Goldfish somen foodart.

Cold silky somen noodles served with dipping sauce, perfect for the warm summer weather.

In summer, somen chilled with ice is a popular meal to cool down. Read this interesting article by Japan Times here.

Do you like the goldfish depiction?

It is always a happy moment to have inspiration for my food creations.

Thanks to my super talented artist friend @lovelimzy who treated me to birthday dinner and a super lovely maple leaf goldfish artwork of hers, I was very inspired to make a goldfish theme bento. 

Just check out other other goldfish work on her instagram post. Amazing!

I also recalled a Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori who I have strong admiration for.

His fishes/flora resin works are incredibly mind blowing.

Painted using traditional methods, meticulously using acrylic on layers and layers of resin. The end result is an incredible piece of ‘sculptural’ work. 

This foodart creation is perfect for summer as goldfishes are also often depicted during summer.

My guess is because of the goldfish fishing game commonly seen at Natsu-matsuri (Japanese summer festivals).

So as you can see, my Goldfish Somen foodart drew inspiration from both artists’ work.

These somen noodles are available at the Japanese section of local supermarkets or at Japanese supermarkets such as Isetan and Meidiya. 

To make the Goldfish Somen foodart, I added goldfishes made out of cherry tomatoes.

After halving the cherry tomatoes, I cut one half into the tail, and added the eyes using black sesame.

Kind of regret not cutting small fins :P

The other details include maple leaves cut from blanched broccoli stem, lotus leaf using Japanese cucumber slices.

The best part about eating somen is that you just need to keep it nicely chilled and dip in some tsuyu sauce.

Very yummy.

One more day to weekend~~ yay~~~

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More information about my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. My second cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ will be out in July 2015! 

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Hello Kitty Burger Foodart!

Hehheh would you eat this Hello Kitty fast food? This fast food foodart is definitely not junk food but healthy homemade dishes.

For instance, to make the ‘french fries’, I cut a small apple into strips and soaked them in a some diluted lemon juice before serving up on the plate.

I even have ‘chilli sauce dip’ which is actually strawberry jam. 

Do you own a Hello Kitty rice mold? This is one idea for you.

To make rice burger!

Simple fill the mold to about 2/3 full and press down firmly. Repeat to make two.

The Hello Kitty rice burger includes homemade meat patty, some lettuce and a sunny side up.

A little annoyed that I broke the egg yolk of my sunny side up when I placed the top layer of rice on the egg. But oh well~~ :P I didn’t want to waste the egg and cook another one.

The details of Hello Kitty were added using seaweed (eyes and whiskers), mango (nose) and a ribbon pasta.

Accompanied this Hello Kitty burger meal with some fresh mango and SunMoon’s Snazzy Fruit Juice (Lychee). Did you also noticed the super cute Hello Kitty Rusk biscuits? I bought a box of them at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Sanrio store.

They are exclusively sold by the store.

Strawberry flavoured rusk biscuits, they come with ribbon prints – so kawaii!

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More information about my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. My second cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ will be out in July 2015! 

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Swimming Bear foodart.

Today’s foodart was a challenge for me, not so much because of the design but rather the ingredients.

As part of this month’s #creativesghomecooks initiative, the theme is vegetarian. So I had to plan my foodart design such that no meat including fish will be used.

In addition, to make my lunch more healthy I also used brown rice to shape the teddy bears, which also made it a little harder as brown rice just doesn’t compact as well as white rice.

But the plus point was that the brown rice was not only healthier but really yummy.

Really love the nutty taste of the rice grains. 

I love how each cooked brown rice grain as round, fat and fluffy.

Thanks to the super fresh Japanese imported rice from Thinkrice.sg.

Being a rice fanatic, it is extremely satisfying to cook and eat a bowl of good Japonica rice.

I actually made the bears ‘swim’ in floats, haha but I don’t think it is that visible.

The bears were shaped from Thinkrice sg brown rice and seaweed.

I arranged the bears on a bed of sauteed mixed vegetables and scrambled eggs. 

Today’s swimming bear foodart was partly inspired by the hot weather and the lovely CocoWater,  100% natural, premium coconut water in a Tetra Pak.

