bento#44 animal orbs bento April 23, 2009

After I made the Castle Crashers bento, I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Dan Paladin, the developer at the Behemoth (the studio that created Castle Crashers). He liked my bento, and told me that he was posting the picture of it on the Behomoth’s dev blog. (See here) I wrote in my reply to him that I wasn’t completely satisfied with the bento because I could make only one Animal Orb…

Bento #44: Animal orbs bento!
Created and eaten on: 4/22/2009

Animal Orbs are tiny animals that float around you and help you in the game by picking up items, attacking enemies, or gaining exp faster, etc… If you aren’t familiar with the game, Castle Crashers, all you have to know is that they are just painfully adorable. I’m not just saying this because the people at the Behemoth seem very cool, but those googly eyes and huge head are the key features of cuteness. I just had to make them out of food so my boyfriend could eat them.

First, I found images of all the animal orbs, I put a piece of paper on my laptop monitor, and traced each of them. Then I cut them out, and wrote down ones that I could make with rice, ones with meat, ones with lettuce. I know I should’ve picked which one to make first THEN traced them… But having all paper cutouts of Animal Orbs is pretty fun actually.

Anyway, as usual, I placed lettuce at the bottom of the bento box, and laid sauteed renkon on top of it. (I know I put renkon all the time,
but it’s really nutritious and yummy!)

There are total of 14 Animal Orbs in this bento, and I worked on all of them simultaneously, so writing exactly how I made this bento might be a little confusing, so I’m going to explain how each animal was made, each row, starting from the top left.

– Troll
I actually made this guy last. I made a small plain rice ball, cut seaweed into thin strips, and rolled the rice ball in it. Anytime when there’s small piece of seaweed is involved, it has to be done last. Because seaweed loves/hates moisture and it easily absorbs moisture
and gets wrinkly when it’s wet. I sliced kamaboko (fish cake) and cut out two circles with a plastic cap for the eyes, cut out seaweed eyes with a hole punch and put them on the kamaboko eyes. Then I sliced the pink part of kamaboko into a long rectangular shape, and cut tiny triangles and put them on the pink piece to make his mouth. But I found out later that the inside the mouth of Troll wasn’t pink…

Troll

– Scratchpaw
I mixed rice with curry powder and ketchup, and made a small rice ball. I also made ears with the same rice using a plastic sheet. For the stripes, nose, mouth and whiskers I cut out seaweed. I made the eyes with seaweed on cheese and put them on the head. For the pink part of the ears I cut a small piece of fake sausage (fish cake).

Scratchpaw

– Bitey Bat
I made a small rice ball and wrapped it with seaweed, then made ears also with rice and seaweed. I peeled the skin of a red pepper, and cut out circles using a small plastic cap for his eyes. For his fangs I cut the pink part of kamaboko into a square, and cut out the white part. I added the “sparkles” in his eyes by applying mayonnaise with a toothpick. I realized later that I forgot his wings…

Bitey Bat

– Frogglet
I made a small ball with potato salad, and wrapped it with a microwaved lettuce leaf. Then I cut a circle out of the lighter green part of lettuce, put it on cheese, and cut cheese around it for Frogglet’s stomach. For his eyes I cut out cheese using a straw, and cut seaweed for the eyes and mouth. Then I sliced potato and cut it into the shape of the horns, fried them, and stuck them on his head.

Frogglet

– Owlet
I cut out cheese with a heart-shaped cutter and put it on a meat ball I had made. Then I cut a carrot for his beak, made eyes with seaweed on cheese and put them on the face.

Owlet

– Snailburt
Originally, I was only going to make 13 animals, and wasn’t planning on making this guy. But I realized that I needed to fill some space, so I cut a sausage in half, cooked it, rolled it, and pinned it with a toothpick. Then I cut a small piece of fake sausage and stuck it on
the toothpick. For his face and mouth I put seaweed. For something that I made on the spot, I think this one came out pretty good. 😀 The only thing was the color of his neck.(?) It’s actually light brown/orange. Maybe I should’ve used potato.

Snailburt

– Cardinal
I carefully cut the skin of a cherry tomato and peeled it for the feathers on his head. For his face I cut seaweed and put cheese for his beak. Then I made his eyes with seaweed on cheese.

Cardinal

– Giraffey
I mixed rice with curry powder and ketchup, and made a small rice ball. Then I cut a meatball in half, and put it under the rice ball to make his nose. For his spots I cut seaweed, and made eyes with seaweed on cheese. Then I sliced potato and cut it into the shape of the horns, fried them, and stuck them on his head. I added the “sparkles” in his eyes by applying mayonnaise with a toothpick.

Giraffey

– Monkeyface
I cut cheese using a plastic cap, trimmed it for his face, and put it on a meatball. Then I cut seaweed for his mouth, and made eyes with seaweed on cheese. For his ears I cut a meatball in half, placed it next to his head, and put cheese on top of them. Then I cut a piece of meatball for the darker inside part of the ears.

Monkeyface

– Pazzo
I mixed rice with curry powder and ketchup, and made a small rice ball, and I also made ears with the same rice using a plastic sheet. Then for his face I cut out cheese with a big heart-shaped cutter. For his mouth and nose I cut seaweed for his, then made eyes with seaweed on cheese. I cut a small piece of fake sausage (fish cake) for the pink part of the ears, and cut the pink part of kamaboko for his tongue.

Pazzo

– Seahorse
I made potato salad into the shape of Seahorse, and wrapped it with a microwaved lettuce leaf. I cut snow pea for his hand (?) and things on his head, stuck them on, and put seaweed for his eyes and mouth. When I saw the pictures later, I realized that this poor guy was almost invisible in the bento. I think because I put lettuce all around the bento, and made Seahorse with lettuce. Also, for some reason, I didn’t put cheese under his eyes, and made his surface too flat. =/

Seahorse

– Hawkster
I cut cheese for his beak on a meatball, and made eyes with seaweed on cheese.

Hawkster

– Meowburt
I made a small rice ball and wrapped it with seaweed, then made ears also with rice and seaweed. Then I cut out cheese and seaweed for the eyes and mouth. For his nose I cut a small piece of carrot, and cut fake sausage (fish cake) for the pink part of the ears.

Meowburt

– Chicken
I cut red pepper skin for his crown, wattles (the red skin thing under beak, it’s called wattles! I googled it!) and tail. For his beak I cut cheese, and seaweed for his eyes.

Chicken

Animal Orbs!

I think the mayonnaise sparkle on the eyes made a big difference. I only put them on Bitey Bat and Giraffey because their eyes were bigger than the others, but I think other animals looked fine the way they were. Each animal was pretty easy, but making 14 of them was a completely different story. I made 80 % of the bento the first day, but I couldn’t finish it… So I tried again the second day. I finished this bento 20 minutes earlier than the time I usually finish the bento the second day, but my boyfriend was sooo happy with it and there were so many details he spent 20 minutes longer to take pictures! So many characters and tons of work, but it was so very worth it. A very satisfying bento. 🙂

My boyfriend and I beat Castle Crashers, but we still haven’t unlocked a lot of characters, so we’ll be playing it for a while, hopefully unlock everything before the Behemoth’s new game comes out. (this fall-ish?) 😀

There are so much details for this bento, so please visit my flickr to see what food each character is made of!

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