I am a big fan of cute and I figured today I would make a smiling Onigiri. Here’s a great chart showing the different shapes you can make. I used plastic wrap when shaping mine because I really hate how rice sticks to your fingers and I didn’t want to oil my hands. (My plastic wrap is BPA free.)
Here’s my overall bento:
Section 1: Snowmen on daikon radish, with carrots sprinkled at the bottom and sprialized zucchini sky.
I tried to spiralize the daikon radish, but it turned to this wet mush. It looked very much like wet slushy snow, so it gave me the idea to do snowmen. Then I figured I’d go with it and make the zucchini the same.
Section 2: Pineapple with green beans and cranberry sauce centre.
The centre is a bit off, but that’s the way the pineapple was cored. It sure made cutting the beans odd, but that’s just what gives food personality. The trick to getting the cranberry sauce in such a perfect circle was to run a table spoon measuring spoon under hot water and then scoop the sauce and tap it until it fell out. Just like when you’re cutting into a cake, you should make your knife as hot as you can so it will cut easier. I learnt this while working at Second Cup during college while attempting to cut through a four layer coconut cream cake that wobbled insanely so.
Section 3: Eggplant flower on a bed of carrot shavings with tomato and broccoli centre.
I honestly didn’t know what to do, but made the best of it.
Section 4: Smiling Onigiri
I love the cute factor of a bento and tried very hard to make sure my smiling face didn’t look silly, but after checking a few sites, I think it looks about right. So there you have it!
Happy eating!