Bento Box Art

So I stumbled upon (but actually “Stumbled Upon”, with the StumbleUpon toolbar) these adorable little bento creations. For those of you that don’t know what a bento is, it’s basically a Japanese boxed lunch that usually consists of rice, fish or meat, and vegetables. Bento boxes are often arranged in a style called “kyaraben” (“character bento”) or “oekakiben” (“picture bento”), where people artfully create cartoon characters or other pictures out of the food in a bento box. Clearly the Japanese take this art pretty seriously if they have formal terms for what is essentially playing with food.


I have to be honest in saying that these don’t exactly look like the most appealing meals. I’m not going to lie: a monster made out of blue rice and a Mona Lisa made out of seaweed are a little bit disconcerting; I’m not sure I’d want to eat that. Nonetheless, I give these Bento artists serious credit for putting so much time into creating some really adorable (Wall-E and Tinkerbell) and some really weird (legs and Mozart) edible creations that only last until they’re eaten by ravenous mouths.


Look here for more: http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/05/08/17-amazing-bento-food-art-creations/

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