Up Bento

Up Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Can you see Carl Fredricksen and Russell? And their tomato balloons? I showed it to MisterMan and he said right away "Oooh, I know him -- he's the young Wilderness Explorer!" So I guess I did ok :) There's also some salmon, broccoli, lettuce baran, and carrot flowers. Underneath is also a layer of very cool rice: I made white + black quinoa and it came out pretty neat-looking. Fruit side includes cherries, white nectarine, homegrown apricot and blueberries.
Wonder what else I can do with quail eggs?
They've sure been a lot of fun to play with this summer!
Hmm...

Ravioli Buddy Bento

Ravioli Buddy Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Green striped ravioli? Had to make something out of that, but what? I used a halved quail egg and nori dots for eyes and a red capsicum for tongue, and was hoping it would look like a toothy crocodile. But TinySprite said "Frog!" so... you decide. I squeezed in some carrot flowers and would have added fluffy broccoli on top of his head, but I was out of that veggie. Fruit section has sugar plum quarters, a single strawberry cherry, lychee and black grapes. A quick and easy bento during what is turning out to be a non-cooking summer. ^^

Raccoon Char Siu Bao Bento

Raccoon Char Siu Bao Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Kireizukin Seikatsu is a San-X character described by Sofia of From Japan With Love as: a raccoon who likes to relax and loves to take a nap. But since Mogura Sensei (mole teacher) covers racoon's head by a red riding hood, racoon becomes "kireizukin" to love cleaning like a tidy housewife. "Kireizukin" can't stop cleaning everywhere. It is like becoming a superman.

He's so cute, and I always thought his head looks so much like a bao. Don't you? Anyway, even though mine looks exactly like a bear, maybe you can use your imagination to envision he's a raccoon. I made the mole from a quail egg, and dyed with purple potato to look blue, and with nori details. Even though he's sitting there on his head, I left the red hood off so he can rest for lunch.

Besides the bao, whose face I cut with a paring knife and kept the cutoff part for the ears (since everyone knows the best part of the baked char siu bao is the sticky brown part) and decorated with purple potato for facial features, the upper tier of the tiffin contains baby carrots, strawberries, grapes, steamed broccoli and garlic enoki.

Happy Friday, bento friends!

Girls' Day Bento

Girls' Day Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Here's my Girls' Day little snack bento for TinySprite. It's a shy, demure girl in her purple carrot kimono with green onion obi. Okay, you'll have to use your imagination. I like the irony of making a shy girl for TinySprite; it really makes me laugh. TinySprite is NOT demure. If there is one very apt word I can use to describe her, it is LOUD. She talks loud, she laughs loud, she's very outspoken and not afraid to talk to anyone. She remembers everyone's name and always addresses their parent and siblings, if present, as well. She knows everyone, everywhere we go: post office, grocery, library, school, etc., and she gets more greetings than I do. You know those kids that always ask embarrassing questions at very awkward moments? I am just waiting for those. She already "reminds" people not to smoke, litter, or run too fast. Yikes. So I should have made this girl with an "O" mouth, wide open, to truly represent my girl :)

Anyway, to make this girl, I just wrapped a carrot peel round and round a quail egg for her body. As an aside, purple carrots appear to stain quail eggs pretty well. As soon as the peel touched the egg, it left a purple mark. By the time I'd wrapped the egg, everything was streaked dark purple, including my fingers. So if you need a dark purple egg, you might consider purple carrots next time.

Her head is a second quail egg placed on its end. I cut her hair and eyes from nori, and she wears a cilantro and maroon carrot flower in her hair. Also in this little snack box are two strawberries, a grape tomato and a peapod. Yellow sweet mini pepper flowers too.

I should have taken video of her eating this one, but I forgot. She ate everything, even the green onion, which surprised me. First thing she did was totally unwrap the carrot kimono and eat that by itself, and then all the flowers, and I was a little nervous about her just popping the eggs in her mouth so I made her take a bite from each one first. She had a lot of fun with this one, I think :)

Here's a closeup of the girl:

Happy Girls' Day, bento friends!

Tiger Cub Egg Snack Bento

Tiger Egg Snack Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

I did this tiger snack bento for my toddler girl because I really love the little quail egg animals and wanted to see if I could dye this one yellow using golden beets. I tossed a beet in with the water while I was boiling the eggs, and then after the eggs were cooked I peeled them and soaked them in a small container of beet juice overnight. I guess if I boiled them they may have come out darker, but it did turn a light yellow! I decorated his face with nori details and made yellow carrot ears. Also in his box are nice ripe strawberries, broccoli, baby carrots and red grapes (underneath).

Mew!

Oh, and Happy Chinese New Year!

Chasoba Bento

Chasoba Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Chasoba (green tea soba) with surimi, ocean salad, sauce in container, edamame skewer, tomato, peapods, purple carrots and quail egg. In cute round bento!
Fruit square has Elephant Heart plum, strawberry and red grapes.

Little pea hen was lost on MisterMan... he didn't notice it at all! Perhaps I should be a bit less subtle with the facial features next time ;)

Bijou Toddler Bento

Bijou Toddler Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.

Radish hamster (I know, she doesn't have ribbons but I didn't have anything blue), quail egg "sunflower seed" with nori detail and red pepper bow, satsumaimo flowers, peapods, strawberry, tangerine, golden raspberries, and grapes below.

A tiny snack for TinySprite :)

Chirimen Bento

This bento was said to resemble the colorfully patterned beautiful chirimen fabric -- by some very kind bento friends over on flickr. Perhaps it may be also due to the large variety of seemingly random food items in this bento! The egg scramble has all kinds of leftover veggies thrown in, which is often how we make egg scramble. Most times we only think of making it when we notice lots of veggies in the drawer nearing the expiration date. Anyway, this one has tomato, onion, mushroom, red pepper, and is sprinkled with homegrown chives. On the side are peapods, star cut radish, leaf cut golden beets, and tomato & pickled bittermelon salad. Also some sweet potato sticks. I had to put the fruits in a separate bowl because there were so many ~ this is why I love summer so much! You can see white nectarine, lychee, cherries, straw-, black-, blue-, and raspberries.
What do you think? Too much? Well, let's just say the boy came home with 2 empty boxes :)

Bunny Bento

Today I decided to make a cute bento for my toddler; what's more, I remembered the quail eggs I bought earlier this week and decided to use them. First, I hard-boiled the eggs. Peel them carefully, so as not to get too many nicks and blemishes. It's best to do this with a dry egg. For the ears and arms I cut radish shapes with my plastic cutter, and inserted the ears into the head after cutting small slots into the egg with a small knife. The facial details are cut from nori. The carrot is a tiny triangle cut from a real carrot, and the carrot top is a bit of cilantro (this will not be eaten by my girl, which I know from experience). Bunny sits on a bed of soba, which she loves. Noodles of all kinds are a big hit with her. Perhaps you can see a failed egg under the soba as well. In addition, she gets a sweet potato and a golden beet flower, and various summer fruits: blueberries, Bing cherries, golden raspberries and strawberry. Finally, I decorated with snips of fresh herbs from my garden: rosemary, mint and lemon verbena (my favorite). It is a fragrant and happy bento for my little girl, for sure!

Quail eggs

I got these 10 for $1.09 at my local Asian grocery. Aren't they cute?