bento#21 BioShock Big Daddy & Little Sister

After my Portal bento, I wanted to get the game hype out of my system! While I was looking at my boyfriend’s and my game collection, I remembered that when I made my Jiji bento, I realized how bendy and strong gobo (burdock root) was. So I decided to try something very different for this bento.

Bento#21: BioShock Big Daddy & Little Sister
Created and eaten on: 11/07/2008

BioShock was my first 360 game. I’m not an FPS gamer (I’m more of an old school RPG gamer), and I’m not good at them at all. But when BioShock came out, people were talking about how sick and gorgeous the game was so I gave it a try.
The game is a role-playing action horror game. Basically, you have to kill the mutated beings and mechanical drones to survive in the underwater city Rapture. In the game, you encounter young girls called “Little Sisters”, guarded by genetically enhanced humans wearing armored diving suits, called “Big Daddies.” (or Mr. B or Mr. Bubbles) Big Daddies won’t attack unless you attack him first, but Big Daddies are HUGE. Your controller vibrates when they walk by!
I played the game for a while, but I just focused too much on hacking flying security bots. (because they’re so darn cute) My boyfriend started to play the game too. As I watched him play, I started feeling bad for the Big Daddies. I think that’s because Big Daddies wear diving suits making them look more like a robot than a person. Like I mentioned in my blog before, I have a thing for robots…

I was too lazy to design a new layout for this bento, so I pretty much copied the game case cover for this one.
Big Daddy’s head piece and body piece were rusty orange/brown. So I started to think about what food had the same color…
French fries! “I’ll just have to carve potato and fry it!” (Yeah, that’s how my mind works. I’m not crazy, I studied sculpture at an art school. =P)

I cut a potato in half, and rounded the surface with a peeler. I used a fruit knife and spoon to carve the inside of the potato out. For the body piece, I carefully carved the two bumps with a fruit knife. I wanted the potato to be cooked, so I had to make sure the potato was thin enough. I had no carving tools at my boyfriend’s place, and I was not sure how easy/difficult this would be (as usual), but carving a potato with just a small knife and a spoon was remarkably easy and fun!

Head piece

Body piece (front)

Body piece (back)

I fried them in oil until they were golden brown, and put them aside to cool off.

Fried and put together

The arms and legs are gray, so I made them out of rice with black sesame seed/salt using plastic wrap. (see “how to dye rice”)

For the feet, I shaped meatballs into the shape of feet (more like squashed balls) and fried them. I actually made a left fist with fingers and everything out of meatball and fried it first, but as I expected the meat didn’t hold its shape… So I stared at another backup meatball for a while, and sliced the tip of meatball and cut it into five pieces, and put them back on the meatball.
I looked at it and went “wow”. It looked like a fist!!! I used a bit of BBQ sauce as glue to keep the fingers in place.

Welcome to Rapture!

Big Daddies have various weapons on their right hand, and I wanted to make the one with a drill. (because that’s on the cover of the game) I used a bit of rice with black sesame seed and made a cone shape. Then I cut a strip of seaweed and wrapped it around the cone.

After most pieces were done I put renkon over lettuce, stuffed a hard boiled egg under the head piece, put a bit of rice under the body piece and placed them in bento. I made its eyes with cheese and lettuce, and put them on the head piece. Then I placed the arms and legs I made earlier, and put feet, fist and drill on it.

Here comes “something very different” part… Big Daddy’s head is protected with a big wire cage, and I wanted to make the cage with gobo. I sliced gobo, cut it in to strips and stir-fried them. Then I very carefully placed them over its head. It wasn’t easy, but renkon’s holes definitely helped to keep the gobo in place.

Looks easy, right? Well, not really...

I had just enough time to add a Little Sister, so I made her with cheese on ham and her dress with lettuce. I cut seaweed for her hair and her eyes with cheddar cheese.

"Don't worry Mr. B, he'll be an angel soon."

I like how the fist, fried potato head/body piece came out, but overall I think this bento looks a little lonely. Maybe because I originally had my favorite flying security bot in my drawing, but couldn’t make it on time… 😦 So this is on my “to revisit” list. Next time I make BioShock bento, maybe I’ll throw more familiar faces in there. =)

Big Daddy:
– fried potato with a hard boiled egg and rice underneath
– gobo (burdock root) for the protective wire
– cheese and lettuce for his eyes
– rice with black sesame seed
– meatball

Little Sister:
– cheese, ham, seaweed, and lettuce

Other food:
– lettuce
– renkon (lotus root)
– baby corn

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