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Tag Archives: seaweed art

Rurouni kenshin seaweed art

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by denisegan in Uncategorized

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Tags

anime bento, bento, character bentos, cheese, creative food, cute food, food art, himura kenshin, Home Cooking, Kyaraben, rurouni kenshin, samurai x, seaweed, seaweed art

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Another seaweed art I did over the long weekend. I’ve been wanting to do a rurouni kenshin one for over a year now and finally have some free time to stay home and mess around with seaweed. Perfect time for rurouni kenshin as two of the movies are out this year!  IMG_4751.JPG

 First step? Again, draw the character of your choice, it should be either a line art or just black and white, not grey tones or anything cuz you can’t distinguish that in the seaweed.

2nd, I skipped this step because I plain forgot… trace out your character on a clean sheet of paper using ink, then block the black parts in. Since I forgot, I just used this as a topper and didn’t eat it (couldn’t bear to anyway!). OR you can combine the first and second step by just printing out the lineart/black and white image of your choice and just use that if you’re not particularly comfortable with drawing freehand.

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 3. Next, prepare your tools! My brother and sister got me a new set of bento cutting tools (a great design cutter!) and pincers since my older set is in Singapore. Clip the drawing on top of the seaweed against the cutting board.

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 4. Start cutting all the WHITE parts out! This is a particularly intricate piece and had many tiny details. I accidentally cut out some seaweed lines which could have been rectified by snipping small lines of seaweed, but of course by the end of it I just couldn’t be bothered anymore.

5. Cut the small white pieces first. If you cut out the large pieces, the seaweed will shift around and make it impossible to cut the tiny ones. Use pincers to remove the paper and seaweed as you go along.

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 Phew! There’s the face done.

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Once in a while, flip up the paper to have a look if your seaweed is being cut cleanly and properly.IMG_4689.JPG

And you’re done!IMG_4690.JPG

Transfer the seaweed careful and stick it on a slice or two of cheese. I might try a harder cheese next time so it is easier to handle, but this cheese is sticky and the seaweed sticks very well onto it.IMG_4737.JPG

 6. Cut the cheese and trim it around the seaweed.IMG_4740.JPG

 7. Add to your bento! Or in this case, tomato soup. One of the many ways to jazz up boring canned soup. IMG_4732.JPG

Although some croutons wouldn’t hurt as well!IMG_4753.JPG

 It was so difficult to photograph as the light kept shining off it! I wish I had daylight to take a proper photo of it.IMG_4844.JPG

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Rurouni kenshin seaweed art – Coming soon!

30 Saturday Aug 2014

Tags

anime, bento, bento art, character bento, cute bentos, himura kenshin, kenshin, Kyaraben, rurouni kenshin, seaweed, seaweed art, tomato soup

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Posted by denisegan | Filed under Bento, Soup

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Crayon Shin Chan Kyaraben

11 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bento, Home Cooking, Japanese, Lunch

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Tags

apple, apple designs, bento, character bento, Crayon Shin-chan, cutters, easy, flower shaped apples, food art, furikake, Home Cooking, Kyaraben, lunchbox, nori, quick, salmon furikake, seaweed, seaweed art, shin chan

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Here’s an easy kyaraben (Character bento) that you could attempt. This anime character is Shin Chan, one of the many anime characters that bring back a wave of university nostalgia. IMG_6565For the list of tools used, please refer to my first bento post.IMG_1207 1To make Shin Chan’s face, I used some rice mixed with Salmon furikake (to make the flesh tone). I couldn’t find a furikake that had no seaweed in it so unfortunately my flesh tone had little specks of seaweed in them T___T. It turned out ok in the end though.

For the hair, eyes and eyebrows I cut out strips of seaweed using a sharp design cutter as shown in my first bento post.

As usual, I drew my design on paper, just to make the face fit in with the other food I wanted to put into my bento. Using this design as a template, you can then cut out the hair, eyes and eyebrows by clipping the paper on top of a sheet of nori on a cutting board as shown in the pictures below.  IMG_1209 1

IMG_1210 1So the sequence is: Paper, seaweed and then cutting board. All fastened together to make it easier to cut out the delicate pieces of seaweed. IMG_1208 1Then you mix your Salmon furikake into the rice, place it into the bento box and shape it into the form that you’ve drawn in the design, roughly in the same size as accurately as possible. Then add the seaweed hair, eyes and eyebrows.

