NHK World : Bento - The Global Lunchbox Project

NHK WORLD aired a special program : BENTO - The Global Lunchbox Project on Sunday, 14th Sep 2014. The show was about how bento as Japanese culture has spread all around the world. 

I feel so honoured to be able to participate in this project. It was a great experience, and it reminds me why I'm so passionate with bento. 

Here are some of the participants from around the world (Australia, Taiwan, Hongkong, USA, UK, and France). And picture in the middle is my bento creation.

Which one is me ?

Yup, that's me :)

Here I showed some techniques to make checker apple

And how to make sunflower from egg and sausage

Here is the result. Since  September is the beginning of spring in Australia, I named my creation : "Welcoming Spring Bento"

You may visit this website to see for other participants, and share your bento creations as well...

Crabs and Dolphins Bento

This cute bento is very easy to prepare. For the "crab" croissant, I just add cheese and nori for the eyes and mouth, add carrot for the claws, and add ham & cheese for the filling.

And for the "dolphin" banana, just slice the top bit for the mouth, and carve eyes shaped at the both side of the banana. It becomes brown when dry.

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. "Crab" ham and cheese croissant (with cheese, nori, and carrot)
2. Corn on the cob
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. Lettuce and carved tomato
5. "Dolphin" banana

For my youngest son, I prepared :
1. "Crab" ham and cheese croissant (with cheese, nori, and carrot)
2. Corn on the cob
3. Milk jelly with nata de coco
4. "Dolphin" banana

Mini Pizza Bento

This mini pizza is very easy to make. The kids had fun too, they helped me with the toppings:) For the dough, mix 2 cups of self-raising flour and 1 cup of Greek yogurt by hand and knead it until it's not sticky. That's it!.
After that, spread any topping you like. For this pizza, I used pineapple, onion, Roma tomato, sausage, ham, and mozzarella cheese.
Bake the pizza for around 10 minutes at 180C.

For my eldest son, I prepared :
1. Leftover mini pizza
2. Corn on the cob
3. Car shaped hard boiled egg with salt and pepper
4. Carrot sticks
5. Milk jelly with nata de coco
6. Apple "rabbit"

For my youngest son, I prepared :
1. Leftover mini pizza
2. Corn on the cob
3. Fish shaped hard boiled egg
4. Carrot sticks
5. Milk jelly with nata de coco
6. "Humungus" banana

Bento tools I used in this post :