REAL AND SIMPLE

bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are #2

from AnnaTheRed's Bento Factory by AnnaTheRed

63 people liked this

via What's Hot in Google Reader

I still had Inarizushi skins from when I made the Little Big Planet bento, and I was thinking of how I can use it. I’ve already used them to make Totoro & Neko bus, Laputa robot, and Meat with a bone before, so I wanted to make something different. My friend sent me a link to a wonderful website called “Terrible Yellow Eyes” the other day, and it just made me want to make a bento of them again.

Bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are

Bento #65: Where the Wild Things Are #2
Created and eaten on: 10/6/2009

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a collection of amazing art works inspired by Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. If you’re a Sendak fan, you MUST take a look at the site, this site is absolutely brilliant!

I’ve made a Where the Wild Things Are bento around the end of last year. It was two-sided bento so my boyfriend ate the right side, and I ate the left side. Making the body of the Wild Things was very time consuming and hard… So this time I decided to make just the head.
Inarizushi is usually seen with the rice side down, but it’s actually easier to eat with the rice side up. I’ve seen people put shredded egg sheet, ginger, etc… to decorate the rice part, so I decided to make it into a face.

First I put lettuce around the edge of bento box, and put fried chicken at the bottom. I stuffed rice into the Inarizushi skin for Moishe, Max, and Tzippy, and put them rice side up in the bento box. I cut ham with a round bottle cap (I think it was from a hair mousse can) and put it on the rice of each Inarizushi. For their noses I used a straw to cut out ham.

... and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"

Moishe

For Tzippy’s hair I cooked a little bit of pasta, mixed the half of the pasta with ketchup, and filled around the top half of her head with it.

Tzippy

For Aaron, I stuffed rice in another Inarizushi skin, put it rice side down in the bento box, and I used the rest of pasta to make his hair.

Aaron

Inarizushi skin is pretty sweet, so I made Bernard with plain rice mixed with black sesame seed and a bit of salt. I wanted to make this as simple as possible, so I just made a small rice ball, and put an even smaller rice ball on top for his mouth.

Where the Wild Things Are Bernard detail

Bernard (and yes, I forgot to put ears on him T_T)

In my first Wild Thing bento, I made Emil (the bird) with mashed potato with cheese on top. But I wanted every wild thing to have a similar shape this time, so I made mashed potato with yam, wrapped it in plastic wrap to make a small ball, and dropped it the bento box. To make his beak I sliced a carrot and cut out using a round plastic bottle cap. Because yam is mushy, I could just stick it in and it stayed! This worked out a lot better than I thought.

Emil

I filled the empty spaces with broccoli, asparagus and snowpeas. I sliced daikon (Asian radish) and cut it to make the ears for Max’s wolf suit, the horns for Moishe, Aaron and Bernard, and the feathers for Emil.

I could've used kamaboko (fish cake) but it was very frozen, so I used radish instead.

For their terrible yellow eyes, I cut out cheese with a small plastic bottle cap (trimmed them for Tzippy and Bernard) and put them on their faces. I also cut the cheese for Max’s crown.

"...and made him king of all wild things."

Finally the seaweed part. When seaweed absorbs moisture, it wrinkles up fast. So I usually put seaweed on at the very end. I used a hole punch to cut out seaweed for their eyes. For their mouths I used a seaweed cutter. Thanks goodness I had the cutter. I cut seaweed into small strips for Max’s whiskers and Moishe’s hair. Looks like he’s lost a lot of hair and has some bald spots… I ran out of time!! I could’ve cut the seaweed the night before, but then again, I’m lazy. My “I can easily do this in the morning” mentality always comes back to haunt me.