Originally uploaded by catchan1980
Have been busy for the past weeks, and never had time for anything else online aside from Japinoy. Obviously, I still make bentos to take to work, and never fail to photograph each one. Now, I am trying to catch up on the bento posts on Flickr and WordPress. I recently joined a Flickr group for bentos, and I am really happy with the comments and views I have so far on my bentos — not bad for someone who is only 2 days old in the group. Their comments are really encouraging!
I finally got that Hello Kitty onigiri set I’ve been drooling over at J-list. Only, I didn’t get it from J-List. I got mine from a favorite Ebay seller, Sakura Zakka, who sells the same set at a cheaper price & ships directly from Japan (so postage is cheaper as well).
The set comes with:
3 onigiri molds
2 nori punchers – 1 for Kitty’s face and another 1 for the rabbit and bear faces
cutter for the flowers, Kitty’s nose, ribbon, and bear ears
So anyway, I was surprised at how small each onigiri is. Only about 2 inches or so. Just right for kids & not for adults like me. π Still, that didn’t stop me from attempting my first real Hello Kitty onigiri. The set came with 3 molds: Kitty-chan, Usagi-chan & Kuma-chan. The bear mold, I will probably never use for beary personal reasons!
Molding the rice was easy; it was making the faces that was such a big pain. The nori cut-outs were so small you need tweezers to neatly place them on the rice. If you are not careful, you will ruin the nori, and you have to cut some more! What a bitch. I did manage to finally put proper faces on two of my onigiri, but it was too late when I noticed that I put the wrong sized eye on Usagi-chan! One of her eyes are bigger — obviously, Kitty’s eyes.
But other than that one small detail (and the pain of putting them together), I am totally happy with how the bento turned out. It is colorful and fun and yummy.
My main dish was hotdog slices and onions sauteed in banana ketchup, which I saw in my Japanese bento cookbook (γ¦γ£γΌγγΌγ±γγγ£γγγγ). Then in the green cup, I made tofu-egg scramble (γγγ©γγ΅) & decorated it with bell pepper flowers (same shape as Usagi-chan’s flower). For the empty spaces, I put in a bacon-wrapped hotdog ball, Chinese tapa slices, broccoli, cauliflower (hidden, they are at the top of the onigiri heads), sweet peas and takuan. I lined the entire box with iceberg lettuce for added color and nutrition — of course, I ate it afterwards.
Ah yes, really satisfied with how it looked. I just wished my tummy could say the same, because I was still hungry afterwards!! Might take me months to try and attempt these kiddie onigiri again, unless someone can do the faces for me! π
