Totoro Rice

Totoro rice is part of a larger Japanese character based meal titled "Kyaraben on Steroids" featured in August's Foodbuzz's 24-24-24. Click here to see the entire meal.

Here is the tutorial for Totoro Rice.

First, you must make the gray rice by mixing ground up black sesame seeds with rice. I typically use a small spice grinder and grind up about 2-3 T of black sesame seeds.

One you have made your gray rice, take a glob of the rice using plastic wrap, and form an oval out of it. You can also form the ears of the Totoro.

Next, make a mound of white rice and put another layer on as his belly.

I then cut out eyes with a straw using fish cake (kamaboko).

I cut out his eyeballs and the designs on his stomach from seaweed using a pair of scissors.
Next, decorate around Totoro using whatever you have. In this case, I used Korean Spinach Salad as the "grass" underneath him.

Finally, I cut out some carrot flowers and red bell pepper flowers. You can make the carrot flowers by cutting 3 notches into the side of the carrot and then slicing it.

With the tulips, you can cut with scissors the old fashioned way.

Definitely check out Anna the Red's Bento Factory for much more detailed tutorials on how to make Totoro bentos.