If added the seaweed directly onto the rice, the seaweed will shrivel. However I find that cutting out cheese to form the base for the seaweed infinitely cumbersome so I skipped that step. Cheese normally should be the base for any form of seaweed art so that the seaweed remains nice and flat instead of all crumpled and shriveled like it was in my bento T____TIMG_6574So there it is. I cut out some flowers from an apple, added an egg and some chicken. Then I used a chunk of chilli for Shin Chan’s mouth. I suppose you could use ketchup or do it the professional way and use an egg sheet dyed red. Too much trouble to make the egg sheet for such a small area. Plus I like the spicy kick that the chilli lent. IMG_6581This is the second part of the bento. Just a compilation of the stuff I wanted to eat. Make sure that moist foods like fruits are separated from dry foods using rubber separators or in this case, leaves 😉 I wouldn’t want that egg tart to turn soggy!

I’d like to draw your attention to the apples. I saw these designs in a magazine but couldn’t understand how it was made so I freestyled it… basically I winged it.  I cut some apple chunks with the skin still on, in large cubes. Then I made four shallow cuts in the skin with a small knife, in the form of a hashtag # (I hope you understand what I’m bumbling on about, guess this is where a video would be much more educational than my incoherent words). Use the knife to gently peel off the skin slices in alternate blocks, leaving the skin on in some blocks so that it forms the design as shown. It is actually easier than it looks.IMG_6565

And there you have it, a Shin Chan bento. This was quick, delicious and fun to prepare. Definitely fun to eat as well 😉

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Kakashi Kyaraben

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bento, Eggs, Home Cooking, Japanese

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Tags

anime, bento, character bentos, cheese, food art, Home Cooking, japanese, Kakashi, kakashi bento, Kyaraben, naruto bento, seaweed art

Edit: Just updated the post with a couple of photos from the slr. Thought it would look a little nicer 😉IMG_5314 IMG_5323

I’m really really behind on my posts! I’ve got sooooo much to blog about, but have been too busy travelling the past month.

Now to complete this post!

As always for seaweed art in bento making, you need the cutting board, cutter for intricate designs, a piece of paper, binding clips, paper, a slice of cheese, a large sheet of seaweed, a pencil, a pair of small sharp scissors and tweezers.

Firstly trace out the shape of your bento box onto the piece of paper. Then and only then do you start drawing/sketching your favorite character within the drawn boundaries. Something not too complicated, with simple and clear lines would be good. Otherwise you’d be snipping the life out of the seaweed!

Another tip. Try not to handle the seaweed with your bare hands as much as you can. The heat and moisture from your fingers will cause the seaweed to go limp and difficult to manage. Use the tweezers instead.

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Once you’re done with the drawing, place the drawing on top of the seaweed and clip both drawing and seaweed to the cutting board. To ensure that the drawing doesnt move around while you’re cutting, ensure that the drawing is as close to the clipped area as possible. If you’ve left a lot of space between the drawing and the binding clips, it will make cutting a whole lot more difficult as the seaweed and paper are more prone to moving about and tearing.20130731-175231.jpg

Start cutting out the white bits! Start by cutting out the small white bits first. Once you’re done with the little tricky bits, you can then cut out the larger white bits. 20130731-175303.jpg

Here I’ve cut off the larger bit after completing the smaller parts. Of course, I couldn’t perfectly cut everything. I accidentally cut off the eye area but that’s ok. I can use another piece of seaweed to create another eye.

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For the thinner lines such as the hair and the scar, it would be better to use the scissors rather than try to attempt to cut out fine lines using the cutter.

Fix on the thinner strips of seaweed onto the cheese to complete the character.

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Lastly, trim the cheese if you prefer, and place as a decoration on top of your completed bento. I shan’t show my actual bento here because it was sloppy and simple. Just egg sandwiches that night.

Hopefully in my next bento attempt I’ll create something nice and cute! Something perhaps a little different from seaweed art.

