Bento-Making Workshop : Sprinkles: 1, Mama: 0

Japanese children sure are lucky. Bento sets are such lovely things to receive. I can only imagine the excitement of a child opening his lunch box in school, to be greeted by his mother's creative work of art. I hope to be able to do that for Poppy some day :)

So we attended a bento making class today ("bento" by the way, simply means "lunch box" in Japanese). I never knew that there was a piece of equipment for every little piece of decoration. But then again, the Japanese are known to be meticulous and for their attention to detail.

Poppy's bento - excellent effort for a 4.5 year old's first time, I say!

Bentos are supposed to be tightly packed to prevent spills. Poppy's was made never to survive a trip in a school bag :) Particularly, her school bag ;P

Today I let her take the lead completely. I usually let her take charge of sessions like these, but it was exceptionally hard today because I really wanted to butt in and have a go at the making myself. Believe me, it took a whole lot of restraint on my part.

And so she waited (impatiently) for the instructor to explain, then got to work. She bypassed the seaweed and went straight for the colourful stuff. Which explains why everything in her bento box was drowning in sprinkles.

"Poppy, wanna put a smiley face on this one?"
"No, sprinkles"
"Poppy, look! Nice flower and heart shapes!"
"Sprinkles, Mama"

I gave up. It was pointless :) Sprinkles: 1, Mama: 0.



I did try to have a go when Poppy was taking a break. But she quickly pushed me aside and attacked my little heart shaped rice mould with sprinkles.

I've got to say, all that shaping and cutting is making me really excited to start bento-ing! What about you? I'm so excited to share too, that my next post will be a guest poster, and she is an avid bento fan who makes bentos for her son to bring to school everyday! She's going to share some tips with us bento newbies. So don't touch that dial!

Interested to read more? Check out some of these inspiring bento-making sites!:
Just Bento   A Boy And His Lunch    Bento Monsters    iPackLunch     Bento for the Little One