Recent warm weather really made me crave for a chilled glass of fresh coconut water.

CocoWater has got no added sugar, additives or preservatives and has one of the lowest sugar content among packaged coconut water brands.

Coconut water is full of naturally-occurring hydrating electrolytes, which also means that its great for my yoga workout sessions too.

Hope you are having a good week start!

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Cloud Foodart for breakfast.

I love making cloud characters, so simple and they are cute!! :D

Back home last night – 1.5 slices of thick toast sitting on my pantry top. What should I do with it?

Then there came to mind – Clouds!!! I love Clouds and remembered how I loved my Clouds Bento. So I thought, why not make them using bread this time.

Partly inspired by the terribly warm weather lately. Humid and hot~ wishing for more cloud (and wind) to shield the harsh sun rays and cool us down.

So this morning I decided to make myself these cute Cloud characters for my breakfast.

Clouds: thick toast, dark chocolate hot fudge (eyes and mouth), pink icing sugar (cheeks)

Of course I had to add the Sun, which is simply depicted by the sunny side-up.

The other side dishes included some greens, cherry tomatoes, candied bacon and sauteed button mushrooms with garlic.

The super cute black white polka dot plate is from Kate Spade.

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Gudetama sushi for breakfast!

I needed a quick breakfast today and decided to make one of the easiest and also yummy sushi – tamago sushi!

Another start of a work week with major meetings, so my mood is definitely that of Gudetama, feeling lazy and not wanting to do anything. Haha. Blame it on the Monday blues.

Do you know this cute Sanrio character- Gudetama?

Source: Tumbler

Another anthropomorphized character from Sanrio. Everyone, please meet, Gudetama, translated as lazy egg. Yes its an egg that does not want to do anything~

Its name, which is a combination of “gude“ describing something or someone with no energy or strength, and “tama” from the word tamago, which means egg in Japanese.

Interestingly Gudetama even has his own Twitter account with over 380K followers!!! He also has some videos on Sanrio official Youtube channel, which are quite funny.

I have also made a Gudetama bento earlier on. Read bento post here.

Homemade tamagoyaki (Japanese egg roll omelette) cut into 4 servings for the sushi.

The little details for Gudetama were seaweed for his eyes and mouth.

The feet/arms were made from egg too. I simply slice a thin layer of the tamagoyaki and cut out small thin ovals.

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Dancing Chef Green Curry Bunny Foodart!

From now till end of June 2015, Dancing Chef™ is holding a special ‘Curry in a Hurry’ promotion, where individuals can get any three packets of Dancing Chef™ cooking paste at just S$7.55.

Amongst the brands that offers the widest range of authentic curry flavours in Singapore, I really like how Dancing Chef™ curry pastes are made from a blend of natural herbs and spices, without any MSG content.

I like that it is so easy to whip up a curry feast without the fuss or long preparation time – be it Thai, Indonesian, Indian or Singaporean Curry flavours.  Dancing Chef™ has 10 different curry pastes! wow.

Dancing Chef™ Green Curry Paste is perfect for whipping up an authentic Thai Green Curry with a fiery kick.

For those who cannot handle spicy food as well, you can try Dancing Chef™ Yellow Curry and Indian curry paste.

For my green curry, I made it special. A combination of onion, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms and chicken, topped with some longans at the end. Yes you heard that right.

This was inspired by a meal I had at a fine dining resturant where they served grapes and longans in green curry and I remembered how the sweetness of the fruits went so well with the fiery flavours and curry fragrance.

Thai Green Curry Recipe

Ingredients (for 2)

• 1 pkt of  Dancing Chef™  Green Curry Paste
• 200ml full fat milk (you can use coconut milk if preferred)
• 100ml water
• 2tbsp diced up onions
• 1 tsp sliced garlic
• half a carrot chopped
• 1 large potato chopped
• half a zucchini chopped
• 250g chicken thigh meat
• 100g mushrooms
• 2 tsp oil
• canned longans (optional)

Method

1. In a deep fry pan, heat up some oil and sauteed the garlic and onions till slightly caramelised
2. Add in  Dancing Chef™   Thai Green Curry Paste and chicken. Sauteed till the chicken meat changes colour and is coated with the curry paste.
3. Add in potatoes, carrots, zucchini and mushrooms. Sauteed for about half a min.
4. Add in milk and water and bring to boil.
5. Then simmer for about 10-15mins until the potatoes softens and chicken meat is cooked tender.
6. Turn off heat, add in longans. Give it a quick stir and serve with rice.