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Coming up soon: Kakashi kyaraben

28 Friday Jun 2013

Tags

anime bento, bento, food art, japanese, Kakashi, Kyaraben, lunchbox, naruto, seaweed art

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Posted by denisegan | Filed under Home Cooking, Japanese

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Coming up next: Naruto bento with ikura

08 Saturday Jun 2013

Tags

anime, bento, character bento, ikura, Kyaraben, maguro, naruto, naruto bento, naruto kyaraben, sashimi, seaweed, seaweed art

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Posted by denisegan | Filed under Japanese

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Kyaraben (Character Bento): Naruto and Rukia

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by denisegan in Bento, Japanese

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

bento, bleach bento, character bento, japanese, Kyaraben, lunchbox, naruto, naruto bento, naruto kyaraben, rukia bento, rukia kyaraben, seaweed art

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I wonder what possessed me to attempt character bentos. I’ve never even made a proper bento before! According to this website, there are several skill levels in making bento:

http://justbento.com/handbook/bento-decoration-techniques/kyaraben-charaben-how-links-all-skill-levels

Yours truly here was too eager to start making BAMMMM cute bentos right away without mastering the basics, so this post is about my attempt at the “Advanced level”. Explains why perhaps my bentos arent as awesome as some out there but oh well, its my first go at it!

I’ll try to share how I made the bento as well to the best of my knowledge. There are a lot of books out there on Bento-making, but the best are always in Japanese. I bought them anyways, I find that you can still follow the pictures. Good bento-making books include a step-by-step, so head down to Kinokuniya for books on 弁当! 

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Tools used:-

  • a cutting mat (for seaweed)
  • cutting board (for bread, ham and cheese)
  • 2 binder clips/paper clips (for gripping the seaweed and the cutting mat
  • a cutter (the blade has to be small enough to be used for intricate detailed cutting)
  • small and sharp scissors (very important that it be sharp and sharp ended, not those safe and clumsy round tip blades that could wreck your seaweed)
  • tweezers (life savers)
  • pencil, pen, eraser
  • Baking paper/tracing paper
  • Bento box
  • Cute toothpicks and wooden toothpicks
  • Small brush, thoroughly cleaned, for painting the food colouring on

Ingredients used:-

  • 2 slices of bread with the brown edges cut off to fit into the bento box
  • Sliced cheese
  • Tamago bought from the Japanese supermarket (just because it was a nice bright yellow and I was lazy to make thin Japanese omelettes. I should have… because this tamago that i bought was really hard to use!)
  • Ham (light coloured ham and darker coloured ham) – as thin as possible, so yours doesnt turn up too thick and chunky like mine. Also makes it easier to cut
  • Cherry tomatoes (1 for each bento)
  • Blue food colouring
  • Roasted seaweed (comes in large squares), get the unseasoned ones, those are easier to cut.
  • Fruit and cooked meats and vegetables of your choice
  • Cooked rice
  • A dab of mayo to act as a sticking agent

Below, my loot from collecting bento making tools. The bento boxes can be bought from takashimaya, Japanese supermarkets or online. I bought some of the cutters from Takashimaya, some from Daiso. Tweezers are from Daiso as well.20130601-045529.jpg

Below: Different ham (and thus, different shades of flesh tone!), egg, seaweed and blue food colouring20130601-045616.jpg20130601-045633.jpg

Above, the tools used. Starting from the top: Cutting mat, binder clips, pen knifes for intricate cutting (don’t buy the usual pen knifes, those are too big for the work you’ll be doing), eraser, pencil, pen, small scissors, tweezers.

Instructions:

First of all, you have to outline your bento box on a piece of paper. This is to make the bento easier to design and will give you a gauge of how much food you need to buy.

Then you choose your favourite character and draw him/her within the bento box line. I started off with Rukia from Bleach just because her hair is black, and not some funky colour like green or pink etc. So its easier for me. Also Naruto’s colours are made up of orange, flesh tones, white and black. Not too bad as well.

I’ve compiled a list of foods to match the colours:

  • Pink/flesh toned – Ham, salami, pickled ginger, pink powder (you see this sprinkled on rice sometimes, not sure what is the exact name)
  • Brown – Spam, sausage, egg yolk omelette with soy sauce
  • White – cheese, rice, kamaboko, fish cake
  • Yellow – cheddar cheese, egg yolk omelette, pickle,
  • Black – seaweed, cooked konbu (dark variety)
  • Red – Crab stick, red pepper (I think I”ll just stick with food colouring), tomato
  • Orange – sausage, carrot, egg yolk omelette with less soy sauce than the brown
  • Green – lighter coloured konbu
  • Purple – Yukari (purple seasoning)
  • Enoki and button mushrooms make great pebbles/stones interpretation in the bentos, while broccoli and english parsley make great shrubs 😉 Use your imagination!

