Hello Kitty Onigiri

I am sooooo excited about today's bento. When I was in Seattle, I had a chance to shop at Uwajimaya. It's like the mecca of Asian grocery stores. I bought a Hello Kitty popsicle mold there, thinking that it would work great as an onigiri mold. Tada!

The onigiri (rice ball) is decorated with nori (toasted seaweed) and takuan (pickled daikon radish). This is my first time using takuan, and I tasted a bit of it while I was assembling this bento. It's kind of stong, but not bad. Perhaps it will grow on me. :-) Also in the bento box: carrots, a salad of quick pickled cucumbers topped with a few pieces of red pickled ginger, and enoki mushrooms. In the lower compartment: cherries from Hamlow Ranch, chicken nuggets, and a few cheese flowers. I love my new food cutters from Amazon! Here's the set I used for this bento: Stainless Steel Vegetable Cutters #K8444 "100% Made in Japan!!"

This is another one of the new bento boxes I got while on my trip to Seattle. This one is from the Japanese dollar store called Daiso. Everything in the store is generally $1.50. Including this bento box! It's got a few dragonflies on it, and that crazy brand name: Lube Sheep. Huh...?

The lettuce that I use to line my bento boxes and use as "baran" (decorative partitions), is from a great farmer at the Santa Rosa Original Certified Farmers Market. Reenie and her daughter Sarah sell wonderful quality produce from Ridgeview Farms based in Healdsburg. Look at this gorgeous lettuce!

They have lots of varieties as well. I love their french radishes, and when the season is here, their pears. They also sell very tasty arugula.