bento#8 Ohmu

I’ve been wanting to use renkon for background, but Bento#6 Kaonashi bento didn’t work out too well.
One day, after eating lots of renkon, I finally realized what it reminded me of… It’s the trees in the Sea of Decay from Nausicaa of the valley of the wind!
But since I’m not really into making human characters for bento, I picked Ohmu – the gigantic, armored, caterpillar-like insects to be the main character for this bento.

Bento#8: Ohmu bento (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind)
Created and eaten on: 10/3/2008

"Go back to your jungle. This is not your world."

Without any doubt, Nausicaa is my most favorite Miyazaki film.
I watched it when I was little, and even though the film definitely wasn’t for kids like Totoro, I was so moved by it that I remember crying my eyes out watching it. I probably watched it more than at least 30 times since then. I even remember the most lines from the film.

Once I decided that I was making an Ohmu, I knew exactly what I wanted to do… fried chicken rice cover it with lettuce!
Then I remembered how it was hard to shape freshly cooked fried rice when I made Bento#3 Happy Bee & GIR bento, so this time, I cooked fried rice the night before, shaped it and kept in the fridge overnight.

Next morning, I laid lettuce leaves and sauteed renkon in a bento box, and I gently placed the fried rice I had made the night before on top of renkon.
Then I microwaved a couple of lettuce leaves and layered them over fried rice to create that pill bug-like armor shell.
I used asparagus and bean sprouts for its tentacles, and cherry tomato for its eyes.
Red eyes mean that an Ohmu is upset, but I since I couldn’t find any blue/green round food except fruit, I just settled with an “angry Ohmu.”
It looks like this bento just has a big chunk of rice and renkon, but the fried rice has plenty of chicken, carrot, corn, edamame.
I really like how cherry tomato looks so vivid on lettuce, and how lettuce’s vertical lines and renkon’s & tomato’s circular shapes interact with each other.
To be honest, this was the first bento I was actually happy with. It might be just because it’s Nausicaa themed, but this is still and always will be one of my favorite bento I’ve ever made. 🙂

Ohmu:
– chicken fried rice with carrot, corn and edamame, covered with lettuce leaves
– cherry tomato for its eyes
– asparagus and bean sprout for its tentacles

Flowers:
– fake sausage (fish cake) and corn

Other food:
– lettuce
– renkon (lotus root)
– broccoli

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