It’s a Moogle Bento, kupo~! (306)

Like any good Vana’diel citizen, I sacrifice for the happiness of my Moogle, especially the one special Moogle who has helped me grow over a thousand plants in Pikko’s little house in Windurst. So without further ado, I present my Moogle tribute!

I put a lot of work into dashimaki tamago for this bento, which I didn’t even end up using. Despite online claims that tamagoyaki takes a quick 5 or 10 minutes to make, this is me we are talking about: Pikko, Destroyer of Eggs.

Seriously, it took me like half an hour to make it. Then after I’d put Moogle into the bento, I cut open the egg log and it was just so pasty looking. It wasn’t what I wanted at all, so I put it back in the fridge for use another day.

I don’t have much of a bentorial today because I forgot to take pictures at certain points, but I’ll post what I have anyway.

First step, add the lettuce to the box. This is the same lettuce I used yesterday for my salad and box lining. I ate it just like I said I would. Let me tell you, this lettuce looks nice, but that’s about all it’s got going for it. I felt like I was eating long overgrown parsley, except without the nice aftertaste.

In step two, I added Moogle’s head, body, and feet. I shaped the head by hand by wrapping it in Saran wrap then I pinched the sides at the bottom for his “whiskers” area. I took little gobs of rice to add on the ears and the nose. I cut some fish sausage out to be his inner ears. The feet and arms were hard to shape, but I finally managed to get them in the general shape I needed.

For the wings, I used Okinawan sweet potato propped up by orange cauliflower. His pouch and strap are made out of inari skin cut with kitchen shears. I secured the pouch to the side by poking a piece of angel hair pasta into it. I cut the little sliver eyes out of nori and boy did I have a hard time with that part. I’d fold the nori over, give it a snip snip and then after I’d applied one eye, I’d somehow drop the other one into a black hole in my kitchen.

In the “last” step, I added three turkey croquette balls. Grandma J had made turkey croquette patties for dinner and I’d been meaning to tell her to reserve me a tiny bit so I could experiment making them into balls. Unfortunately I didn’t catch her in time so instead, I peeled the panko skin off an existing patty to access the mashed potato mixture inside. I formed three balls and dipped them in egg wash, then fine panko before frying in a bit of oil. The three were pretty hard to cram in, but eventually I got them all in. They didn’t come out totally round because I was skimpy on the oil, but they still look a nice golden brown!

Finally I added the embellishments. I wrapped another piece of angel hair pasta with a strip of nori and then wet it to mat it down to the pasta. I cut a circle shaped piece of takuan out and poked the pasta into the bottom, then inserted the thing into the top of Moogle’s head. I added okra, raspberries, and little star carrots around the bento. Finally, I took some tonkatsu sauce and painted his feet, hands, and nose with my finger. To touch up the nose, I used a toothpick as sort of a brush.

He looks happy enough, so I’m satisfied. I’m also sooo tired. It’s 2:30 AM and I’m off to bed after some linkage around the bentonets.