When you eat noodles in Japan, it’s perfectly 

okay to slurp them (Oliver Strewe/LPI)

You think that emptying the bottle into your guest’s glass is polite… little do you know that you just designated them as the buyer of the next round! Although most locals will excuse breaches in etiquette, it is better to be informed and impress them with your cultural know-how. Read below for a list of etiquette tips, taken from various Lonely Planet guidebooks, to help you eat and drink in different parts of the world.

Table manners
1. When you eat noodles in Japan, it is perfectly okay - even expected - to slurp them. (From the Lonely Planet Japan travel guide)

2. Never stick your chopsticks into a bowl of rice upright - that is how rice is offered to the dead! It also looks like the incense sticks that are burned for the dead. It is also bad form to pass food from your chopsticks to someone else's - another Buddhist funeral right which involves passing the remains of the cremated deceased among members of the family using chopsticks. This is true in China and for almost all of Asia. (From the Lonely Planet China travel guide)

3. In Russia, put your wrists on the edge of the table (not in your lap) while eating, and keep your fork in your left hand and knife in your right. (From the Lonely Planet Russia travel guide)

4. In Nepal, do wait to be served and be sure to ask for seconds when eating at someone's house. In general, when eating in a group, no one gets up until everyone finished their food. If you have to leave early, make your apologies by saying "bistaii khaanus" (please eat slowly). (From the Lonely Planet Nepal travel guide)

5. In restaurants in Portugal, do not ask for salt and pepper if it is not already on the table. Asking for any kind of seasoning or condiment is to cast aspersions on the cook. And cooks are highly respected people in Portugal. (From the Lonely Planet Portugal travel guide)

6. In France, never, ever discuss money over dinner.  And splitting the bill is considered the height of unsophistication. (From the Lonely Planet France travel guide)

7. Whenever you catch the eye of someone who is eating in Mexico, stranger or not, say "provecho" (enjoy).  Do not avoid this custom.  It is good manners and feels nice. (From the Lonely Planet Mexico travel guide)

8. Eating from individual plates strikes most in Ethiopia as hilarious, bizarre, and wasteful. Food is always shared from a single plate without the use of cutlery. Greed is considered uncivilized so try not to guzzle. The meat dishes are usually the last things eaten, so do not hone in on them immediately. (From the Lonely Planet Ethiopia and Eritrea travel guide)

Drinking
1. When drinking in Japan, do not fill your own drink; fill the glass of the person next to you and wait for them to reciprocate. Filling your own glass amounts to admitting to everyone at the table that you are an alcoholic. (From the Lonely Planet Japan travel guide)

2. In Armenia, if you empty a bottle into someone's glass, it obliges them to buy the next bottle - it is polite to put the last drops into your own glass. (From the Lonely Planet Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan travel guide)

3. In Australia, shout drinks to a group on arrival at the pub. "Shouting" is a revered custom where people rotate paying for a round of drinks. Do not leave before it is your turn to buy! (From the Lonely Planet Australia travel guide)

4. In Russia, vodka is for toasting, not for casual sipping; wait for the cue. Men are expected to down shots in one gulp, while women are usually excused. Never mix your vodka or dilute it.  And do not place an empty bottle on the table - it must be placed on the floor. (From the Lonely Planet Russia travel guide)

5. In Sweden, it is considered vulgar to clink your glasses aside from formal "skals" (cheers). (From the Lonely Planet Sweden travel guide)

Especially for vegetarians
1. In Peru, many tourist-heavy cities have vegetarian restaurants that offer a version of popular national dishes with soy substitutes. In regular restaurants, veggie options can often be found on the menu.  To be safe, ask for un plato vegetariano (a vegetarian dish) and be aware that the term sin carne (without meat) refers only to red meat or pork.(From the Lonely Planet Peru travel guide)

2. Russia can be tough on vegetarians.  Your best bet is to visit during Lent, when many restaurants have special non-meat menus.  Restaurants in Moscow, St Petersburg, and other large cities are the most likely to have meat-free items on the menu, but in general vegetables are boiled to death and even veggie soups are made with meat stock. (From the Lonely Plant Russia travel guide)

3. Other vegetarian tips: Vegetarian hits and misses.

I actually wanted to make this bento on Valentine’s day, but Valentine’s day being on Sunday, and we because had to go to IKEA, I couldn’t make bento on the 14th. It didn’t feel like it was appropriate to make this one after Valentine’s day, but oh what the heck. No man would mind a bento filled with heart shapes, right?

