bento#40 Braid bento

There was another bento I’d been wanting to make for a long time, but I knew it would’ve been difficult, so I had been putting it off. I really had to get it out of my system, I just decided to go for it.

Bento #40: Braid bento
Created and eaten on: 3/6/2009

Braid was a puzzle game that came out on Xbox live arcade in 2008. It was created by an independent software developer Jonathan Blow. It was praised by so many game reviewers and had so much buzz even before the game was released, so of course, my boyfriend had to play it. The game itself, the story, the puzzle, the art, and the music, was made of pure brilliance. It was so new and nothing like any other games. You manipulate time to solve the puzzle, and in some stages, you can
fast forward, rewind, slow down time (and the background music) as you play. Like I said, this game is absolutely fascinating to play, but to listen and watch someone play is… excruciating. Imagine someone is playing a vinyl record, but it keeps skipping, changing the speed (rpm), or playing it backwards. Unfortunately, I had a slight headache when he was playing this game, and the color contrast of the game images and the screwy music made me nauseous. It was just a bad combination… (My boyfriend and friend told me that if you’re the one who’s playing, the music doesn’t bother you at all.)

Anyway, one day I was looking for a good recipe for lazy people, and found a delicious cauliflower recipe! And it reminded me of a character from Braid, and that’s how I originally decided to make it. I started drawing for this bento, but realized that the style was so unique that it was very hard to copy. There weren’t that many characters in the game, but I knew what I wanted to make. The main character Tim, sheep-looking things (a.k.a. goomba, because he acts just like a goomba from super mario bros.) and the bunnies. When I was cooking cauliflower, I realized that it wouldn’t be easy to use cauliflower to make goomba as I thought, so I decided to use potato salad instead.

I made small balls of potato salad and sprinkled panko (Japanese bread crumbs) and Parmesan cheese on top then baked them until the top was brown. After I put cauliflower in the oven, I boiled quail eggs and dyed them with red cabbage juice. (see “how to dye eggs naturally”) I also cut kamaboko (fish cake) for the bunny’s ears, legs and arms and dyed them together with quail eggs.

While the cauliflower was being baked, and eggs were being dyed, I mixed rice with ground up black sesame seed (see “how to dye rice naturally”) and put it in a bento box. I put soboro (see “how to make soboro”) on the bottom part of the bento box for ground. Then for the ladder I fried potato I had cut and kept in the water in a Tupperware container the night before.

After the cauliflower was done, I let it cool off for a while. Then for the goomba’s face cut cheese with a cookie cutter and seaweed for the nose and mouth. I cut kamaboko for eyes and teeth (for one of them) and put them on the cheese. After the cauliflower was completely cooled off, I put the cheese face on each baked potato salad ball.

I first put the fried potato ladder on the rice, and placed the goombas. Then I washed the quail eggs, cut slits for the bunny’s ears, put the ears on it and placed it in the bento. I put another quail egg for its body and put its legs on it. Then I cut kamaboko for its eyes, and seaweed for its nose.

At first, I wanted to make the Tim main character too. So I made his pants with konnyaku (yam cake), his shirt and jacket with seaweed and cheese, and his tie with fake crab meat. But I was running out of time, and after making the goombas and bunny, I really didn’t think that I could make him… so I gave it up! But since I had made his body, I thought it would’ve been a waste if I didn’t use it. So I just stuck in the corner of the bento box, as if he was jumping off of a goomba.

To finish off the bento, I put cooked broccoli on the ground. Then made a flower with broccoli and kamaboko and put it on the bunny’s back.

This was probably one of my most unsatisfying bento I’ve ever made. T_T It was just sooooo hard to make food look like the characters from the game, and many things about this bento were just so not accurate. I wanted the goomba in the middle to be crying! I wanted the bunny to be angry! And I wanted to make Tim! I finished this bento because I really wanted to get this out of my system, but I was very unhappy with this one, I asked my boyfriend not to show it around at the work like he usually does. (He sent people a link to the pictures though)

Jonathan Blow, if you happen to be reading this or come across my Braid bento somehow, I’d like to apologize. Your game is a truly unique and gorgeous puzzle game. One of the best I’ve ever seen, but my bento is not. I can’t wait for you to make a new game!

Even though my Braid bento was a failure, I recommend anyone who owns an Xbox 360 or PC to get this game. (Or at least play the free demo.) You can download this game onto your 360 for $15 now (1200 Microsoft points) and there is apparently a PC version of this game as well also for $15.

Goomba thing:
– baked potato salad with panko and Parmesan cheese
– cheese, kamaboko and seaweed for his face

Bunny:
– quail egg dyed with red cabbage
– kamaboko and seaweed for its eyes, legs and arms
– broccoli and kamaboko for the flower on its back

Tim:
– konnyaku for his pants
– seaweed on cheese for his jacket and shirt, fake crab meat for his tie
– fake sausage (fish cake0 for his hands and face)

Ladder:
– fried potato

Other food:
– rice mixed with black sesame seed and salt
– broccoli
– soboro

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