soooo exciting… i got to work this morning and a totally unexpected package was waiting there for me! a super-sweet bento friend sent me some of the colored rice powders i have been lusting after! the one i used in this bento is mizkan brand, and is made of delicious distilled vinegar and dried plum. omg soooooooo good! after mixing with some rice, i half-filled my onigiri mold and popped a plump ume into each onigiri, and then i filled the rest of the mold. so these onigiri are DOUBLE plum, or should i say double yum!
my pink piggies have fish sausage ears and noses, with sesame seed nostrils, and nori eyes. they’re surrounded by some steamed and salted broccoli florets, carrot flowers with edamame centers, strawberry halves, pea pods, quail eggs, clementine slices, and a mini yellow pepper.
for accessories i’m using one of my cool felt doilies, an home-made eiffel tower flag pick, and a cute strawberry fork i grabbed on my trip to flushing’s H-mart. isn’t this a happy bento to start the weekend? hope you all have a great one, and don’t forget to keep entering your creative GRE vocabulary sentences in the contest — entries can be submitted through sunday night.
[as seen on books and shoes, stdandme]
bento zen 
Those piggies are just adorable! Love the pink hue too; it’s just perfect. Great job with the teardrop ears and cute snouts too. And I’m envious of your lovely egg cutting! I’m kind of afraid to try again after several decimated egg attempts! Sweet pick and gingham bg too 🙂
thanks for your sweet comment sheri! try the egg cutting again, it’s easy if you use a very sharp and small paring knife (not an x-acto this time) and if you don’t care about preserving the round top of the yolk — then you can just go in on an angle, make sure you get all the way through the white. i KNOW that if you can carve tiny jack-o-lanterns you can do this!
cute pigs, wish i could get my hands on those rice mix too.
thanks javapot – have you checked ebay or your local japanese market? i bet you could find ume vinegar and substitute that for the same flavor… and there’s always pink food coloring 😉
Love those piggies! Pink color just perfect for them, adorable! And I love the carrot flowers with edamame centers … the colors look great together. I might ‘steal’ your idea Megan 😀 Hope to see more pink bento from you.
aww, thanks lia! you are *always* welcome to *all* of my ideas — one of the best things about this community is learning from each other 🙂
Aw, so cute piggies! How lucky to have such a nice bento friend ^-^
I love how the quail eggs look like little flowers.
And on every picture you found the right detail to decorate. Great 😉
Such a lovely pink piggies pair! So innocent look 😀
Love the way you cut the eggs too, so neat and nicely done!
thanks lil’chan and kidsdreamwork! i AM lucky (and thankful) to have such awesome bento pals.
Those piggies are so adorable!!! Beautiful arrangement with the bento and I love how you cut those quail eggs- so pretty!
that’s so unbelivably cute …..nom nom nom …
thanks susan and mils!
hi! hey i see your boxes on tastespotting all the time, and i’m always impressed. but about how much time on average does it take yuo to make one of these? your kids must be the most popular at school 🙂
thanks for clicking through from TS, mallory elise, and welcome! my boxes are just for me (yes, i’m that childless lady who makes cute lunches for herself, haha), and they take different amounts of time depending on the level of detail. this one took about 45 minutes because of the different “parts” of the pigs’ faces, but simpler charaben (where the main shape is cut with a cookie cutter) can come together much faster, and there is no rule that you need to make charaben at all! for some great tips on super-speedy kids’ lunches, visit biggie’s invaluable resource http://lunchinabox.net/, and for some other awesome non-charaben (but still cute, with cut-out shapes, etc.) kids’ lunches visit http://wendolonia.com/blog/category/bentos/ !
Oh, so cuuute!! Plummy flavor souns delectable, and I love how these pretty pink piggies are nestled in such a ripe, verdant garden! Nothing desultory here, gamene 😉 Thanks for such a cheery start to a rainy Friday and happy weekend!
haha jenn you are a GRE vocab superstar, using the words even when not required (total bonus points)! and yup, i’m into verdant gardens with my bento right now… trying to coax in spring!
[…] out how Gamene turned these piggies pink at bento zen! Share and […]
Wow, I wish I could make my rice look so smooth and have such a beautiful hue! This looks like a delicious lunch!
That is the cutest Bento I’ve ever seen!
thanks for your nice comments, fluteloop and rachelle! @fluteloop — it’s super easy with the onigiri mold! (is that cheating?)
“This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home…” Cute little bento Megan!
thanks debra :o)
Wow! You are incredible. How do you find the time? I am truly impressed with you, but I find that I always am. xo T
aww, thanks cousin T! i don’t find the time, i MAKE the time, because otherwise i would go bonkers — this is my creative outlet. love you xoxo
Wow, looks really professional! So neat and tidy! My friend who collects pigs would love this no doubt!!! 😀
thanks bentoboxUK!
[…] for details on these piggies (and to enter a contest), visit bento zen! […]