Bento #74: Oruchuban Ebichu
Created and eaten on: 2/18/2010

Oruchuban Ebichu was an anime show, originally aired in 1999, based on a manga. Ebichu is a housekeeping hamster. She may look dangerously similar to the hamster from the kid’s show, Hamtaro, but this seemingly innocent and adorable show is probably the cutest, funniest, dirtiest show I’ve ever seen.

Ebichu always tries her best to make her master happy but almost always ends up painfully embarrassing her in front of other people. So I decided to make a super love-love bento to hopefully to embarrass my boyfriend a little when he goes around to show the bento to the co-workers at work.

I put sauteed renkon at the bottom of the bento first, and made rice into the shape of Ebichu. For orange part of her ears I mixed a little bit of rice with ketchup. I cut ham for her mouth and apron, and kamaboko (fish cake) for her hand and one of her legs. I also used the pink part of kamaboko for her trademark pink cheeks.

The ham apron wasn't as easy as I thought. I should've made her arms and legs with rice too.

My idea was to make the right side of the bento look like a bento made by Ebichu so I made three small rice balls and put them in.

I thought about making rice balls into heart shapes, but I actually liked these tiny rice balls.

I searched for recipes for any “heart shaped” food, and picked the easiest ones to fill the rest of the bento. First I cooked hotdog, cut it at an angle, put two pieces together, put them together with a piece of pasta to make a heart shape. This is a very popular food item for kyaraben in Japan. No cooking skill is involved and this looks still adorable in any bento!

People usually use cute bento picks to hold hot dog pieces together.

I had cooked tamagoyaki (it’s like a rolled omelette) the night before, so I cut it in the same way I cut sausage and put them together to make a heart shape. I didn’t do a good job on this tamagoyaki though. I didn’t use enough oil and egg. So I put ketchup to draw another heart shape on the tamagoyaki to hide the mess.

"Good tamagoyaki" doesn't have any spaces between each layer. >_<

I wrapped five pieces of asparagus and carrot in the middle with bacon, pinned it with toothpicks, and cooked it. When you cut it, it looks like cute flower, doesn’t it? I put a couple of them in the bento to fill the empty space.

I like putting carrot inside asparagus wrapped with bacon now. It's so easy, yet it adds a color and nice touch.

Then I cut the surface of a hot dog like to look like a flower/heart shape and I put cooked broccoli to fill the rest of empty space.

The hot dog at the bottom is also very easy. It does look like four heart shapes, don't they?

After everything was set in the bento box, I cut seaweed for her eyes and eyebrows. For the sparkle in her eyes I cut cheese.

Ebichu's eyes are always very sparkly.

When it was done, it didn’t look that “love-love”… so I just use a heart shaped cutter to cut out carrots and sprinkled them all over the bento.

I think I could've made bigger heart shaped carrots.

I really thought this would be easier to make than it was… The apron was hard to make, and it still didn’t turn out good. I probably should’ve used something redder for her mouth.

As for my boyfriend, he didn’t get embarrassed by this bento at all. (as I expected) After all, I’ve been making him kyaraben for more than an year. He wouldn’t have been showing off his bento if bunch of heart shaped food would embarrass him.

