- Blue tie-dye rice (see tutorial in my "bento" section)
- couscous makes a good pebbly garden path
- All flowers except for the tulips and daffodils are from egg white. Centers are made of piped yolk that's been mashed with mayonnaise and sugar (like what you would put in a deviled egg)
- yellow squash wings, body and antennae from stringy bits of snap pea
- carrot
- red bell pepper
- daffodils are yellow squash with carrot centers. The centers are anchored with dabs of the egg yolk mixture.
- despite their random and simple shapes, these leaves are what took forever to cut. All greenery is cut from snow pea pods.
Garden bento, closeup
With the exception of the tulips, all flowers were cut using the very tiniest gum-paste flower-cutters.
All flowers except for the tulips and daffodils are from hard-boiled egg white. Orange tulips and daffodil centers are hand-cut from carrots; red tulips are hand-cut from red pepper. Daffodil petals and the wings of the butterfly are yellow squash.
The leaves are cut from pea pods and took the most time of
anything...I'm pretty sick of cutting pea pods right now.
The body and antennae of the butterfly are also made from the stringy
parts of snow pea pods.
Comments and faves
FoodChiCa, Surrenderdefeat, Mustangaly911, This Little Bento, and 568 other people added this photo to their favorites.
FoodChiCa (63 months ago | reply)
This is AMAZING!!
crystal_secretin (63 months ago | reply)
That's beautiful!
What are the flowers made of?
So crafty!
Felicea (63 months ago | reply)
this is so.. fabulous! wow..
arttulip100561 (63 months ago | reply)
deliciously beautiful!!!!!!!!
Mustangaly911 (63 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Color, color color, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Mustangaly911 (63 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Shades of Color, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
please, post this CUL pic in *bì cul* group =)
*bì cul* come and join us :D
Ayîk/Petit Tricotage (63 months ago | reply)
Too pretty to eat!
This Little Bento (63 months ago | reply)
Gasp! This is amazing. Really beautiful. Did it stay in place when transported?
autumn_bliss (63 months ago | reply)
WOW! Absolutely pretty :D
I envy those who manage to do this kind of stuff. In a few days I'll be receiving my first bento set from eBay (either the thermal or the usagi red from urara) but I'm not talented enough to set up food like this. :~
Eris Kallisti (63 months ago | reply)
gorgeous!
Sakurako Kitsa (63 months ago | reply)
Thanks, everyone :)
This Little Bento: yes, it did behave, mostly . I was surprised, because I was expecting it to go everywhere. The leaves were anchored in the couscous, and they seem to have held the flowers in place. The only flowers that scattered were the tiniest pink blossoms. The only big thing that messed up when moved was the butterfly...the body and lower two wings kept coming out of place.
gwendrr (63 months ago | reply)
This is amazing! I love it!
Melanie.. (63 months ago | reply)
yay ... welcome back :)
This is bloody marvellous!
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archidraca (63 months ago | reply)
This is one of the most beautiful meals I've ever seen!
Vanadisa (63 months ago | reply)
Absolutely beautiful. This must have taken forever to do! Did you eat it yourself?
Mario Raia [deleted] (63 months ago | reply)
certe foto sono belle perchè i colori hanno sempre un qualche collegamento con un bel ricordo o un qualcosa che appartiene alla nostra infanzia.Devo dire che questa foto è molto bella...ha colori brillanti con varie tonalità che si spezzano a vicenda. Il tutto è amalgamato in modo molto equilibrato...complimenti mi piace davvero moltissimo.Mi rilassa..... :)
*muri* (63 months ago | reply)
This is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! Ahh, the colors of spring. I love it. :-)
Ilovepearly (63 months ago | reply)
My first reaction is OH WOW!
PhotoGeekGirl (63 months ago | reply)
Perfect spring bento! Reminds me of the Wizzard of Oz for some reason!
Elk Photography (63 months ago | reply)
B>wow!! this great shot deserve a
*bì cul*
Miko 姫 (63 months ago | reply)
wow. that's beautiful
kuraikyo (63 months ago | reply)
stunning!!
The Lohs (63 months ago | reply)
wow! amazing! or rather AMAZINGGGGG!
Nadirah6 (63 months ago | reply)
Insane!
allie1903 (63 months ago | reply)
this takes an amaaazing amount of effort. But lovely!!
