Shinkansen and Hello Kitty Spaghetti Bolognese Bento
Obviously, today’s bento is inspired by Sanrio Charaben Contest! I showed the bentos to my kids the other day and my boy wanted to have that cute little Shinkansen quail egg. He even drew a picture of Shinkansen last night, hoping to fix it by himself, but I didn’t prepare any ingredients for him. I haven’t tried preparing hard boiled eggs a night before, and I’ve always prepared them in the morning.
As for my gal, I decided to fix Hello Kitty for her as it’s pretty easy. 
I know that I would be spending more time on Shinkansen, so I have to pick an easier Sanrio character for her bento. Besides that, she’s a big fan of Hello Kitty mah…
So, here’s how I decorated an quail egg as Hello Kitty:
I cut 2 small triangles of kamaboko as Hello Kitty’s ears. Make 2 small cuts on the top of the quail egg and gently slip in its ears.
Hello Kitty’s eyes were punched from nori and her nose was cut from a tiny piece of egg sheet. (Try to prepare the egg sheet a night before, and freeze it for next use.)
Next, add some whiskers for Hello Kitty.
As for Shinkansen:
I cut the tiny strips of nori and punched some circles for its wheels.
I added his eyes, eyebrows (cut the sad smile into halves) and his cheeks from egg sheet.
I punched a few tiny strips of nori as its windows.
After that, I placed the quail eggs in their bentos, consisted of spaghetti Bolognese. Their fruits were packed separately as shown:
Today’s bento with Shinkansen and Hello Kitty quail eggs.
A closer shot of the mini bentos.
If you have food coloring, try to make a blue egg sheet for Shinkansen and it will look better than mine. So, give it a try!
P/S: If you would like to have rounder shape of quail eggs, only put the eggs in when the water is boiling and roll the eggs for 1 -2 minutes before leaving them to cook.
heehee..I was sharing the link with a few bloggers over msn the last few days too. We bento moms probably all surfed the same jap blogs. haha. I had hoped for links to the bento makers but they didn’t include them. What a shame, yea?
love the bentos !!
Wah seh! making full use of Carl ah ..veli nice la!
Wow! Lovely!~
Allthingspurple, ya, Sanrio didn’t share the link. Too bad…
Arlene, all thanks for you for getting me the punchers!!! LOL!
Little Prince’s Mummy, thanks!
shoppingmum,
how do u so tactfully cut out the seaweed for shinkansen’s body, eyes etc?
They’re really tiny, aren’t they??
What brand of nori do u usually buy? The one i have seems to crumple & curl easily…
Shi-Chan, I punched out the nori with the Carl’s punchers, but only cut a few bits free hand la. Ya, they are quite tiny. LOL! I use the roasted nori by Nico-nico. Quite thick and good, and saltless since my kids have ham and wiener sometimes, and I use so much nori, it’s better to get the non salty type.
i see..thanks. ok i go see if we have seaweed by that brand.
i realise bento-making requires one to try it out first cos certain food products dont turn out as nice, though its the same thing.
Carl punchers are easy to use? gotta get my hands on them too.
Hi,
Would like to check with you where u bought all the punchers??
Can we use the paper punchers (those with animation picture) to cut seaweed?
I cant seem to find any in Singapore, saw Daiso selling those punchers which actually meant to use on paper…was wondering can i buy it to cut seaweed?
Hi there,
These are really lovely eggs. Can I ask how do you stick the details on the eggs? Wouldn’t the nose and flowers drop off?
When the bentos are closed and are transported from place to place, will it remain its shape?
both the quill eggs were so nicely done! lovely bentos….
Love what you did with the quail eggs.
Shi-Chan, ya a lot of trial and error.
Fion, my friend Arlene bought for me from Malaysia, and Ellena also got one for me from Singapore. You have to check the major bookstores, i guess.
And once u use for food, please don’t use for paper and craft.
Wendy, nori sticks quite well on quail eggs.
As for the nose, it’s a thin layer of egg sheet, so it sticks well too. But the flower was pinned with a tiny strip of spaghetti to prevent it from falling off. Ya, that’s the thing u have to take note when transporting bentos. If your kids swing the bentos, some of the food might be out of place. So, make sure u put some fillers in like grapes or lettuce to fill in the gap and prevent the food from moving. For these bentos, I slipped the eggs in the spaghetti, so they won’t move much.
Jacss, thanks!
Shinkansen quail egg, very nice!
you are very very good and patient….love all your bentos…
quick question (a silly one probably)
ur tiny pasta strip to pin on flower is uncooked spaghetti right?
so its stick-hard.
cos cooked one will be all soft.
Thanks Annie Q and Jesslyn.
Shi-Chan, ya, uncooked. Just use a tiny bit, and it should be soft after some time. It’s still safer than toothpicks. SIG, a blogger said she used mihun.
tks for the hints on making these – nimble hands required huh!
[...] think about Shinkansen now? I think it looks nicer in blue, as comparing to my previous Skinkansen here and [...]