Ebichu:
- rice, rice mixed with ketchup, kamaboko, seaweed, cheese, ham

Heart:
- sausage
- egg (tamagoyaki)
- cheese, carrot

Other food:
- asparagus and carrot wrapped with bacon
- renkon
- lettuce
- broccoli

[How to make Aaron from Where the Wild Things Are]
- spaghetti
- mashed potato
*- egg yolk
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed
- radish or white-ish sliced cheese or kamaboko (fish cake), or even left over hard boiled egg white from mashed potato. In other words, you can use any white food!
– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors
– round plastic cap
*optional

1. Make some spaghetti! (You can mix the pasta with your favorite salad dressing if you like.)

2. Take some pasta and put it in a cupcake cup.

Tips: Stick a spoon in the pasta, put a fork on the spoon, and slowly spin the fork to get the pasta on around the fork. Put the spoon & pasta & fork into the cup, slide the spoon out, and then remove the fork. It'll be less messy.

3. Make mashed potato and mix it egg yolk. (Egg yolk is just to make his face yellow, so if you don’t like egg, you don’t have to mix it in.)

4. Wrap it in plastic wrap, make an oval shape, and put it on the pasta.

5. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg white), and use a plastic bottle cap to cut out a “C” shape for the horn. Stick it on the head.

6. Cut sliced cheddar cheese with a plastic cap or biｇ straw　(I used a bubble tea straw) for his terrible yellow eyes.

If you don't have any plastic caps to cut cheese, you can just use a spoon to trim it.

7. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

7. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, an cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

...and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!!"

*For step 7, if you don’t have access to seaweed, you can use black sesame seeds for the pupils.

[How to make Max from Where the Wild Things Are] (without the crown)
- rice
- ham (or bologna, turkey, etc…)
- sliced cheddar cheese
- seaweed
– cupcake cup (I used foil cupcake cups, but if you need to microwave your food, use a paper cupcake cup instead. I’ve tried it, and the paper cup handled the moisture pretty well.)
– hole punch
– straw
– scissors

1. Make a rice ball and put it in the cupcake cup. (You can put stuff inside the rice ball if you want.)

2. Cut ham with a plastic cap (I used a cap from a can of hair mousse), and put it on the rice.

3. Use a straw to cut ham for his nose.

4. Slice radish (or sliced cheese, or kamaboko, or hard boiled egg white), and cut triangles for his ears.

I trimmed the top part of ham, but it's not necessary.

5. Cut strips of seaweed and for his hair and whiskers.

6-A. If you have a seaweed cutter for a smiling face like I do, use it to cut out seaweed.

Tips: If you put very thin paper under seaweed, it's easier to cut the seaweed out.

6-B. If you don’t have a special seaweed cutter, cut it freehand with scissors, an cut seaweed out with a hole punch, and put it for the eyes.

6-C. If you want to make smiling Max (like the one in the picture) use a hole punch to make a hole in the seaweed, then slide the punch a little bit and punched it again to make ” C ” shaped seaweed.

You can use the top " c " part or just the round part.

...his mother called him "WILD THING!"

*You can cut sliced cheddar cheese to add crown you if you want to make “Max the king of the wild things.”

Sorry for neglecting my blog and for all the non food related posts recently. I had some stuffed stuff projects right before PAX, and also I’ve been working on some freelance stuff which took priority. I’m so excited about this project and spent a large amount of time trying to get it right. The project is still in the early stages. I can’t write about it or post pictures yet, but hopefully I can show everyone some awesome stuff in the future.

Anyway, my favorite people, the Behemoth, did an awesome contest again. It was too late for me to send my submission but I’m going to post them on my blog and how-to’s anyway. The contest was to draw / make an egg whose theme was their new game BattleBlock Theater (hopefully coming out soon!) I’m not good at drawing, so I decided to dress up hard boiled eggs.

Hatty!

This is one of the heads from BattleBlock Theater.

Round animal looking one!

Cute square head!

>_<

Yes, they are all hard boiled eggs!
I guess I could’ve made many more different characters with these four eggs but I got hungry…
I have a how-to of these eggs (and then some) ready, but I’m going to post them separately so they’re nicely organized.