Below, Naruto and Rukia sketched onto a piece of paper:

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Decide on the position of your character, and then start to eke out what foods will complement/fill out the rest of the bento. Of course, think about what you’d like to eat as well. 20130601-045904.jpg20130601-045920.jpg

With this, you’ll be able to shop for groceries 😉

For Naruto, many layers are involved. A lot of ham and egg layers as well as seaweed. So, you need a base to hold everything. which is what you see in the top left outline of Naruto. This will be the foundation to hold the rest of the layers. I drew all the layering on a piece of baking paper. Then I cut up the paper into smaller sections so its easier to work with.20130601-050002.jpg

Lay out the sketch outline onto the ham and cut slowly along the lines.

Edit: It would be easier to cut out the shapes on the  baking paper, and lay it onto the cheese/ham to cut. I was lazy so I made my life way more difficult that way =(20130601-050011.jpg

Above, the foundation laid out on a slice of bread, so later on its easy to move.20130601-050036.jpg

Trace out the seaweed parts onto a tracing paper, and fasten the tracing paper on top of a piece of seaweed onto the cutting mat. Trace along the lines with your blade to cut out the seaweed in the desired shape.20130601-050052.jpg

I put the seaweed on as the 3rd layer, the 2nd layer being Naruto’s face. Then I traced out the egg and put that on as 4th layer.20130601-050103.jpg

Then you need to cut out the yellow egg for the eyes. This is where straws of different sizes would come in handy as they cut perfect circles. But I forgot to buy them, so now I have uneven eyes T____T. It is a little difficult to trace out small strips of seaweed for the eyes and mouth, so I used the scissors to create them. Its useful to have a dab of mayonnaise at hand to get the seaweed to stick to the ham.20130601-050139.jpg

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This Naruto ham and cheese sandwich took me 2.5 hours to make since the seaweed was so fiddly and there were so many layers!IMG_5201

Next up, Rukia~IMG_5223

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For Rukia there won’t be any layering, because this is going to be a seaweed art piece. So all I used for her is a slice of cheese, seaweed and a little bit of food colouring.20130601-050224.jpg

Rukia layers on the baking paper. When you do seaweed art it is important to emphasize the black areas on the piece, as you will need to cut out the white bits.

First, cut out the foundation: instead of using a toothpick, you can trace the on the line with a knife, and remove the paper to cut the cheese. Much easier that way as it is easy to see the trace lines on cheese rather than say, ham.20130601-050443.jpg

Place the foundation on a mound of rice, packed tight.20130601-050510.jpg

Start working on the seaweed!20130601-050245.jpg

Fasten securely on the cutting mat.

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Cut out the white bits and carefully poke out the white parts. Its ok if you accidentally tear some of it off, you can use another piece of seaweed to fix it later.20130601-051305.jpg

Place her hair onto the foundation, and add seaweed for the blacks of her eyes (since I accidentally tore it off). Then cut out a piece of seaweed for her clothes. Then you will need to use a pair of scissors to cut fine seaweed lines for her nose, mouth and chin, as well as her clothes. 20130601-051326.jpg

Dab a little blue on her eyes.20130601-051649.jpg

The disastrous work area.IMG_5214

The final Rukia bento. I cut out the sakura petals from some ham. As for the rest of the bento, I added some tamago, pork and ginger, cherry tomatoes and shiso leaves.IMG_5227

FInally complete!IMG_5217

😉 Take as many pictures before eating. A lot of effort went into the bento. Don’t know how Japanese mothers cope!20130601-051924.jpg

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Coming up soon! – Kyaraben (Character Bento) : Naruto and Rukia (Bleach)

31 Friday May 2013

Tags

bento, character bento, Kyaraben, naruto, rukia, seaweed, seaweed art

IMG_5221

Posted by denisegan | Filed under Home Cooking, Japanese

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