Monday, April 21, 2008

Sakura Festival Bento

This weekend was the Seattle Cherry blossom festival. My parents took my brothers, my friend and I. It was really fun! I loved talking with so many sweet Japanese women. And all the paintings and kimonos were really lovely. Because it was such a special occasion it called for a special bento in a new Jyubako box.


Top tier: Red leaf lettuce,strawberries, apple rabbits, an orange, and sakura carrot slices.
Middle tier: Sakura sushi, edemame wontons(recipe coming), sakura mochi, and sakura carrot slices.
Bottom tier: Cheddar and pepperjack cheese cubes,red leaf lettuce, hard boiled quail eggs, radishes, naruto maki, pickled ginger, wasabi, and more sakura carrot slices.

This bento was really fun to put together. It probably took me 2 1/2 hours in total. I made the sushi and wontons the night before and the sakura mochi were bought at Uwajimiya in Bellevue.
I am so amazed with how the sakura sushi came out. I have a book about making Hana sushi and this was my first time actually trying it out. When I cut into the roll I let out an "ooh!" as I saw the pretty flowers. They're not incredible, but they look somewhat like flowers so I'm pleased. Sadly, we couldn't find a cherry tree near Seattle center to eat under, (The weather wasn't that great anyway.) so we didn't have a real Hanami picnic, but we did have a nice time. I wish we could've gone to all three days of the festival.

2 comments:

Lunch Buckets said...

I think your sakura sushi is adorable! It sounds like a lovely day, even if you didn't get to picnic under a blossoming tree :)

Kaits said...

Thank you! They were actually really easy to make. I was surprised.