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Bento the Hotel

Yes, I know, my subject line is really cheesy and lame. Lately all those old catchy rap and hiphop songs from the 90s have been getting stuck in my head, Back to the Hotel being one of them. I think it started at the basketball game when they played Hip Hop Hooray and Jump Around. Plus, Mr. Pikko has gotten Baby Girl hooked onto Insane in the Membrane. I wish you all could hear her sing it.

“Insane membrane.
Face insane, corn insane!”

Those crazy corns, I tell you. Not to worry, she listens to the non-explicit version.

Anyway, with no bento today I thought I’d post about the bento I ate for breakfast at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. They actually had a Japanese breakfast at the Twist restaurant and it was sooo yummy!

I was so sad I didn’t have enough room to eat it all. The smoked salmon was so good, the tamagoyaki so nice and sweet, the pickles were yum. I stupidly ate all the fruit first, which filled me up. I took the rest back to my room after declining my boss’s dare to steal the box and ended up not eating the rest.

I forgot to post this image a few weeks ago. Someone sent me a cute animal forward and when I saw this I cracked up laughing at work.

Anyway, I have a picture of the original bento that I made and I think I can post it here now since the contest is over and this isn’t one of the images I submitted.

I took care to include only items that can be found in the game of Final Fantasy XI. In the back there is millioncorn, tucked in are some San d’Orian grapes, Mithran tomatoes, a few slices of Saruta oranges, blue peas, and San d’Orian carrots. The box is lined with Batagreens. The mandragoras in this one are intended to be Mandragora and Lycopodium shaped Salmon rice balls. I did not put salmon into the Fan Festival version as the last thing I wanted was to stink up the crafting room with fish that sat there all day.

The face can arguably be made from Pamtam Kelp, the brown mask made from fried Cotton Tofu, the strings made from cooked, sliced Woozyshroom, and the eyeballs made from the inner skin of Saruta oranges.

When Jenn took me to Whole Foods I couldn’t find any yellow corn and the grapes were rather big, so the next day when me and Draknorr and Thayos were walking around we found a Fresh N Easy in Hollywood, which had what was hilariously called “bi corn” since it was white and yellow. I didn’t cook the corn in the FF bento since I decided it would just wrinkle up over time. I found smaller grapes and smaller oranges at that store too, which was good. It was a bit funny complaining that all the produce was too BIG.

Having cooking shears was invaluable. There was a lot that would have taken me forever with a knife. Thanks to all who voted for me at the festival!!