bento#22 Farm bento left side

This is the second part of my “Farm bento.” I’m going to write about the left side of the bento.

Bento#22: Farm bento left side
Created and eaten on: 11/09/2008

Just like the right side, I put rice where the road would be, and then I put “soboro” (ground beef with soy sauce, cooking sake, and sugar) on the rice. I filled both sides of the road with lettuce and broccoli, and put a sunflower (see “how to make a sunflower”), a sausage flower (see “how to make sausage flowers”), carrot flower (see “how to make vegetable flowers”) and a ladybug.
Then I put an escaping piglet (potato salad wrapped with ham) on the road. (see “Farm bento right side” for more about the piggy)

I know a dog isn’t exactly a “farm animal”, but when I was drawing the sketch for this bento, I thought it’d be cute if a puppy was chasing animals at a farm, so I added it in the drawing. I cut cheese out for each piece for the puppy, put it on seaweed and cut around it. Seaweed serves as a plate for cheese and makes it easier to move around. Also seaweed provides cheese a nice black outline.

For the sheep, I made two small rice balls, but to make them “fluffy” I didn’t shape them tightly like I usually do. Then I cut ham for their face and ears, put them on cheese and cut around them. Then I used a hole punch to make their “smiling eyes.”

The hard boiled egg chicken was something I had made BEFORE my first kyaraben. (It’s not even on my flickr. It’s on my boyfriend’s flickr… but don’t go look for it! It’s utterly embarrassing) It made my boyfriend go “Awwwww” for the first time and made me want to keep making kyaraben. =D  It is a special “food animal” for me and I even made it for Kick in the Head comic bento. For the first one, I used a lemon peel for its beak, but this time, I cut a small piece of left over egg sheet for its beak. Then I sliced carrot for its crown and I used a hole punch to cut seaweed for its eyes.

I made this bento on a Sunday because I made this bento for a contest, and I wanted to make sure that I could finish it. So my boyfriend and I both got to eat this bento at home. 🙂 Eating bento at home is also fun. It’s kinda like an indoor picnic.

What happened to the lunch box contest?
Well, I submitted the picture, and saw a confirmation page telling me that the picture was sent successfully. But I got worried and emailed them to make sure they got it, and a couple of days later they emailed me back and told me that they never received it. By the time they emailed me, it was already past the deadline for the contest. I worked pretty hard on this bento so I wasn’t happy about it then. But after my boyfriend put the pictures of farm bento up on his flickr, some people from Bento groups on flickr made farm themed bentos telling me that my bento inspired them! You have nooooo idea how happy that made me feel! It instantly made everything so worth it! So in the end the contest didn’t matter to me at all. Besides, the contest made me come up with my first original bento. 🙂

Road:
– soboro (ground beef with soy sauce, cooking sake, and sugar) over rice

Pig:
– potato salad wrapped with ham
– fake sausage (fish cake) for its face, ears, and legs (legs are held in place with uncooked pasta)
– seaweed for its eyes and mouth

Dog:
– cheese on seaweed

Sheep:
– rice
– cheese on ham & seaweed for its tail, face and ears

Chicken:
– egg with seaweed and carrot for its eyes and egg for its beak

Sunflower:
– egg and sausage

Ladybug:
– cherry tomato and seaweed

Carrot flower:
– carrot

Sausage flower:
– fake sausage with egg sheet in the center

Fence:
– fried potato

Other food:
– lettuce
– broccoli

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

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