Piggy Hello Kitty Bento

Yay, it's weekend...:)! And double yay that we have a long weekend here in Germany :D)!! I am feeling slightly better than yesterday and the opera was quite nice (I know I wrote 'concert' yesterday, but it's not true, I was too tired and just wrote whatever without thinking much). My husband's colleague composed one of the pieces performed in the opera and we were invited to watch it. The music was beautiful but the story was a bit weird. It's actually a story about the legendary Sumerian King, Gilgamesh, but it only contains about 2% of the real story. I think people who have no background knowledge of the legend would have difficulty understanding what the opera is about. Anyway, it was a nice experience, because I had never been to a real theater before, in the past I only had the chance to watch a ballet performance 'Swan Lake' and some piano concerts.

I went to the gym this morning, so all my bones are still somehow sore (and I know tomorrow it's going to get even worse... ;)). I've started going to the gym since last week, with the hope to live healthier, since I spend too much time sitting down in front of the computer. I thought about not doing any bentos today and only wanted to relax and enjoy my long weekend. But then this little sweetie below arrived - my new bento box from CasaBento :)!!

I LOVE wooden bento boxes! They look traditional and elegant. This is my second wooden bento box. My first one has got the same colour and is made of the same material, Wappa wood, but the shape is oval instead of round. Check out some awesome traditional bento boxes here!

Some people who have visited CasaBento website in the past will notice that the website has got a new look now, which I think is fantastic. It is now much more organised and easier to navigate.

This bento box has two tiers, the bottom part is deeper, around 8 cm, and you can fill it in with quite a lot of food. The top tier is around 4 cm high.

One thing which is not so practical about this bento box is it's not microwave- and dishwasher-safe. Since I am somebody who loves her dishwasher, I wasn't very happy about this fact. But in the end I got used to manually washing my (first) wooden bento box and it normally takes me less than a minute to wash it, so it's really okay after all (yes, call me lazy...;)!!).

I filled in my new bento box with Hello Kitty onigiri in piggy suit plus some pan-fried wontons, radishes, mini peppers, tamagoyaki, deli-meat flower and lettuce.

The piggy suit is made out of eggsheet coloured with a drop of red food colouring. I didn't have red cabbage available, or I would have tried colouring the eggsheet pink with the cabbage. Please only use the eggwhite to make the eggsheet, because if you use the egg yolk too, the pink colour is not going to show - or maybe it would, but you'd have to use way much more food colouring, which I do want to avoid.

Pink Eggsheet - make 1 (diameter: 30 cm)

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon tapioca or corn flour, mixed with 3 tablespoons water
• 1 drop red food colouring
• Oil to grease a non-stick pan.

Directions

• Mix all ingredients well.
• Use a kitchen strainer to sieve the eggwhite.
• If you still see some bubbles, remove them with a spoon. This will make sure that the eggsheet turns out smoothly.
• Oil a non-stick pan with a kitchen paper.
• Pour the eggwhite mixture and heat the pan under very low heat.
• When the top part of the eggsheet gets slightly glossy and hardens, you may turn off the heat.
• Be careful not to break the eggsheet when you remove it from the pan.

Do you see the pretty pink cloth with polka-dots pattern underneath the bento box? It's actually a furoshiki, but since I usually eat my bento at home, I love using it as decor for my bento photo session :).