And of course, my meal usually have to be cute or Japanese or pretty :P haha.

Today I made Bunny foodart to go along with the green curry. 

With the convenience from using Dancing Chef™ Green Curry Paste and this super easy bunny foodart, this is a meal that one can easily whip up without spending too much time in the kitchen.

The bunny rice is made using a rice mold set that I bought at Tokyu Hands in Taipei recently. I have wanted to buy this quite some time, but just have not gotten around to getting it.

The set comes in a set of 3 shapes – bunny, dolphin and flower.

Today I used the bunny mold. It also comes with a small cutter set that includes the animal features as well as flower and carrot shapes. That was how I made the mini carrots. 

Bunny foodart

• Japanese rice
• luncheon mat (alternatively ham) for the ears and cheeks
• seaweed for eyes and nose

Hope you enjoy today’s recipe post!

I am not sure if the rice mold set is available at the Singapore Tokyu Hands (will try to check when I go), but I found it online at allthingsforsale (BentoUSA) here.

Blog post disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. No monetary compensation was received. The curry paste was compliments  of Dancing Chef™ and all views expressed are my own. 

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Grumpy Cat Bento~

This is probably my face for most Mondays. Haha.

You might know this internet cat-celebrity, Tardar Sauce for her grumpy looking face. This famous cat has appeared on tv shows, radio broadcast and even has her own book!

I wanted to make a bento to represent my mood of returning to work after leave break. This is seriously how I feel this morning, feeling the stress just thinking about the number of emails to clear. 

Grumpy cat was shaped and made from Japanese rice that has been coloured with teriyaki sauce. The darker areas near the eyes were colored with additional bonito flakes soft furikake added.

The snout and base of the eyes were made from white rice and the other details added in using seaweed and orange kamaboko.

The side dishes for Grumpy cat bento included sauteed french beans with baby corn and carrots, spicy prawns using Shermay’s Cilicuka Classic Sauce that was gifted to me by a friend. A traditional Singaporean red chilli sauce with moderate spicy level and a lovely tangy vinegar flavour.

I also added in some cherry tomatoes and baby radish slices. 

The reason why I wanted to cook spicy prawns today is partly inspired by my recent Bali trip where I tasted yummy fresh prawns and also because of the latest #creativesghomecooks theme for April month – seafood.

Loving this month’s theme as I love seafood~ and prawns are one of my favourites.

What is creativesghomecooks? This is a non-profit initiative started by a group of foodies to encourage more to cook at home. No, you don’t have to be a professional chef or cook, it is for everyone to try their hands and whip up a dish at home.

Every month there will  be theme/topic. There is no obligations or harsh rules, you can even start your own theme if you want.

What will be awesome is that after creating your dish, do tag 3 other persons on our social media platforms and get them to attempt a creativesghomecooks dish too. And remember to hashtag #creativesghomecooks :)

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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The Laughing Cow is running its biggest campaign of the year, with $15,000 cash prizes to be won!

For some of us, the Laughing Cow’s array of cheeses may be part of our childhood memories. Mummies tend to pack them for its convenience and as a nutritious cheese snack for children.

Simply purchase $10 worth of any The Laughing Cow® products in a single receipt for a chance to win. Increase your chances of winning by making multiple purchases and submitting multiple entries. The campaign runs from now till 31 Mary 2015 at all leading supermarkets.

30 winners will win $500 cash prize each. More details are available online at their website.

Cow Bento for you today!

This was inspired by the Laughing Cow so I made my version of kawaii cow character. Cow was made mainly from Japanese rice shaped into the head, body and limbs. The details added included seaweed and ham ingredients.

Side dishes included sauteed peas with carrots and mushrooms, strawberries with a slice of Laughing Cow cheese.

Remember to keep our receipts for the Laughing Cow campaign!

