Floribento

My husband is the otaku in our house. Before we met, I hadn’t watched any Japanese cartoons since childhood* (save a few adolescent minutes here and there with my best friend, who also loved her some anime back in the day).

That changed when we got together. Have a few minutes to spare? Then it’s time for Naruto! Bored on a Friday night? Oh, looky here, we just got a new Wolf’s Rain DVD in the mail. I’d never seen Cowboy Bebop OR Ghost in the Shell? Here, sad little woman, sit before the TV and enrich your life.

He’s brought me into the way of anime since then (and that probably kick-started my interest in bento, so I should thank him for that sometime). I’m not a hardcore fan, but I’ll usually watch whatever’s on and I actively seek out a few series on my own. Fairy Tail falls into the latter category.

Hence, here’s a bento for Happy, the cuddly-looking, fish-loving cat wizard from the Fairy Tail guild. I made him here with his wings out, ready for adventure (though I had to scale those down to fit in the box). Happy was sushi rice colored with blue butterfly pea flower extract. His wings are egg sheet (made with the whites only). More egg sheet, ham, and nori are used for the rest of the details. [I noticed just now that one of his ham paw pads fell off. Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure there’s some magic that can fix him right up].

The sides are egg sheet roll on a star pick, a mini hot dog, carrot fish. Some Bosnian candy rounds out the snack.

Happy nibbling!

~ K.

*I adored the original Voltron as a kid. It was horrible when I watched a few episodes re-run on Cartoon Network a few years back. That show – at least the English-dubbed version – did NOT stand the test of time at all. The 2011 reboot (Voltron Force) is okay, though.

**This was in the early 2000’s. There was no streaming, or if there was I sure didn’t know how to access it. It was a dark and sad time.