Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Rice and lemons and rice and lemons

Well, here we go. I had puzzled on and off for some time as to what to use this for, and finally arrived on "whatever the hell I feel like, goddamnit". That is very flimsy, yes, so I think I'll use this time to talk about what I did on a bored midnight a few days ago.

I had been casually discussing cute-bento with a friend. It's something that interests me, though I had resigned myself a long time ago to the fact that I'd never be able to make them. When I was younger I was fully embroiled in Japanese fanatacism and attempted to learn the craft of making adorable faces in my lunch. I even important a cute little Totoro bento box for it.

Of course, I quickly realized something important. I could not cook, at all. I was also not even remotely creative when it came to food, and the cute box was simply delegated to the role of regular lunchbox until I finally became too embarrassed to use it.

Recently, however, I have learned how to cook several different dishes. I thought, in a fit of boredom, that I knew enough now to make a real bento lunch. Well. I can make rice and eggs, I figured that was all I needed to know.


This is the box in question. I have long since lost both the straps and the chopsticks, and Totoro's face is faded a lot, but it still works. Let's open her up, shall we?


The top part was pretty simple. Gingersnaps- leftover from a pie crust I made- and some fruit I hastily tossed in there. YEAH, SURE, OKAY.
Aaaand the bottom layer. Which was more problematic than I thought it would be. Initially, I had planned on making fried eggs for the eyes and cover it with little hearts cut out of some pork. But while assembling it, I realized that I SEVERELY overestimated the size of my box.

I had to recut the eyes several times before they actually fit, and at the end I had an entire bento box plus two fried eggs and a bunch of pork at midnight. My haste in making the top layer was mostly because I didn't want the eggs to get cold.

In the end, I ate it all. Fried eggs with rice isn't so bad. Also, I suck at making bento. I should just stick to American pastries, haha. Speaking of...


Lemon Meringue with a Gingersnap crust! I would not recommend this. This was my first time making a gingersnap crust and it didn't hold up very well, the whole thing was a crumbly mess that didn't keep any of the spiced flavor. The pie itself was pretty good, if very sloppy.

Yes, I am the best photographer. "HOW CAN I COMPENSATE FOR HAVING A CRAPPY CAMERA? OH I KNOW, DROP A LEMON ON THERE, THAT'LL MAKE IT LOOK DELICIOUS."