Before we begin with the food, here is a brief introduction to my favorite characters!


Kerokerokeroppi (or “Keroppi”for short) is a frog character made by Sanrio, who also makes the much more famous Hello Kitty. Keroppi loves to sing and swim, and lives at Donut Pond. He has a brother named Koroppi and a sister named Pikki. Keroppi was born in 1988 and was really popular in the early 90’s but has since faded. I loved Keroppi when I was a kid, and I bought tons of paraphernalia associated with him.

Inarizushi is sushi that is made from marinated tofu skins and sushi rice. For the Totoro Inarizushi, I cut dried seaweed sheets with scissors into the shape of his nose and the markings on his chest. For his eyes, I used black sesame seeds. Click here for a tutorial on how to make Inarizushi.
Onigiri (also known as omusubi) is a rice ball that can be filled with a variety of fillings. Common fillings include salted salmon and pickled ume (plum). For this onigiri, I used seaweed as an outer covering to make his head and his whiskers. I cut out eyes with a straw from fish cake (kamaboko). I use scissors to cut the seaweed.
Maki
Maki is a specific type of sushi where rice and other ingredients are rolled up into a roll, usually using seaweed. I decided to make Maki rolls that, when cut, revealed the face of Keroppi.
Here is the step by step tutorial for how to make Keroppi Maki Rolls.
Main Dish #1: Domo Japanese “Hamburg” (ハンバーグ)
The Japanese rendition of hamburger has ground beef mixed with panko and sauteed onions. It is usually served with a brown sauce (like Bulldog Sauce) or curry. This Asian-interpretation of a western dish has almost become a separate type of cuisine in the states, and you can find restaurants that serve Japanese style hamburgers in the US.
I decided to make Domo-themed Japanese Hamburgers with brown sauce.
Main Dish #2: Totoro Rice and Korean Spinach Salad
This was the centerpiece of the meal. The dish was inspired by a scene from the movie in My Neighbor Totoro where Totoro is holding an umbrella because it is raining. It is one of the most famous scenes from the movie. Due to limitations in what foods I had available, I was unable to really recreate the scene. So, instead, here is an inspired picture that is loosely based on a scene from the movie.
The flowers are made out of red peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. The sun is a picked daikon, and Totoro is made out of sesame rice and also regular rice. For a tutorial on how to make your own Totoro, click here.
For the Korean Spinach Salad recipe, click here.
Other sides dishes that were served at this meal but did not necessarily make it into the final centerpiece included the Spicy Asian Cucumber Salad and the Taiwanese Meat Sauce over Rice.
Dessert: Rice Crispy Treats and Chocolate
Rice Crispy Treats
Finally, I made some chocolates in the shape of Keroppi. I used food coloring to color white chocolate green. I used white chocolate chips for his eyeballs. For a step by step look into how I made the Keroppi chocolates, click here.
It was a crazy Saturday filled with many hours of cooking. Thanks so much to Foodbuzz for sponsoring this event. I never would have attempted so many interesting dishes otherwise! This is my first time making many of these things, and I’m definitely still a novice! I have to acknowledge two great sites that I used as wonderful resources: Just Bento and Anna the Red’s Bento Factory. I learned a lot from these sites, and you should definitely check them out. Just Bento has a ton of great tips about bento making in general, and Anna the Red makes incredibly detailed and crazy cute bentos that I can only dream of recreating.
Enjoy! And thanks for reading this far!
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I really enjoyed reading all of your recent posts about how to make all those bentos!
The inarizushi is great as it is but I bet it tastes better when it’s in character form 😛
absolutely amazingggg, they’re all too cute! i especially adore the domokun burgers hahah.
those keroppi maki rolls look quite complicated.: P
It is absolutely entertaining and relaxing to read this post.
How patient you are to make these kyaraben (or kyarabens?)!
Thanks for sharing.
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OMG I LOVE EVERYTHING!!! AMAZING! 😀
so awesome i love the totoro scene!
Absolutely incredible!!
I love, love, love this. You did an amazing job!
Love this! There is no way I have the patience to create what you did…how cool!
oh my gosh!!!! these are the cutest creations i’ve ever seen!!!! great job!!!!! i love totoro!!! =) great ideas!!!!
What an original Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24! You did a great job, these are tooooo cuute.
Oh my gosh – this is so good and so creative.
Amazing!! These are so cute! I’m in awe!
This is fantastic! What a great 24, 24, 24 – so incredibly detailed and so delicious. I love the rice krispy Totoros! 😎
RIDICULOUSLY CUTE. I can’t imagine how long it took you to do Doraemon’s little whiskers 🙂
soo cute, I like Doraemon 🙂
I am sorry- you a novice? Your creations are AMAZING :O I felt soooo hungry just looking at it, but it’s soooo cute that if I were your guests I would not bear to eat it 😀
Those are beyond amazing!
It’s 3:55am as I read this. You have no idea how hungry I am now @___@;
-Max Xu
you really made my day! this post was too cute.
All these are fantastic!!! Thank you for sharing.
These are amazing!!! You really are an artist. And I could do with some of that green ‘white’ chocolate right now!
Wow those chocolates are so cute! I had a similar dish to the inarizushi one for my blog but I was also thinking of making chocolates. I have drawn so many designs for anime-themed chocolates but there are so many ideas running through my head, haha.
No words!!!!!
Saluti Giulia
These are the cutest foods I have ever seen!! And even better, they’re edible! Love it!