Four Sammies Bento (365)

Honolulu Magazine’s Kathryn Drury Wagner has a blog called Guilty Pleasures and she recently posted an interview with me about the hobby and how I got into it. Be sure to take a look and let her know what you think! She called me a “bento master,” therefore, I love her. That would make a great job title!

I was supposed to do this product review a while ago, but never could find the time or the brain power to remember that it was waiting for me to do it! I had wanted to take this to my second session bento class, but the scatterbrain in me won and I forgot it at home. Anyway, it’s a four-in-one sandwich cutter, available from From Japan with Love.

That sentence sounds so weird, yet I like it. “From from”. If I ever get a dog, I’m going to suggest that as a name. Here, From-From!

This sandwich cutter is different from the other sets I have in that it’s one item that cuts four sandwiches at once, which is of course, totally crazy awesome! I have to admit, I wasn’t all that into it when I first saw it, but the results were just too cute to ignore.

One of the first things you’ll notice is how sturdy the plastic is. It still needs some pressing at the bottom if you don’t have enough force, but this is how all plastic cutters seem to be. It’s pretty ingenious. If you look, you can see that they’ve managed to make it fit an elephant, a whale, a car, and a scottish terrier in there.

Sadly, the bread we buy isn’t in the traditional square-ish shape, so I had to mangle four slices of bread to cut them all out. Luckily, I have a daughter that inhales bread. I toasted the first two lightly, thinking that might help it stay thick, but it actually did the opposite and so my dog and whale are kind of squished down. Then while talking to someone this morning, I burned my second set of toast, which I guess means I mangled six slices, not four.

I cut the elephant and car out of untoasted bread and this turned out much better. The middle is filled with ham and cheese, cut with the same cutter. I cut some nori out for the features on each one, but I guess if you used white bread you could draw on it with an edible marker. I thought something was wrong with the car and thought it was because I was missing the door, but now I realize that it’s because I forgot the tires. Oh well!

I put the lettuce in first, intending to put it into the sammies when I eat them. I put each sandwich in and the lettuce on the bottom was actually really great for propping them up slightly, making each nicely visible. To add some color, I stuck a Babybel cheese in at the top, then added half slices of a mandarin orange into the empty spaces. Finally, I added a pickle sliced in half and I was done! Easy-peasy!