Kitty Bento Box: Too Cute to Eat?
While I enjoy cuteness in foods as much as the next happy eater, I tend to think of cuteness as being more the territory of dessert foods (Spanno’s Wild Things cupcakes for example). In that situation, the sweetness of it all seems to work well, and it doesn’t seem odd to open up and start eating. But the following kitten bento box (which I found on What’s For Dinner) is as cute as rice-y buttons--I think, perhaps, too cute. The way it’s laying on its back with seaweed eyes closed and paws outstretched, and how it seems to be smiling and waiting for a little belly scratch, all make me think I might be unable to take that first bite (unlike the cute bento box of cat heads Kitchen Maus highlighted earlier, which seems more approachable in its just-heads nature). Not to mention that I’m not sure what the pink parts might be made of, and that the food around it looks unreal somehow. This wavering leads to the question: is this kitten personification taking cute-i-fying food a little too far? Should this be considered more art than lunch? And if you opened up your own bento box (say this one from Zojirushi, which is the one I have) without knowing this would be in there waiting, would it make you hungry, make you miss your own pets, or just seem a little off? I’m wavering, but, then again, I’m really a dog person.
--A.J. Rathbun
dvd-rw on September 19, 2009 at 06:05 AM
I have to agree you there. Hello Kitty is cute, her little sister Miffy is becoming popular there in Japan.
I wish we had Bento boxes here in the UK, makes a change from boring sandwiched and crisps..