Our first bento box is...

So here we have it! My first bento box I bothered to display. I've only made a few before this one, but I happened to have a camera laying around the kitchen after I finished making this. (Sounds fishy, but I do freelance photography.) I'm using a two tier bento box that can be found at jlist. Here's a direct link to the product.

Today I packed some sushi rice with furikake and cheese in the shape of carrots. Furikake is a great way to make plain rice taste good! Groceries stores such as Foods of all Nations and a few Asian markets around your town are likely to carry it. Furikake is dried seasoning usually consisting of seaweed, sesame seeds, and salt, but you can also buy some crazy flavors like fish roe or egg.

I made sure to pack some dairy by putting the equivalent to one slice of orange cheese on top of the rice. A really easy way to make this bento look even more tasty is by using a mini cookie cutter to shape food! I'm guessing the vegetable-shaped set I acquired was something my parents picked up for me in Japan. There's another very cute set that I recommend that can be found here. Because they're metal, they can also cut through foods like ham and certain fruits and vegetables!

For protein, it's always good to pack some kind of egg product in a lunch. Tamagoyaki is no exception in Japanese bento boxes! Tamagoyaki literally translates into "fried egg", and is also called a Japanese egg omelet. The only problem is it requires a lot of practice to shape your tamagoyaki. Getting a tamagoyaki pan is very helpful, but a round pan can work as well. This time the omelet didn't turn out very well. 見えるかな？まずい~

A serving of tomato and an apple in the shape of a rabbit wraps up the healthy part of this meal. For desert I packed a melon-flavored mochi ball. These can also be found at certain Asian markets. (Usually red bean-flavored, which is traditional.) Melon mochi isn't that tasty in my opinion, and I would say stick with red bean flavor.

All-in-all, this was a fairly well-rounded bento for a beginner to make in my opinion. Hopefully I'll get better at bentoing and blogging. Stay tuned for more madness!