Even creepy crawlies are “cute” in Japan

Apologies for not posting this week. I’ve been very busy with work and I accidently deleted many LIJ posts so have been re-posting them during any spare moment I could snatch. I’m still not done yet — I’m a bit of a procrastinating queen this week…

So I was giving my feral apartment a good clean last Saturday afternoon and I turned on the TV for some company. I let the Japanese dialogue wash over my ears as usual but after washing the dishes, I glanced at the TV and saw this…

OMG, fake edible insects for bento-making. ヘ。。。なにそれい? (What’s that?)

They even had fake larvae sushi… I wouldn’t want to eat that….Gross…

A fake scorpion on a hotdog…

And she really eats it!

By this time, I sat on the couch to watch the entire show which is called デコニューズ, or deco news (deco is the art of decorating your belongings with sequins or anything pretty and cutesy). It was hosted by a girl who was dressed like an ageha (a living doll; or girls who dress up to look like dolls) and I suppose girls who like to dress up cute love making cutesy things, too.

And the programme went on to explain how these rubbery looking insects are made into edibles.

Apparently, there are insect molds on sale in deco shops.

I think the clear liquid being poured in is some form of gelatin because it makes the whole thing come out looking like very firm jelly.

Then come in the ingredients. From the picture, you can see soup stock, chocolate, honey, and maybe cheese. I can’t really make out the rest.

For the cockroach, they used a soy sauce based mixture and in it went, too.

It seems so simple — you close it up and press it all together.

Now I’m not sure if you have to put it in the fridge for X number of hours for it to firm up. Since it was a TV show, it looked like it happened miraculously on the spot. Yeah, as you can tell, I’m only able to get 50 per cent of what I’m watching on Japanese telly.

And it’s done! You can decorate it with stars, hearts, and other baubles.

Since it was made from soy sauce, it seemed that it would pair well with a bowl of gyudon (beef rice bowl).

Here’s a plethora of insects and their moulds available from the store they were showcasing.

Weird-ass, eh? すごいね。。。 (Amazing, ne)

Even though I only make raw bentos, I still love getting into the whole bento culture in Japan.

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