bento#48 Laputa robot with cherry blossoms

I still had a couple of Inari-zushi skin left over from Totoro with cherry blossoms and Ano-Niku bento, so I decided to make one more spring themed bento with Inari-zushi skin. I already knew what I was going to make, because I was originally going to put it in Totoro with cherry blossom bento, but he didn’t fit. Besides, he deserves a bento of his own.

Bento #48: Laputa robot with cherry blossoms
Created and eaten on: 5/4/2009

I mentioned how much I like the robot from “Laputa: the Caste in the Sky” when I made the first Laputa Robot bento. When the robot captured by Muska awakens and tries to protect Sheeta in Muska’s fortress is one of my favorite scenes in the film. I made the live version of Laputa robot for my first Laputa robot bento, that lives in the castle in the sky, but I always wanted to make the one at Muska’s fortress. His arm and legs had been damaged from the fall, and is considered “dead.” He lies on the ground with his arm spread, just like the symbol on Laputa stone. He looks so sad that it makes me sad too… So I wanted to surround him with cherry blossoms!

Just as usual, I put sauteed renkon (lotus root) at the bottom of the bento box first. Then I spread rice on top of it. I sprinkled shiso (perilla) furikake seasoning over the rice. This furikake is made from purple shiso leaf, often used in Ume-boshi (pickled sour plum), so as it absorbs moisture, it dyes the rice light purple. I didn’t want to put on too much since shiso furikake contains salt, and it has very strong aroma and flavor that can be a bit overwhelming.

His broken foot

I made an Inari-zushi for the body, and placed it on the rice. The Laputa robot has very long arms, and I knew that if I used an Inari-zushi for the body, it’d be impossible to fit the entire body into the bento box. So I just decided to just cut off the arms and legs that didn’t fit at the edge of bento box.

I made a small Inari-zushi for the lower part of his body. I just cut Inari-zushi skins for the rest of his head, arms and legs. I cut seaweed for his eyes, put it on cheese and cut the cheese around it.

I cut a small piece of tomato skin for the Laputa stone on his chest.

After I placed the robot, I started making other food. I wrapped boiled string beans with bacon, cooked it, cut it in half, and put it in the bento box. I also cut snowpeas and stuck them in like in the Totoro with cherry blossoms bento.

I carefully peeled the pink part of kamaboko, and cut it into the shape of cherry petals.  And I cut cheese and seaweed to make a fox-squirrel from the film to keep the robot company.

I made this little guy in 5 minutes! I'm proud of myself. 🙂

This turned out to be a rather simple and plain looking bento. Not on purpose, but because I woke up late. I felt like I could’ve used more colors or added more cherry blossom petals or a couple more fox-squirrels… but for a bento I spent the half of the time I usually spend, it came out decent, I think. At least, I’m glad that I had the time to make the fox-squirrel so the robot wasn’t sleeping alone. 🙂

Laputa robot:
– Inari-zushi
– seaweed on cheese
– tomato

Fox-squirrel:
– seaweed on cheese

Cherry blossom petals:
– kamaboko (fish cake)

Other food:
– renkon (lotus root)
– rice with shiso leaf furikake
– string beans wrapped with bacon
– snowpeas

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