Friday, March 16, 2012

Sumatran Tiger


A-chan and I love the zoo.  We could both sit around and watch the animals for hours.  A lot of our favorites are the big cats.  Sometimes we watch them with fascination and compare their actions to those of our house cats whose antics are an endless source of entertainment.  The Sumatran Tigers are high on my list of personal favorites and when I decided to challenge myself to a complicated bento, it was with the tigers in mind.

This is my first attempt at an 'art' bento and although there are several flaws, I'm very happy with the results! At two hours, this is the most time consuming bento I've made.  And I learned a lot doing it - things that will make it faster next time and a huge amount about the tigers themselves.  Despite my admiration for the big cuties, I couldn't say that I appreciated their stripes and facial designs the way I do now.

In the bento:  Rice, egg sheets, radish sprouts, a halved strawberry, steamed edamame, fried tofu, baby corn and black plum slices.

The tiger's face was made with layers of orange egg sheet, white egg sheet, soy bologna and nori.  His eyes are one layer of white egg sheet, a second layer of nori, a layer of bologna, a green iris cut from edamame, nori pupils and white egg sheet highlights.  I stuck short pieces of uncooked somen noodles into the egg sheets for the whiskers.  Originally I had planned to put lovely green grass around and behind the tiger but I got lazy and stuck a few radish sprout tops on instead.

We were staying home today with no need for a bento.  After it was finished came the inevitable question, "Who gets to eat that bento, mommy?"  Before we came to blows over it, I bribed her with a pbj and claimed the bento for myself.  I promised to make her one with whichever animal she chooses after our next visit to Zoo Atlanta.

13 comments:

berrygirl@mommy kiki can! said...

Jaw Dropping! What a beautiful, amazing artist you are! A every post you do is an inspiration for me, but this makes me respect the art form of bento all the more! Thank you Natakiya!

Unknown said...

We love the zoo too! Your tiger is amazing, I certainly cannot see a single flaw!

MewlKitten said...

What an AMAZING Tiger! I love it. Great Job.

Lila said...

Whatever you do, don't take her to the Aquarium to see the Leafy Sea Dragon!

AikoVenus said...

This is an amazing tiger, Natakiya! I love it so much. ^^; Hehe, I just got finished making a tiger bento as well - but mine is more comical and nowhere near as good as yours!

Unknown said...

Wow!! I'm very impressed with this one, truely a masterpiece!

Kathy said...

Amazing work!

Candy Girl said...

Wow, this is amazing! I love the green edamame eyes!

Kat said...

amazing!!!!!

Michelle | Creative Food said...

This is Amazing!

Theprincessandthetot said...

I am absolutely AMAZED!!!!

Lila said...

Hmmm....actually the more I think about it the more I think the radish sprouts are actually a good match for the leafy sea dragon's leafy parts. If you don't know what one looks like there's a good picture at http://eol.org/pages/223824/overview (the Encyclopedia of Life, which is an awesome site).

Sugary Flower said...

WOW. This is amazing, what a fantastic tiger!