Totoro & Chu Totoro in the Forest Bento

As some of you know, I wasn't very happy with my very first Totoro bento, because I felt that the Totoro didn't look so much like the real Totoro and the grey part looked so rough because I didn't grind the black sesame seeds. Anyway, I did a bit of research today about Totoro, the story and the other characters involved because I've never watched the film. I even watched the trailer from YouTube and found him totally adorable, making me want to make another Totoro-themed bento...! Totoro is also now on the list of DVDs which I want to borrow for our future 'movie night' :).

So, here's my second Totoro-themed bento with Totoro and Chu Totoro (I didn't even know before that there are 3 types of Totoro - the biggest one and the most popular one, Totoro, is a grey, gigantic, friendly spirit of the forest. The middle one, Chu Totoro, is blue and usually carries a sack of acorns on its back. The smallest one is Chibi Totoro, which is white and can run very fast. For more information about the Totoro characters, you can click this link here.

Since I made the Totoros with quail eggs, Totoro and Chu Totoro are equally big (Totoro is supposed to be much larger than Chu Totoro), I do find them quite cute though. Next time when I make another Totoro bento, I'll try to include all three Totoros and make sure that Totoro is much larger than the other two Totoros.

I coloured Totoro with soy sauce and Chu Totoro with red cabbage (simply cook some chopped red cabbage for a few minutes until the water turn purple. Remove the cabbage and let the quail eggs sit in this purple water for a few minutes until they turn light blue). The eyes, nose and the 'tummy markings' are made out of nori. I used this quail egg puncher to make the eyes, nose and markings - made my life so much easier. The whiskers are soba noodles.

The Totoros are sitting on top of Vietnamese Beef Pho noodles :D). This is certainly not a bento which you can really bring to work (or uni or school) because of the soup - unless you make instant pho noodle soup, then you can just bring the seasoning sachets with you and add the hot water at work.

The recipe for the noodle soup is here.