Cheesy Lion Bento

Yesterday I taught two bento classes for a company here in Honolulu, which was fun, since it had been a while since I taught a class. It’s intensely stressful when prepping for things like this because I have to plan, design, shop, cook, wash, cut, and pack every single thing I may need. It’s exhausting, but the class itself is fun, simply because people love seeing how cute bento come together.

We made two bento—one for adults and one charaben—and after the last class, while my students were making their charabens, I played around with my cutters and made a lion, then picked at the leftover food to make this impromptu bento.

Packed in with the lion are pieces of pan-fried salmon, cutie slices, a tomato with a washi tape flag, broccoli, and pear. There’s a slice of turkey under the lion.

I brought it home and my little one, Mr. Destruction, kept telling me it’s a bear. I tried to tell him it’s a lion, but he insisted, and he probably thinks I need proper animal schooling. 🙂

To make the lion, I painted food coloring (1 drop red, 1 drop green, 3 drops yellow) on the scalloped oval. I didn’t bring yellow cheese to the class, so the bear’s face is painted yellow. I cut the snout out with a bubble tea straw and rounded the edges, then placed the nori details with a toothpick.

Something new I discovered during the class: cutting cutie slices flat like you see above. I used to do wedges, and these thin slices are WAY easier to arrange. I’m not sure why I never thought of cutting them this way before. Just goes to show you that you can still learn things even seven years later.

Yes, earlier this year was my seven-year bento blog anniversary. Yay!