Brown Bear Bento

Brown Bear Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today I made a batch of mixed rice, containing black "Forbidden" rice, brown rice and regular white rice. This combinations ends up looking kind of multihued purple and black. It's nutty and chewy, and really good -- the kids love it too! Anyway, I always think this rice makes a nice bear-colored musubi, so that's what I made.

The bear face is molded by hand using fresh, hot rice, and the facial details are made from tofu and nori. I also baked some wild Alaskan salmon with just olive oil, and then dressed it in Mauna Kea sauce, which I usually use with chicken as in this bento, but which is also good with fish.

For color I added star cut baby carrots and a grape tomato puffy heart (thanks for the idea, hapa bento!)! I also roasted some brussels sprouts and mini sweet peppers. If you crosscut the sprouts, you'll see that they open up and "bloom" during cooking. Sometimes I toss with balsamic vinegar, which saturates them all the way through and they taste fanTAStic!

Fruits include strawberry, red grapes and mini mandarin.
Rawr!