Bento, Irasshai, and Book Signings!

The other night, I was watching Goonies with the kids and during that part where Sloth scares them and they fall into the counterfeit room and Brand is about to kiss what’s-her-name, Chunk says, “SHAAAAME SHAAAAME!” Oh. my. goodness. Buddy just started cracking up like crazy. He made me replay it like six times. Lately when me and Mr. Pikko give quick smooches when I get dropped off, he’s been going, “EEEEEWWWW!” so when he saw Chunk saying that it just tipped him over the edge. Now we don’t even need to kiss, he just says, “SHAAAAME SHAAAAME!” over and over in the car, cracking up at his own impersonation.

This is funny the first 10 times or so. The next 20, not so much.

I ate this for lunch yesterday, made from leftover sweet pot roast pork that Grandma J made. I have to ask her for the recipe cause this stuff was the BOMB! Seriously! My brain is kind of doing an annoying tick at the sight of the rice kernal on top of the meat, which I didn’t notice while taking the photo, but oh well… I nuked the broccoli in water in a Pyrex container, then added two cherry tomatoes and some takuan in a paper cup.

The Magical 2 Faces Deco Picks are something that I think I just got from J-List, but I also got some as a gift from Sheri of Happy Little Bento. They look like animals from the side, but something else from the top. This one is a little flower!

I think I’ve mentioned the Marukai Bento Tips but I don’t know if I’ve ever posted about them exactly. The last one of a series of three came out this week and so I thought I’d better post them for people to see!

I made this bento as sort of a variation of Maki’s piggies from Yum-Yum Bento Box and stuck to very simple tools to help people realize that making cute bento can be really easy.

Click on the image to go to the newsletter at Marukai Hawaii‘s site. All I needed to make the piggies was Saran wrap, a thick straw, scissors, and a 1/8″ single hole punch for the nori.

For Part 2, I made a more complicated charaben out of cheese, using the decoben cutters that Marukai has in stock.

When I showed this to my cousin, her eyes immediately went to the panties ad right under me. We both had the giggles over that. This one used my small nori punches, so I’m not sure people will be able to do it on the small scale I did without them, but there’s always scissors!

Marukai had asked if I could use quail eggs for the last one, so I came up with this koala, but I have to admit his eyes are a tad creepy in the main photo because my camera had died and I ended up taking the photos with Mr. Pikko’s Droid. By the time I did that, his poor cheese eyes had started to sag down the side of his face. He looked a lot cuter on the cutting board!

That being said, the Droid takes some pretty snazzy pics for a phone, doesn’t it?

Many thanks to the staff at Marukai who gave me this great opportunity to expand the bento community in Hawaii. It’s something that I love doing because while the bento community is strong now, I want it to be even bigger.

Now, as you can see from this last ad, there’s information about book signings. Yes! I finally got them all scheduled! Here’s the full schedule, starting July 2:

Date: Friday, July 2, 2010

Time: 10:00 AM ? 11:00 AM

Location: Marukai Wholesale Mart

2310 Kamehameha Hwy.

Honolulu, HI 96819

Date: Friday, July 2, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM ? 2:00 PM

Location: Marukai Market Place

1020 Auahi St.

Ward Farmers Market

Honolulu, HI 96814

Date: Saturday, July 3, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM ? 2:00 PM

Location: Ala Moana Barnes & Noble

1450 Ala Moana Boulevard

Honolulu, HI 96814

Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM ? 2:00 PM

Location: Kahala Mall Barnes & Noble

4211 Waialae Avenue

Honolulu, HI 96816

Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM ? 2:00 PM

Location: Waikele Borders

94-821 Lumiaina Street

Waipahu, HI 96797

Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010

Time: 12:00 PM ? 1:00 PM

Location: Hilo Borders

301 Makaala Street

Hilo, HI? 96720

Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010

Time: 2:00 PM ? 3:00 PM

Location: Kaneohe Borders

46-056 Kamehameha Highway

Kaneohe, HI 96744

I tried to schedule with the Pearlridge Borders so as to cover the island, but it just didn’t work out. I left my card and left messages and got no calls back. When I finally got her on the phone, she was rather rude and uninterested and never called me back as she said she would. I suspect this had to do with Susan having just done a signing there, since she blurted out, “We did that book already,” but I don’t see how that excuses the way she spoke to me. Should I have the opportunity to do another book, I don’t think I’ll even call that store. Heck, I don’t think I’m even going to shop there anymore.

Anyway, you can watch here for any more news, but you can also keep an eye on the Yum-Yum Bento Box website. I hope my Hawaii readers will be able to find some time to come down and meet me and get a book signed!