One Little Monkey in a Bento Box

Does it look like a monkey? My husband couldn't guess that it's a monkey :(.

This bento was rather quick to make, I suppose it's because I didn't try to make too much food like previously. I know I somehow always made 'picnic bento' in the past ;). I took some pictures of the monkey before it was formed, and I hope this would help people who want to recreate this character at home. You don't need fancy bento accessories at all, here are what I used:

• Brown rice (or white rice browned with soy sauce)
• Cheese, I used Gouda
• Roasted seaweed (nori)
• Ham
• Toothpick
• Decorating tip
• Drinking straw
• Plastic wrap
• Kitchen knife
• Kitchen scissors
• Your hands :)

I used a toothpick to outline the face of the monkey, before cutting it out with a kitchen knife. Use the bottom part of the decorating tip to make two small circles from the cheese and nori. These would later be used for the eyes (You don't actually need to make two cheese circles, the nori circles are enough for the eyes, I just wanted the eyes to pop out more). The nose holes are made out of nori. I cut these out manually, the same with the mouth. I used the drinking straw to cut out the mini pink cheeks.

Then I formed the rice using plastic wrap, before topping it up with the 'face accessories'. Don't forget to make two smaller rice balls for the ears - not pictured here, unfortunately... I was in a hurry!

I you look at the finished monkey rice balls one more time, you'll notice that in the end I decided to add more 'face accessories'. I added mini cheese circles to the eyes to brighten them up (I used my drinking straw to cut them out) and two bigger pink cheeks which I cut out using my decorating tip. The inner pink parts of the ears are cut out using the bottom part of the decorating tip again.

Filling: slices of mandarin, hard-boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, blackberries, broccoli, grapes, edamame (boiled soy beans), green beans/ham rolls, German 'Frikadelle'/meat patties, monkey rice balls, potato salad, green tea mochi and two chocolate truffles.