The team still exhausted from the Monday order of 60 bento, and being in fasting period, I could not push them too hard so I need to take care most of the thing by myself. And we had Jojo at home for the whole day, which could slow things down if he wanted me to play and spending time with him. So I woke up at 5 a.m. to start cutting parts for this Special Agent Oso. While the shapes were quite simple (compared to princesses’) but still doing all 40 (there were total of 18 parts for each Oso, so I needed to cut total of 720 parts) alone was quite daunting.

So I started cutting all those parts with my iPod as companion. You can only doing this kind of task at maximum 2 hours and you need having a break. I took my break and went to groceries store to buy all the vegetables and meat for the order. Back at home I continued cutting until lunch time so I could have lunch with Jojo. After the lunch I started preparing all the food that can be prepared a day before and then accompanying Jojo taking a nap (which I sorely need also).

I only took 1 hour nap which is enough (if I slept more I’m sure that I couldn’t finish cutting on time). So I continue cutting all those pasta until 6 p.m. and manage to finish them all, yay But then Jojo’s nanny said that we need to bring some traditional food for tomorrow independence day celebration at Jojo’s school, sigh

So I went out again to buy anything that still available at store and back home to start assembling those pasta. While the cutting takes lots of time, the assembling process also takes times if only done by one person. I assembled one by one while Jojo was watching some Playhouse Disney, having his dinner, went upstairs playing with nanny, and then went downstairs again looking for me. It was already 9.50 p.m. and he won’t sleep without me.

I said to him that if he wanted us to sleep together then he must wait until I finished my job, having dinner, and taking a bath. Surprisingly he agreed without any complain. So he sat down at the dinner chair waiting for me finish until 10.10 p.m and then I took my dinner. We talked lots of thing while I was eating and I must say that was the nicest conversation I had with my son. With only lights on only at our dining room and the silent night ambient over us somehow Jojo was very calm (usually he’s very restless all day long) and we could talk some important things that I couldn’t manage to do before.

I really must thank God for this very rare opportunity. Suddenly all my tiredness was gone and I felt very fresh. I took my bath while Jojo waiting at the bedroom and we went sleep. Of course I must woke up again at 4 a.m. to finish this project.

We’re preparing like we used to do all this time, since we keep the same team from the beginning I felt that we now can work more efficiently and the whole team already know what to do without me making all the instructions. To my surprise we finished around 6.00 a.m. which I think was very fast since the initial target was 7 a.m. The delivery time was 10 a.m. but the location was very far so I thought that I need around 2 hours driving. But then somehow the traffic was so light that I managed to arrive at 8 a.m. Luckily the school start at 8.30 a.m. so I could meet my client earlier.

While luck was on my side in the morning but then its already leaving me while I went home since it took me 2.5 hours but I’m always in a great mood after delivering on time ^_^

I’d like this project because it’s been a while that we’ve got order for Naruto. And Naruto always has a special place to us, mymealbox team, because he’s the first kyaraben project we’ve done. I’d never forget all the troubles we’ve gotten ourselves into to finish the project, but we’ve got lots of experiences from it and I think that we’ve learned so much from that project that it really drove us so far until today.

So with that in mind, I went back to my old picture files and decided to revisit our first project. I used the same Naruto picture but made different approach for the character.  I don’t use egg sheet to make kyaraben anymore unless my customer ask for it, since pasta sheet has better consistency and easier to cut.

With better preparation we managed to create better detailed Naruto this time with all the whiskers and more detailed eyeballs, so it’s quite an improvement than our first time.

The other kyaraben for this project was Princess Ariel. I made Ariel sample for our other client but somehow it didn’t work out but apparently there’s someone who like her also. I used the same template as the sample since I liked what I made, so I won’t write the details again (details for Princess Ariel production can be read here).

The biggest problem of creating princesses we had was the character consistency. When we first making Belle, I felt that there’s too much inconsistency with our final product. While they all were hand made (which we can use as an excuse) but still we need to keep the result looked more the similar with each other. And finally with this Princess Ariel, I think we managed to do that.

If we look from the top view and we compare each of the Ariel, the consistency is there to see, which I’m quite proud of. Maybe it’s because I’ve made so many princesses (more than a hundred and counting) that my hand is getting used to cut those tiny curves (those lips are vicious to cut, you can get your finger cut for losing concentration). I would like to say that we’ve managed to upgrade our quality to the next step which is important and we need to keep maintaining it while try to improve further.

And while we’re talking about quality, I really want to compare our work with other. It’s good to have a healthy competition so we can keep up and learn from each other. I haven’t got the time to look around but from my last search I didn’t find someone else who’s doing what we do. Of course there are thousands bento makers out there but I haven’t found other who make kyaraben catering. If some of you knew please let me know then, and thanks before

From the top view, it’s also obvious that I need a new camera (like GF1, hint hint) to produce better quality picture

I have several of Aurora pictures that can be made into a good kyaraben, but for this version I had to change and edit the picture a little bit so it can be made and fit into the bento box. This Aurora version has wider shape compared to the other kyaraben I’ve made so far but I still think it will turn out okay.

The overall shape is quite simple, I need total of 14 (fourteen) pasta parts while I use nori for her eyeballs and eyelashes. I use 6 (six) different colors of pasta to assemble the whole parts; yellow for the base and hair, white for the face background and dress, gold for her tiara and necklace, yellow skin color for body parts, red for her lips, and brown for her eyebrows, eyeballs, and nose line.

And as for the bento filling, since this project came from the same order as the Doraemon and Hello Kitty & Piggy bento, I used chicken nuggets, beef sausages, corn, broccoli chunk, an orange slice, and strawberry jelly.

I just never thought that someone would actually want to order Doraemon kyaraben. It’s not a bad thing at all, it just unexpected. And while most of Doraemon pictures out there looks almost the same, I decided to make a different version than the one I made before.

We needed to cut lots of parts to make this Doraemon (total of 16 parts), but most of shapes were easy, all those round and ellipses could be cut using vegetable cutter so they could save us lots of time. But still like the other cat, we need to put those whiskers

The bento filling for this also like our standard bento boxes, white rice with chicken nuggets, beef sausages, corn, broccoli chunk, an orange slice, and a strawberry jelly.

Most of our Hello Kitty bento are come with a pair, so far we have paired her with bear, panda, rabbit, and now it’s time for her to have piggy for friend. The basic shape of piggy head is ball, I have a ball onigiri tool but its diameter is too big for our bento box, so for this project I had to make my own onigiri ball with hands and plastic wrap.

While we need more time to make pasta kyaraben but we can prepare them a day before, so on the delivery day after all other food are prepared in the box, all we need to do is put the assembled pasta character on the rice. But with this kind of onigiri, whether it’s Hello Kitty, rabbit, bear, and all other characters, we need to prepare them on the delivery day, that’s why we need more time to prepare them.

The hardest thing and usually took most of the time is adding those nori parts, Hello Kitty alone has 10 parts (6 whiskers, 2 eyes, and a nose and a bow ribbon). I tried to leave her whiskers to save time but then it’s not Hello Kitty, so as long as I get Hello Kitty orders, I’m stuck with her whiskers

The piggy was more manageable. We can prepare the sausage ears and nose also the the carrot cheeks a day before so all we need to do in the morning is assemble all the prepared parts (which is easier to put) and nori cut for its eyes and mouth. I used half cook pasta to pin those ears since I don’t want to use toothpick which can be dangerous for those children.