Totoro Eggs

My church has a program called Meals for Moms where volunteers sign up to make food for parents who have just had a baby or adopted a child. I sign up pretty regularly. I enjoy cooking, and it’s a nice way to help a sleep-deprived mom not have to worry about dinner as well!

Typically, I team up with another friend of mine who’s the best prep chef you could ever have. She’s super meticulous, enjoys prepping ingredients, and we have fun together. A typical menu I make often includes a subset of the following dishes: Taiwanese Meat Sauce over rice, Beef Noodle Soup, Three Cup Chicken, Tea Eggs, Chinese Chives + 5-spice Tofu, and stir fried Baby Bok Choy.

This past week, I signed up to cook for a friend, Christina, who absolutely loves Totoro. I knew I had to incorporate Totoro into the food that I made for her.

These Totoro eggs are a cinch to make. I basically made hard-boiled eggs, but you can soft boil them or even sous-vide them.  If you can find small circular white stickers, you are already halfway there. I didn’t have any on hand, so I actually hand-cut the tiny circles out with scissors from some white stickers. A small hole puncher would also do the trick.

Once you’ve put on the eye stickers, use a food-safe marker to draw the eyes.

Draw the nose, taking care not to make it too big. I try to make it a tiny triangle slightly pointed at the top.

Draw the belly.

I thought Totoro looked bald but didn’t want to cut the eggs to make ears to like I did when I made the Totoro Soy Sauce Eggs. Instead, I found some basil that I had left over from the Three Cup Chicken that I had also cooked for her.

I think these would be super cute for Easter, or for any time.

I leave you with a quote Christina sent me after I gave her the food. Note, her son Nathan is 4 years old.

—————————–
Nathan: I want Totoro!!!

-5 minutes later-

Nathan: More Totoro please!!!!

-10 minutes later-

Nathan: Mama, how did Auntie Jen get the Totoros?

Christina: Nathan, she drew them on the eggs.

Nathan: But how did she get the eggs?

Mom: From the farmer who had the chickens.

Nathan: But Mama, how did the chickens grow the Totoros?

Christina: —-some mumbling about how the Totoros aren’t real Totoros and Auntie Jen had to make them out of eggs—

Nathan: How did the farmer get the leaf?

Christina: Auntie Jen put it on.

Nathan:  Oh.  Could I have more Totoros please????

Christina emailed me and said, “Thanks to you, I didn’t have to worry about his protein intake the last three nights! :D”

Success! That statement totally made my day.