bento#32 Where the Wild Things Are – right side January 31, 2009

After Christmas, I wanted to make one more bento before the year was over, but my boyfriend and I were already on holiday vacation. I was thinking of making a bento to eat at home, but my boyfriend had to go see his family for a couple of days, so I decided to make a bento for him to eat on the bus. Since I didn’t have work, I wanted to make this last bento of the year something very special.

*This is a two-box bento, so I’m doing two posts on this.

Right side - Aaron, Emil, and Tzippy

bento#32: Where the Wild Things Are – right side
Created and eaten on: 12/27/2008

I am a HUGE Maurice Sendak fan. Especially “Where The Wild Things Are.” I think that’s because the story has two of my favorite elements in picture books. A mischievous kid and monsters! I wanted to make this bento for some time now, but I knew it’d be a big project, so I wanted to prepare everything beforehand.

I own two copies of “Where The Wild Things Are,” hard cover and soft cover, but they were both at my apartment. My place is pretty close to my boyfriend’s place, but I had sort of moved in with my boyfriend, and I was feeling very lazy… So I picked up a copy of “Where The Wild Things Are” at a book store. 😛 I could give it to someone after I used it to do a sketch, and everyone should own a copy of “Where The Wild Things Are!”

I looked at the book for a good scene that I could recreate, even though I kind of knew which scene I’d end up doing anyway. It’s a scene after Max tamed the wild things, gets on Bernard and shouts “Let the wild rumpus start!” Of course, it wouldn’t fit in one bento box, so I made it into two bento boxes.

On the night before, I…
– cut seaweed for everyone’s face
– cut kamaboko (fish cake) for their terrible claws
– cut kamaboko for their terrible teeth
– made potato salad
– made soboro (ground beef cooked in soy sauce and sugar)
– made an egg sheet
– cooked asparagus

On the right side were Aaron, Emil, and Tzippy. First thing first, I put lettuce in a bento box, and put renkon (lotus root) on lettuce, and soboro (ground beef cooked in soy sauce, cooking sake and sugar) in the bento box for the ground. Then I mixed rice with curry powder for the bodies of Aaron and Tzippy (see “how to dye rice naturally”). I put plastic wrap on the drawing, put rice on top and molded it into the shape of the bodies. After the body was shaped, I placed them into the box. To make it as 3D as possible, I made arms and legs separately and put them on the body. For Aaron, I made the nose/mouth part for his face, and cut kamaboko (fish cake) for his horns and put them on his head and face.

I knew I was going to use pasta for the hair, but I had to make sure it’d stay on their head (especially Aaron). Aaron has darker hair, so I put cooked pasta (mixed with a bit of butter, salt and soy sauce) on a piece of seaweed, and put it on Aaron’s head like a toupee. I mixed cooked pasta with ketchup, and put it around Tzippy’s head very carefully. Then I cut ham using a round cookie cutter, and put it on his face. I then sliced a carrot and cut it for his feet and stuck them onto the bottom of his legs.

I put plastic wrap on the drawing again, and put potato salad and molded it into Emil’s body. I also made arms and legs separately just like Aaron and Tzippy. This was pretty easy as usual. I had a “wave shaped” cutter which I had purchased before. Originally, I was going to use it to cut an egg sheet (see “how to make an egg sheet”) for the feather on his neck, but his feathers looked more reddish than yellow on the book. So I decided to use cheddar cheese instead. I just cut a cheese single with the cutter I had, and put layers of it on Emil’s neck. Then I sliced a carrot and cut it with a round cookie cutter for his beak, and also used the cutter to cut kamaboko for his crown and tail.

Finally I put asparagus, broccoli, and snow peas around the wild things. After pretty much everything was placed, I cut out cheddar cheese for their eyes, placed them on their face, put this box in the fridge and worked on the left side. That’s why the feathers around Emil’s neck had melted a little. It didn’t melt because it was warm, it melted because of the moisture. I knew moisture and cheese don’t get along, I thought the rice was dry enough, but I was wrong… I put the seaweed eyes and face parts I had cut on each face, and put terrible claws and terrible teeth on them. This took forever. I used angled pin tweezers to put the claws and teeth, but the kamaboko didn’t want to stay where I wanted it to stay.

The left side continues to the next post…

Aaron:
– rice dyed with curry powder
– kamaboko (fish cake) for his terrible teeth and terrible claws and horns
– pasta on seaweed for his hair
– seaweed on cheddar cheese for his terrible eyes
– seaweed for his mouth

Emil:
– potato salad for his body
– cheddar cheese for the feathers around his neck
– carrot for his beak
– kamaboko for his crown, tail, terrible teeth and terrible claws
– seaweed on cheddar cheese for his terrible eyes

Tzippy:
– rice dyed with curry powder
– ham for her face
– kamaboko for his terrible teeth and terrible claws
– pasta with ketchup for her hair
– seaweed on cheddar cheese for her terrible eyes
– seaweed for her face

Other food:
– lettuce
– renkon (lotus root)
– soboro
– asparagus
– broccoli
– snow peas

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