The Laughing Cow® products and the promotion are available at all major supermarkets.

Contest Mechanics

• Simply purchase $10 worth of any The Laughing Cow® products in a single receipt for a chance to win. Increase your chances of winning by making multiple purchases and submitting multiple entries.
• 30 winners will win $500 cash prize each.
• All entries must reach Natrad Food Pte Ltd by 8 June 2015.
• Promotion is only valid for purchases made in Singapore.
• Date of the draw: 8 July and winners will be notified by post or SMS.

Ways to participate

Via SMS

• Send “TLC<space>full name<space>NRIC<space>receipt no.” to 73333
• Example: TLC Albert Tan S1234567D 8888. Original receipt must be presented as proof of purchase when collecting your prizes.

Website

• Submit online via www.natradfood.com Original receipt must be presented as proof of purchase when collecting your prizes.

Entry forms

• Entry forms are also available at the customer counter in supermarkets.

Promotion while stocks last

The Laughing Cow® 8 Portion Cheese – $5.95 for 2

The Laughing Cow® Cheese Slice – $5.95 for 2

---

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Gudetama Bento!!

Hahha this Gudetama character from Sanrio really makes me laugh. He looks so ‘nua’ and even has a bacon as blanket~

Another anthropomorphized character from Sanrio. Everyone, please meet, Gudetama, translated as lazy egg. Yes its an egg that does not want to do anything~

Its name, which is a combination of “gude“ describing something or someone with no energy or strength, and “tama” from the word tamago, which means egg in Japanese.

Interestingly Gudetama even has his own Twitter account with over 380K followers!!! He also has some videos on Sanrio official Youtube channel, which are quite funny.

I remember seeing quite an increase in gudetama character goods when I was in Japan end of last year~ Here is a photo I took in Kiddy Land, Harajuku. He also now has his own shelve at Sanrio Puroland’s shop too!

To make today’s Gudetama bento (so easy), I just fried an egg, and make sure that the yolk is still runny and not overcooked.

Arrange on a bed of rice and add on the features using seaweed which I cut.

The bacon was grilled in the pan and a small piece was added for Gudetama’s blanket.

The side dishes included (more) bacon, blanched broccoli, spinach with sesame sauce, cherry tomatoes and lettuce.

Packed this Gudetama bento  in my white rectangular bento box from Noda Horo. I bought the box from Japan but this bento box is now available in Singapore, spotted it at Tokyu Hands :)

Have a lazy Monday morning~~ but a good day ahead!

Here are some funny Gudetama pictures (not mine, please see source link)

Source: Tumbler

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More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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Snoopy foodart!

I love how Snoopy is sleeping on the ‘house’ made from baked teriyaki salmon, and woodstock perching on his tummy!

I must say that Snoopy is one of the easier characters to make, judging by the amount of time I needed to spent making this Snoopy foodart.

Frankly when I was planning my bento design last night, I couldn’t quite make up my mind, having several foodart and bento designs in my head.

I eventually decided to make Snoopy foodart, partly because of the deco latte sheets that I am showing today.

I was so excited when I first read about these cute deco latte sheets that I immediately placed an online pre order from Japan the moment it was available. They come in Snoopy design series, Rilakkuma design series and another generic design.

All so cute, so I decided to get one pack of each! Aren’t they cute!

Inside each pack, there are ten different designs of deco latte art. These sheets are meant for use on hot drinks, e.g. coffee, chocolate, matcha latte etc.

Since I am more a tea/matcha person over latte, I decided to use my Snoopy deco latte sheet on a cup of matcha latte.

Today’s Snoopy foodart was easy to put together.

Snoopy and Woodstock are both shaped from Japanese rice. Woodstock has some yellow furikake (rice topping) added to colour the rice, you can also use egg or other ingredients.

Method of shaping these characters is like what I have taught and shared in my Kawaii Bento cookbook, using cling wrap to tighten to shape.

The features for Snoopy were cut from seaweed.

Side dishes include baked teriyaki salmon fillet, blanched sweet peas and mushrooms in corn cream sauce.

Wow, its already mid-week! 2 more days to weekend~

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

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