Pandapple Fish Bento

Pandapple Fish Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Today's bento has Chinese style steamed snapper: just salt & pepper the fillet, steam in a little shoyu and mirin to taste until done, 10-15 minutes depending on size of the fish, and top with shredded ginger and green onion and a drizzle of sesame oil. I also steamed the brussels sprouts and cauliflower in the same pan to save time. By the way, the vegetables taste really good in the shoyu mirin sauce too! If you're concerned about the fish taste/smell getting into the rest of the food, you could use a box with a separate tier for the fish. Or, you might be able to simply put another lettuce leaf over to keep it more contained. My boy has never complained, so I just pack it as you see here.
I added a few tiny yellow carrot flowers (as usual) for visual interest on the brussels sprouts, and cut a radish into a Pandapple face with nori details. There's also purple cauliflower, raw carrots, a half supersweet apricot, some local cherries and my very own homegrown strawberry. For some reason a whole bunch of them are ripening at a very tiny size; maybe tomorrow I'll cut a whole sprig of them together. They are SO mini and cute. And dark dark red! I ate a few today and they're pretty good!

Pandapple Bento

I don't usually do character (charaben) bento, simply because I don't do it well! But I couldn't NOT make Pandapple with the radish. I like to use radish because it's quite easy to cut and manipulate, it's bright and pretty, and what's more, it tastes nice and sharp in bento. For Pandapple radish, simply peel the red off the lower part with a small knife, leaving a straight line dividing the two colors. I put a cucumber leaf into the top of his head (after cutting a slot in the radish with a knife), and halved a blueberry for his ears, securing them to his head with tiny pieces of maifun (rice stick). You may have to premake the holes in the radish with a toothpick for this part. The facial details are cut from nori. Quite easy, yet cute, right?

Other parts of the bento include: edamame skewer, orange sun sugar tomato, strawberries, yellow carrot spears, red grapes, blackberries, and purple cauliflower. Yes, this vegetable was grown to be this color; I did not color it myself. You can find all kinds of interesting produce if you'll visit your local farmer's market. I always encourage people to shop locally :)

TinySprite smiled to see this bento, and down it all went! That's what I like to see!