appearance this week and the vegetables feature gobo, lotus root, taro, and mushrooms, courtesy of BCS Asian foods store. I felt so adventurous buying and preparing them!
I'd also like to take some time to highlight what I consider to be the ingredient of the week: Enoki mushrooms! I just think these little guys are so precious (not to mention delicious.
Tell me they don't look like something straight out of a Miyazaki film :)
The recipes I used for the vegetables and instructions for an octopus were found in this book; the pictures are a lot of fun even if you aren't making a bento yourself.