Sakurako Kitsa (63 months ago | reply)
allie: it's really not as much effort as it seems.
Hard-boil a batch of eggs and cut the longest thin strips of white you can. Have three or four little cups (silicone cupcake cups are fantastic) ready with food coloring. Cut the shapes out and sort them into the various colors. (I find the eggwhite scraps to be very tasty).
When the colors are dark enough for you, drain the water (another reason the silicone cupcake cups are great...you can pinch and pour so you don't lose the contents), swirl in clean water to avoid color-bleed, and let dry on a few layers of paper towels. Then you can arrange them however you like. I mixed the egg yolks while I was waiting for the color to take and preloaded it into a sandwich bag with a decorating tip...once the colors were set, it all went fairly quickly.
As I said, the leaves cut from pea pods took WAY longer than the eggs did, and that's because I had to fill in all the gaps and anchor all the flowers.
Ayîk/Petit Tricotage (63 months ago | reply)
This is so informative and so much fun to read. You should so start a blog. I think Biggie's blog is pretty definitive for us newbie gaijin. I love the speed factor in her posts, her guides, and the graphic clarity of her photos. But you could totally riff on the less speedy, diorama-istic aspect of bento ... no competition, just a different niche. I may not be up to attempting yours, but yours are aspirational/inspirational.
lisaeaton (63 months ago | reply)
WOW - this is beautiful! Very impressive.
ibii (63 months ago | reply)
all I can say is.. O_O!!!! I have no words! This is so awesome and looks so fantastic!!
blackwinged (63 months ago | reply)
Wow... o_o thats one heck of a awesome bento
Mer210 (63 months ago | reply)
Awesome!
And I agree, I would love it if you would blog about your creations. Telling us where you got the inspiration, what planning you did before-hand, any special techniques you used.
There really isn't a good "how to" kyaraben or food art blog out there (in English) that I know of.
Thanks for the tips on the egg whites, by the way. Am I understanding correctly that the egg yolk is to kinda glue the other eggs in place?
cheap&cheerful (63 months ago | reply)
awesome!
Sakurako Kitsa (63 months ago | reply)
Thanks, everyone :)
Mer210: yes, sort of like that. I used it to "glue" the centers on the daffodils. Otherwise, it's pretty much just for decoration (an easy way to put middles on the daisies/etc that I was relatively sure wouldn't move around) :)
absurdita [deleted] (63 months ago | reply)
you could make the leaves out of green peppers and the center of the flowers with mustard (and it would taste wonderfully!) -i used to love paté filled eggs with a pinch of mustard and little piece of olive on the top-
or maybe you could use green olives for the leaves... you could easily cut them to get the right shape
by the way, i really really LOVE your creations!! the polenta giraffe is my favorite and is genius!
-i feel embarrased to tell you my suggestions, i'm not an artist at all! and you are the master here!!!!-
keep uploading stuff!! :)
SarahDeer (63 months ago | reply)
this is my most favorite of all favorites
sleepy chan (62 months ago | reply)
your food art is AWESOME! ^_^
Arzu Musa (62 months ago | reply)
wow...it is wonderful
Bowhaus (62 months ago | reply)
You truly are the bento queen! Fan-TAS-tic!
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*miss*white* (62 months ago | reply)
wow u r amazing!
DanielLiPhotography (62 months ago | reply)
this is art! fantastic! but i couldn't eat it cause it's too beautiful ;)
buzzygirl (62 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called cute food, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
youkulm [deleted] (62 months ago | reply)
Very awesome!
athomemomblog (62 months ago | reply)
Absolutely gorgeous! I´m just starting to make bentos for my two boys, but haven´t gotten anywhere near this level. :)
*Treppenwitz* (61 months ago | reply)
This is so creative and beautiful!
~*Caroline*~ (61 months ago | reply)
Amazing! true talent!
vigilant20 (60 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Vegetarian Bento, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Absolutely amazing!
vigilant20 (60 months ago | reply)
carolann1972 (60 months ago | reply)
wow that is incredible
violetz_85 (60 months ago | reply)
so cool!
Avant-Gardenist (60 months ago | reply)
Will you please plant this (and anything else that might root well) in the Avant-Garden?
.