Playing with food

Yesterday I attended a Japan America Society of Washington DC event on bento making. More specifically, the focus was on trying to make キャラ弁 , which are bentos in which people shape and design food into popular characters or designs. More art than cooking, I guess.

Anyway, there was a table full of food, some arts and crafts-style supplies, and two helpful J-women to guide us (one of them is actually from near Itami). 

First I had this idea to make an Abraham Lincoln rice ball, but it just turned out looking like some kind of spook.  After that I was pretty much out of ideas, so I just started putting food in my boxes without any kind of plan or pattern.

A food riff. 

Then a Pac Man-like thing happened. 

The class was small; there were maybe 8 or 9 people. There was only one other dude aside from me. Cooking can be pretty masculine, but in retrospect, making bento food into cute little characters and designs can only be so manly. After I finished, I had to go outside and do 200 push-ups and then eat 5 lbs of steak to rejuvenate my testosterone levels.