Making Crayon Shinchan Bento Boxes at Kasukabe City

Do you want to make bento for your kids? Food Art influencer Yuwita Dewi said , inspiration for making bento can be more easily obtained in this social media era. Moreover, there are so many bento-making classes or training.

"I started 13 years ago in Indonesia, but before there wasn't TikTok, Instagram, so I just realized that the trend was starting to pick up again," said Yuwita, who became a coach in the demo making Bento Crayon Shinchan with LocknLock in Kasukabe City, Kota Kasablanka, South Jakarta, Saturday (7/1/2023).

To make character bento, here are tips from Yuwita:

- Design the Layout

Basically, to make a character bento, all you have to do is designing the layout. it will Determine the position of carbohydrates and other fillings.

"Make a layout first, what will our lunch box (food box) look like, what do you plan to do later, the important thing is that the composition of carbohydrates is half of the lunch container," said Yuwita.

- See the Sample

Yuwita also suggests for always looking at sample images. The goal is to make the bento as similar as possible to the original character.

For example Shinchan, Hello Kitty, teddy bears, to unicorns. For the Hello Kitty, you could say it's either easy or difficult. This is because the mustache, eyes, and nose are in the middle of the face.

There are so many people like to create the mustache below or above the eyes, so that it is out of sync. So what must be considered is to respect the original character itself.  Don't change it because it's the work of the creator.

However, it's also not a problem if you want to create your style from a character that is already popular. Because, according to Yuwita, the purpose of making bento is to please children it is enough.

"The goal is for children, even though it's not perfect. If the intention is to please the children, the results will be good," said Yuwita.

- Fist Rice

To make a character, rice as a portion of carbohydrates can be clenched or printed. Adjust the size of the lunch container, neither too big or small.

"When we've made the head, we'll cover it with plastic cling wrap, it will make the rice warm and keep its shape," he said.

In this way, we don't need as many tools as various rice molds. Aside from being more economic, according to Yuwita, forming rice without molds can also be more flexible.

- Shaping Hair

Prepare nori or seaweed which is usually made for sushi. Measure the shape of the nori by attaching it to the part of the character's face that is still covered with cling wrap.

The size of the nori must be fitted. The shape of the nori’s hair should not be too small or big. But fit to the position of the head. The face was still covered with cling wrap so it won't stick.

- Start Plating

Prepare the eyes, nose, and mouth from the nori. When you are satisfied with the layout position, you can start plating the bento. Open the cling wrap and stick the eyes, nose, and mouth on the rice character.

According to Yuwita, sometimes some people like to add a cheese, for a mole or the white eye in the middle of Shinchan's character's black eyes. But because the cheese is often difficult to stick especially when the rice is cold, you can add a little tomato sauce that acts like glue.

For the unicorn character, it's also easy you can make her hair out of an omelet. You can also use colored rice for the shape of the bangs.