bento#7 Piggy & GIR

Last bento was a bit dark overall, so I wanted to make something with a little more color this time.
I liked how GIR came out in my Happy Bee & GIR bento I made before, so I decided to make him again.

Bento# 7: Piggy & GIR
Created and eaten on: 10/2/2008

GIR! Ride the pig!

GIR:
I placed a couple leaves of lettuce on a plate, covered them with damp paper towel, and heated in a microwave for 30~45 seconds until the leaves became soft. (You can put lettuce leaves into boiling water, but make sure to dry them well.)
Then I made potato salad into a ball, and wrapped it with a leaf of lettuce.
This time, I used a bottle cap to cut out kamaboko (fish cake) for the white part of the eye, and it made a huge difference!
The last time I used seaweed for his ears, I realized that seaweed was too thin to be used by itself. So, I cut seaweed, put it on cheese and cut cheese around it.
And just like the last time, I use the pink part of kamaboko for his tongue. And I made a little piggy with fake sausage, kamaboko and seaweed for him to hold.

I love-ed you, piggy!

Piggy:
Piggy is another simple character to make both shape-wise and color-wise.
I spread ham on plastic wrap, then put gomoku-zushi on ham, then wrapped it into a ball. (I used gomoku-zushi because I just happened to have it, but you can also use normal rice, fried rice, mashed potato, etc…)
I kept the ham ball wrapped tight in plastic wrap for 30 minutes or so, and then slowly placed it in a bento box, and took off the plastic wrap. Then I cut fake sausage for its nose and ears. For Piggy’s eyes, I used a bigger bottle cap to cut out kamaboko.

There was still space in the bento box, so I made flowers with fake sausage by making incisions on the cut surface, and put frozen corn in the center.
Edamame on the left side of the bento was also last minute thing. Edamame sticks are a good way to fill space in bento. I used a toothpick to keep the edamame together for this bento, but I recommend using a noodle of uncooked pasta. (It’s green, AND you can eat it too!) Usually when microwaved, the pasta turns soft, but if you’re worried about eating raw pasta, it can be fried.

I think Piggy and GIR look good, but the background is… meh.
I really regretted for not spending more time on the background, because I really liked how Piggy and GIR came out. It looks like other food was just thrown in there.

After this bento, I started drawing of bento beforehand. Because I realized that it’s pretty important and difficult to balance “character food” and “non-character food” in kyaraben.
In my opinion, drawing a rough sketch DEINITELY helps. I even write down which food I’m going to use, so I won’t panic and throw any food I can find in the last minute.
It makes it sooooo much easier to make/finish bento in the morning.
For anyone who wants to make a kyaraben, I’ll recommend doing a little doodle on a paper first, and also write down which food goes where, so you can visualize the “finished project.”
Maybe I’ll do a blog about my bento drawing someday…

GIR:
– Potato salad wrapped in lettuce
– fish cake and seaweed for his eyes
– cheese and seaweed for his ears, hands, and legs

Piggy:
– Gomoku-zushi wrapped in ham
– fake sauasge for its nose and ears
– kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes

Other food:
– Cherry tomato
– Meatball
– Edamame

For more pictures of my bento, visit “Bento!” set and “Bento details!” set on my flickr page.