200K Bento Contest – Vote!
I received 24 wonderful, creative entries for my bento contest celebrating my 200k hits. Then I looked at my counter today and thought, “Whoa. What the heck? I’m almost a quarter to 300k!” What does this mean?
More contests, more often! Muahaha!
I looked through each of the entries very carefully. I judged each entry by food content, presentation, color balance, and photo quality. There were a few that I really wanted to include, but in the end, I narrowed things down to 7 finalists. I am sorry to disappoint the other 17 contestants!
Please look through each entry and pick one, then vote for your favorite entry in the poll! I changed it to an offsite poll since people were having problems voting. If you voted before, please vote again!
Contents: Muhammara and grilled zucchini, cherry tomato, hazelnut lentil balls, colourful
sushi rice rolls (no stuffing, just differently coloured rice), grapes, and a tiny cherry tomato.
Blog: Wererabbits
Comments: The colors in this bento are so amazing. I loved the cucumber star in the sushi roll and I can’t even imagine how you managed to make that roll. To top it off, it’s vegetarian! The fried zucchini looks so good! This bento is chock full of healthy food, it’s marvelous!
Contents: Lettuce borders the bento box. The hand-cut crab, octopus, penguin, and sea shell are made from hot dogs. The sun, sand dollar, and sea turtle are made from hard boiled egg, with the turtle shell and body parts being made from choy sum. The starfish is made from baby carrots. The sky is made of short grained white rice while the sandy beach is made from brown rice. Nori is used to create the seagulls in the sky as well as the face and eyes of the sun, octopus, and penguin.
Deviantart: liloaznangel
Comments: This is Anne’s first bento, but I’d never have guessed it. I think my favorite thing is the little egg sand dollar. That thing looks so cute and real! After that, I love the turtle and the crab. The penquin looks like he’s wearing sunglasses, which is good since the sun is out! This is an amazing first bento!
Contents: The top tier contains swedish fish (red snapper), hard boiled egg (yellow fin), pistashios (clams), and a paper twist of salt. The bottom tier has hot dog (octopus), Goldfish crackers (goldfish), shrimp, and a “sea lion” of soy sauce.
LiveJournal: Minnesota Toast
Comments: At first glance, this bento looks great, but then as you look harder, you begin to notice the wonderful little details that make this a very creative lunch. The rice on the bottom looks just like crushed ice would in a fish market. The broccoli is lining the sides just like it would in a display case. The little price flags are a nice touch, but I think the most ingenious of the foods was the use of pistachios as clams. How clever!!!
Contents: Krista made this bento to eat while watching the beginning of the new season of Lost. It contains blanched pea pods, cold seasoned tofu, blanched spinach, blood orange segments, wakame onigiri, tiny tomatoes, and soy sauce dropper.
Blog: Disposable Aardvarks, Inc.
Comments: I think what attracted me to this bento the most was it’s simple elegance. The spice on the tofu and the green onions fall just right while the lettuce leaf sprawled across it provides a nice artistic look to it. She does not mention it, but it looks as if the center of the flower is made out of a slice of baby corn!
Contents: The sky is made from blue dyed rice and the sun is an egg yolk. The dinosaur is made from aburaage/inari pocket while his teeth are made from egg white, his tongue is made from red pepper, and his eye is made from a sesame seed. The volcano is a piece of seasoned chicken with an alfalfa sprout plume of smoke and ketchup lava. The foliage is made from spinach and broccoli.
LiveJournal: What do you mean, don’t play with my food?
Comments: I must admit, while this bento isn’t really “cute,” it does display a wonderfully realistic looking dinosaur. My kids loved it. I particularly liked the little tongue of his, that was a nice touch. Very well done and creative!
Contents: Shani experimented with using fresh vegetable juice to dye her rice. She used at least one fruit and vegetable in each color. Red: Strawberry, cherry tomato, and bell pepper. Orange: Oranges, cauliflower, and carrot flowers. Yellow: Pineapple and golden beets. Green: Green grapes and sugar snap peas. Blue: Blueberries and crookneck squash. Purple: Purple kale and purple grapes.
LiveJournal: My Bento Art
Comments: The rainbow theme of this bento is amazing. Not only does Shani pack a very healthy and colorful bento, but she manages to squeeze in a fruit AND vegetable of each color. Let’s not forget Shani made her own dyes. Read about it on her LJ!
Contents: The bento contains a rice flower dyed pink with beet and decorated with curry powder and red pepper. Sitting on top of it is a bee, made out of pepper, nori and cheese. The veggies are cauliflower, sugar snap peas, and carrots in flower shape. The protein are 3 quail egg chicks, dyed with yellow food coloring, and 2 mini sausage guys. The details on them are carrot, cheese and sesame seeds along with a little paprika for rosy cheeks. Rounding off the bento are blueberries and a chocolate as a little sweet treat.
Comments: The colors in this bento are so amazing. The bee on the flower is incredible and if you look in the back, she even added two peas to make them appear as leaves. The quail egg chicks are adorable and those blueberries look so, so scrumptious. I even noticed that the chicks all have a different hairstyle. This is amazingly well packed and photographed! Those sausage guys are such hams.
That’s it! Pick one and cast your vote! I’d like to thank everyone that entered into the contest. I enjoyed seeing every single one of your bentos and hope that when I hit 300k, you’ll be back to try again! This poll will close in 3 weeks, so get your vote in!
Tags: bell pepper, Bento, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cheese, chocolate, Contests, cucumber, egg, grapes, green onion, Hot dog, inari, kale, nori, Onigiri, orange, pineapple, quail egg, rice, sausage, Shrimp, snow peas, spinach, strawberries, sugar snap peas, Sushi, tofu, tomato, Vegetarian, wakame, zucchini