Yes, call me crazy. I just ate the head of Marie Antoinette...!
Oh well, she doesn't actually even look like the real Marie Antoinette. My husband said it absolutely doesn't look like her. But hey, it wasn't my intention to replicate Marie Antoinette's real face, I simply wanted to make a Marie Antoinette-themed bento, thus the big, curly white hair, the ship on her hair, some lacy ribbons and the French flag (which certainly didn't exist yet when she was queen). She was after all the Queen of Fashion of her time, and her coiffure was a hit among the noble women, even though nowadays, I doubt that a lot of women would willingly put a few toy-sized ships on their heads ;). But due to my husband's rather discouraging comment, I am sure I'll make another Marie Antoinette-themed bento in the future ;). I'll make sure that her hair would be much bigger, higher and curlier ;).
Why did I choose Marie Antoinette as my bento's theme? Well, it's because when I was a little girl I used to be 'crazy' about everything Marie Antoinette due to the manga series, "Rose of Versailles" by Riyoko Ikeda which I read and treasured. I got hooked on the story of her life and did a lot of research about her and on the French Revolution in general. But I would never have imagined that one day I would make Marie Antoinette's head out of food...!
Anyway, it was a bit weird to dig in something that looked like a human's face, I felt like a cannibal ;). I had to remove all the facial details from her face before I could eat it. It was an extremely yummy lunch though - not very French (well, actually not French at all ;)) since I had spicy beef bulgogi with kimchi, ebi fry and salad. Next time I make a Marie Antoinette bento, I should prepare something really French, so that it would be a real hardcore Marie Antoinette bento and my husband wouldn't have any reasons to say otherwise ;). I should start checking some French recipes from Charles from Five Euro Food and Sissi from With A Glass :).
I hope you enjoy looking at this rather unusual bento of mine - you know, I usually just make 'cute' character bentos or traditional ones.
Some information on how to make the Marie Antoinette onigiri:
- Face: rice seasoned with soy sauce
- Hair: rice
- Ribbons: imitation crab with nori
- Ship: goat cheese with nori and gouda cheese
- Eyes: goat cheese and nori. The eyeballs are from goat cheese coloured with blue food colouring (no, I didn't eat the eyes...!)
- Lips: imitation crab
I think most of you should know who Marie Antoinette is since a few years ago she was popularised by the movie 'Marie Antoinette' with Kirsten Dunst as the lead actress - unfortunately not a really great film, the story line is a bit ughh and it doesn't really tell the story of Marie Antoinette's life at all. The only scenes I can remember from the film are simply the ones when she's partying and partying and partying with 'I love Candy' as the background music. Sophia Coppola shouldn't title the movie 'Marie Antoinette' but 'The Party Life of Marie Antoinette' instead ;). Sorry if you like the film, I am just stating my opinion...:-).
Oh, by the way, if you don't know who Marie Antoinette is, just hop over to Wikipedia :). Enjoy your weekend. I am glad I'll have my Xmas holidays soon :), it's totally overdue!!!