Skip to main content

Bento Guessing - Cute Kitty

Bento box lunches were a huge part of my childhood in Hawaii. Rather than PB&J, Mom (or Grandma) packed for me cold lunches with musubi rice balls, fried chicken, fried spam, or fried hot dogs (see a trend?).

There are also lots of small restaurants/fast food counters that sell bento lunches, and sometimes I'd get a plate lunch with fried noodles or potato croquettes.

Well, bentos are still alive and well in Hawaii and Japan, and my mom sent me some pictures of bentos like I've never seen before. I certainly didn't get lunches that looked like these!

I thought it might be fun to see the pics and guess what food they are.



Rice for the kitty body, but what did they use for his arms and legs and ears??? Maybe white fishcake. And then either pink fishcake or luncheon meat. The dark gray part is nori seaweed, the yellow strip is pickled radish, called daikon (sweet-sour, my parents love the stuff). The red dot is half an ume, or a tiny very sour pickled plum (my father loves those). Mom and Grandma used to put ume in the middle of rice balls but I never cared for them--too sour for my taste.

Kitty’s lying on some fried shrimp (yum!) and maybe some cooked vegetables--carrot, butternut squash slice? Green onions. Maybe the reddish stuff on the bottom is sashimi raw tuna fish. And a little lettuce around his head.

There might be macaroni salad under the fried shrimp in the top right corner but I can’t be sure. (I know, weird, right? Raw fish and macaroni salad? But then again in Hawaii, we often have sashimi as appetizer and then macaroni salad as a side dish, so I guess it's not that weird to me.)

Someone actually cut Kitty’s limbs and ears and painstakingly cut the seaweed pieces. Who puts this much effort into a lunch someone’s going to eat????

Comments

Unknown said…
That is adorable!
Susan F. said…
That is adorable! I would have been foolish enough to try that when my kids were little. I got over myself quite swiftly after taking hours to make fudge mice for my son's kindergarten class one Christmas. LOL!
Camy Tang said…
Fudge mice? How cute!!! Did you take pictures?

Popular Posts

Toilet seat cover

Captain’s Log, Supplemental Update August 2008: I wrote up the pattern for this with "improvements"! Here's the link to my No Cold Bums toilet seat cover ! Okay, remember a few days ago I was complaining about the cold toilet seat in my bathroom? Well, I decided to knit a seat cover. Not a lid cover, but a seat cover. I went online and couldn’t find anything for the seat, just one pattern for the lid by Feminitz.com . However, I took her pattern for the inside edge of the lid cover and modified it to make a seat cover. Here it is! It’s really ugly stitch-wise because originally I made it too small and had to extend it a couple inches on each side. I figured I’d be the one staring at it, so who cared if the extension wasn’t perfectly invisible? I used acrylic yarn since, well, that’s what I had, and also because it’s easy to wash. I’ll probably have to wash this cover every week or so, but it’s easy to take off—I made ties which you can see near the back of the seat. And...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.22.2008 I actually wrote out my pattern! I was getting a lot of hits on my infamous toilet seat cover , and I wanted to make a new one with “improvements,” so I paid attention and wrote things down as I made the new one. This was originally based off the Potty Mouth toilet cover , but I altered it to fit over the seat instead of the lid. Yarn: any worsted weight yarn, about 120 yards (this is a really tight number, I used exactly 118 yards. My suggestion is to make sure you have about 130 yards.) I suggest using acrylic yarn because you’re going to be washing this often. Needle: I used US 8, but you can use whatever needle size is recommended by the yarn you’re using. Gauge: Not that important. Mine was 4 sts/1 inch in garter stitch. 6 buttons (I used some leftover shell buttons I had in my stash) tapestry needle Crochet hook (optional) Cover: Using a provisional cast on, cast on 12 stitches. Work in garter st until liner measures...

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Favorite chocolate?

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.22.2008 Lately I’ve been on this chocolate kick. Normally, I’m not a huge chocoholic like Captain Caffeine. I enjoy chocolate, but if given a choice, I’ll usually choose a fruit or custard/creamy dessert over a triple decadence chocolate layer cake or a chocolate-lovers’ downfall brownie. But lately, I’ve been eating dark chocolate squares. I think it started when I went into Joseph Schmidt gourmet chocolate shop in Santana Row. We’d gotten Joseph Schmidt truffles for Christmas, and they’d been fabulous—I can honestly say that they were as good as DeBrand truffles (author Colleen Coble’s favorite). So when I saw the brick and mortar shop in Santana Row, I went in immediately. Inside, this man was buying up stacks—and I kid you not, stacks —of the Joseph Schmidt Belgian Dark Chocolate bars. He raved about them, said they were terrific. A cashier was restocking the display case the man had cleaned out, and I snagged a bar. “I’ve got to try one, after watc...