Bear Musubis

Paige went to the Ice Palace today with her class, the only ice skating rink on Oahu.  She had a fantastic time and is already asking to go again.  Her “Ice Palace” lunch consisted of musubis with Korean style chicken stuffed inside. The musubis were decorated with pre-cut nori bears which I purchased from Marukai at Ward.  I also punched out a few snowflakes to fill up the empty spaces.  I lined her bento box with a small piece of decorative Christmas tissue paper to help make the lunch more festive.      

Boat Bento

Boats were the main attraction for yesterday’s bento.  I used the boat shaped musubi mold that I purchased from Marukai.  The boats are decorated with nori portholes and strips of yellow soy wrap.  Along side the boats are sesame chicken, a pork and vegetable gyoza, cucumbers, grapes, and Japanese fish sausage cut into small flowers.  

Cars

The cars in today’s bento were made using the car shaped musubi mold that I bought from the Dillingham Marukai store.  I sprayed one of the cars pink with Color Mist to add a girly touch for Paige and decorated the car with nori and used bologna for the wheels.  She was actually very pleased with the cars and showed them off to Sean (my two year old) who kept chanting “Mine, mine, mine!!!”.  The rest of the bento included mochiko chicken, cucumbers, and grapes. 

 

Marukai Finds!

I was at the Marukai Wholesale Mart in Honolulu yesterday and found a large assortment of bento tools and accessories.  The wheel cutters, pictured above to the left, are very versatile and come with a great instructional booklet all for $12.99.  I already had a set of these which I still use quite often!  The cutters to the right were $2.89 and come with a stencil as well as the cutters.  When put together you can make the whale bento as pictured on the package.     

 

In addition to the cutters, I found these musubi molds!  The set on the left consisted of a plane, car, boat, and train mold for $9.97.  The set on the right had a rabbit, elephant, lion, pig (or cat), and a dog mold for $12.99.  They also had other bento accessories available but these were the only ones that I had picked up.

Snow Bears

For Paige’s lunch today, I used the bear musubi mold which I purchased from Shirokiya.  Paige thought the bears looked more like snowmen with ear muffs!  The snow bear scarves are cut from kamaboko slices and sprayed with Color Mist.  Along side the bears are chicken and vegetable gyoza with a sweet shoyu and rice vinger sauce.

Shirokiya Finds

Shirokiya in Honolulu has a small section dedicated to a variety of  bento boxes and accessories, as well as uniquely Japanese kitchen tools.  Today I found a heart shaped sushi mold which I couldn’t resist buying.  And.. it was also 10% off of the marked price of $24!  As soon as I make something with the heart sushi mold I’ll post a picture.  

In addition to the sushi mold, I also found a small bear musubi mold.  Unfortunately it was the last one on the shelf!  If I find any more I’ll keep you all posted.  

Nori Punches!

I went to the Ward Marukai 99 cents store in Honolulu and found these nori punches in the bento section! There are three punches in a set and cost $19.99 plus tax.   The punches are made of metal and cut nori really well.  To keep them sharp after a lot of use, you can sharpen the punches by punching aluminum foil several times.