Kuririn the Hamster Bento

Well, the character doesn't really look like Kuririn I guess, because I didn't make her wear her smashed apple (??) hat. If you don't know who Kuririn is, she is a character from Sanrio (a Japanese company that produces kawaii merchandises). I tried to make some Sanrio characters in the past with cookies, there you could see the characters better because I could handpaint the characters on sugar fondant. Shaping a character with rice is a totally different thing...! I find it much more difficult. And I should have used stronger coloured ham for the mouth because I think it looks so pale it's almost invisible. And by the way, in case you're curious how I shaped the hamster - I used saran wrap, which makes the job much easier and cleaner too. I always thought in the past that bento makers shaped their bento characters with bare hands (and to be very honest, I've always admired those people's works but I never could imagine that I would be able to eat 'kyaraben' bento just because I have never been into people touching my food. But after some time I found out that most bento makers use saran wrap when they make onigiri or other cute characters with rice - I find this actually very relieving...;)!

Anyway, I am quite proud that I could produce such a bento after work. Normally I always feel demotivated to do anything after work...:).

I filled my bento with chicken nuggets, green beans/salami rolls, Hawaiian toast, har gao, pork dumplings, Chinese-style stir-fried chicken, taro mochi, fruit and lots of greens.

The Chinese-style stir fried chicken was a leftover from yesterday. This time I used this condiment below. I bought it at the weekend in my local Asian grocery store, because now I am always on the lookout for new, interesting-looking condiments - especially after I found a beautiful Szechuan condiment some time ago, which I used for making this dish (and I abso-freaking-lutely loved it!). I have to say it doesn't taste bad at all. It's spicy and very aromatic with some chopped Chinese mustards and string beans inside. A must have if you want to create quick, easy yet tasty stir-fried dishes.

Anyway, that's it for now... Good night everyone! I can't wait for the weekend to come...!