Friday, July 2, 2010

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.

8 comments:

  1. So cute! I love the Hello Kitty rice. My husband likes daikon as well, he pickles it with vinegar and hot peppers (bleah). ;o)

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  2. Hi, love the adorable hello kitty so much...
    nice bento box!
    hope you will not mind if I often visit your blog..:-p

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  3. I love it! I have that same bento box. I like the vegetable cutters. How perfect is that hello Kitty onigiri! I have a tub of the pickled daikon radishes in the frige now, we use it in our Korean sushi.

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  4. Thanks Shannon! We'll see about the daikon, so far I am not sure whether I like it or not. :-)

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  5. Feel free to stop by whenever you like, Mommy Yenny! We are always open.

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  6. Hey Lyndsey! I bought two similar bento boxes and I think I am going to mix and match them for the 4th! But seriously, what is up with that brand name? :-)

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  7. Loved reading about this creative bento! Very clever use of Hello Kitty mold, and I enjoyed the beautiful market-sourced lettuce baran! What amazing natural materials to compose with...inspiring! Great Daiso score, too...they need to come out to the East Coast!

    I was so thrilled when my first veggie cutters arrived, last year, via Amazon--this same set. I felt, upon opening the package, "the bentoing can now begin!"

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  8. Bentobird: I love, love, lurve these veggie cutters. They make it so easy to assemble beautiful bento box lunches.

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