bento#12 Spirited Away

My boyfriend has “Ootori-sama” (Duck God?) plush keychain from Spirited Away on his bag, so I always wanted to make a bento with Ootori-sama. I looked around in my boyfriend’s room, trying to find anything that would go with Ootori-sama, and I noticed that hippo looking thing (Bou-nezumi) and the black bird (Hae-dori) from Spirited Away on his desk… that was enough for me to try making Spirited Away bento.

Bento #12: Spirited Away
Created and eaten: 10/13/2008

I started doing a sketch right away.
Ootori-sama, Bou-nezumi (hippo looking thing), Hae-dori (the black bird) and I had meatball from the night before, and “meatball = Makkurokurosuke.”
But soon I realized that there was not green in the bento, so I was looking at other characters from the film, and found a great green-food character… Kashira!
Kashira is “a trio of green, disembodied, boss-eyed heads living in Yubaba’s office that move around by bouncing and rolling.” (from Wikipedia)

To make a yellow boiled egg, I put curry powder in hot water and put a boiled egg in it. (You can also use turmeric instead of curry powder) While the egg was being dyed, I made a small rice ball, wrapped it with seaweed, put a carrot beak and made Hae-dori. And then I cut out ham to make Bou-nezumi. But single layer of ham was too thin and weak, so I put the cut out ham on cheese, cut around it, and placed it on rice.

And I made three small balls with potato salad, and wrapped each of them with microwaved a lettuce leaf to make Kashira.
I used kamaboko (fish cake) and seaweed for the eyes for all characters as usual.
I did I spent a bit more time on Kashira’s eyebrows, mustache and mouth but it was worth it.

When I look at it now, I notice that there are too many round things around Hae-dori and Bou-nezumi, and I wish I could’ve filled spaces better. But I’m pretty happy with how each character came out.
Especially Kashira! Maybe I can make a bento, featuring just Kashira in the future… 😛

Hae-dori (black bird):
– rice ball wrapped in seaweed
– carrot for its beak, kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes

Bou-nezumi (hippo looking thing):
– ham and cheese on rice
– carrot for its hands and feet, kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes

Ootori-sama (duck god):
– egg dyed with curry powder
– carrot for its beak, amaboko and seaweed for its eyes, parsley on his head

Kashira (green three heads):
– potato salad wrapped in lettuce
– kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes, mouth, eyebrows, mustache

Makkurokurosuke:
– meatball, kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes

Other food:
– renkon
– lettuce

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