A cookbook that thinks outside the bento box and brings the popular Japanese trend of kawaii (all things cute) to the American kitchen.
Hello Kitty, Pokémon, Super Mario, Astroboy… American pop culture has been invaded by big-headed, dewy-eyed characters from Japan. The cult of kawaii (ka-why-ee, or all things cute) has spread to every aspect of living—including food. Take Japan’s wackiest new trend: school lunches dolled up as adorable creatures. They’re feasts for the eyes, but their ingredients such as natto and nori don’t exactly sit well with Western stomachs.
Cute Yummy Time interprets this Japanese phenomenon for the American palate. Using familiar foods, La Carmina turns mundane meals into adorable sensations. A risotto ball becomes a curious hedgehog; chicken sandwiches are dressed as chicks. Entertaining has never been so endearing with a blue cheese blowfish for a beach party or strawberry lovers in chocolate crepe robes for Valentine’s Day. Each recipe includes step-by-step instructions, illustrations, and eye-popping full-color photos.
La Carmina has her finger on the pulse of Japanese pop culture, blogging fervently about Tokyo trends long before they hit America. She runs a "cute food" community website, a hugely popular website about Gothic Lolita fashion (lacarmina.com), and is also the author of Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo. She splits time between Tokyo, NYC and Vancouver.
** For the most recent LA CARMINA NEWS & PHOTOS: http://www.lacarmina.com/blog
La Carmina is a Japan & Gothic fashion, travel and culture blogger. TV host & arranger. Underground youth subcultures trend consultant / coolhunter. Author of 3 Jpop books. Huffington Post & CNN journalist.
>>> MORE AT http://www.lacarmina.com <<<
"Goth Queen." - South China Morning Post
"Adorable, in a somewhat bizarre way." - The New Yorker
(La Carmina has) "beauty, grace, intelligence and can speak with authority on many subjects." "If you don't subscribe to this woman's Facebook, blog, and Twitter feeds you are really missing out, kids." - Andrew Zimmern (TV host, Bizarre Foods on Travel Channel)
La Carmina is a professional alternative travel/fashion/subcultures blogger, TV host & arranger, coolhunter & trend consultant, author of 3 books (Penguin USA and Random House), designer and journalist for CNN, AOL and Huffington Post.
She runs a coolhunting / trend consulting / TV hosting and arranging company: La Carmina & The Pirates. The team specializes in cosplay, Goth, burlesque, underground, body modifications, Jpop culture and youth subcultures. (http://www.lacarmina.com/pirates)
Her books include Cute Yummy Time (about decorating food to look adorable) and Crazy, Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo (maid cafes, cat cafes, vampire and ninja restaurants). La Carmina is a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Law School. Her popular blog - http://www.lacarmina.com/blog - has been featured in major publications (The New Yorker, Washington Post, WWD, Cosmopolitan, Vogue Italia, LA Times). She is a travel and pop culture journalist for CNN, and Huffington Post / AOL. La Carmina has a large, passionate online following, and was twice invited to Luisaviaroma's Italy event for the world's top fashion bloggers. She was a guest at NY Fashion Week 2012, where she sat front row and spoke at IFB Conference. She spoke about travel video and social media at PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference, Hong Kong social media week, and Mediabistro's social curation summit.
La Carmina has appeared on CBS The Doctors and The Today Show, and co-hosted the Jspan episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern for Travel Channel, which airs in 75 countries. NHK Japan filmed two documentaries about her work, including Kawaii TV. Recent TV hosting and arranging credits include Food Network, Dutch Pepsi, Sony Australia, Canal Plus France, Fuel TV, Norway TV, Fuel, Discovery, Pro Sieben, National Geographic, and CNN International. Hosting reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75XqWdi2v4
TV REELS, press clippings + full bio: http://lacarmina.com/bio.php
La Carmina site: http://www.lacarmina.com
Tokyo fixer / TV production consultant site: http://www.lacarmina.com/pirates
The book attempts to take Japanese techniques of making food look like cute animals and apply it to western recipes. However, I find two major flaws with this book.
The first is that for the most part the pictures of the recipes are not nearly as cute as I expected. There is nothing inherently wrong with creations such as the "Hot Dog Croc" on page 85, but it lacks the finesse and polish that I think a cookbook should have. While there are a few standouts, for the most part there were few designs that appealed enough to make me wish to emulate them. While that may sound harsh, I expect that books that teach will be written by people who excel in their craft.
The second is that aside from a few tiny illustrations in the forward, there are no patterns in the book. Since the creation of these decorative foods is a craft where you often need to cut special shapes and combine them, the lack of any patterns is mystifying and frustrating. Instead of patterns, there is a short fluff story on each page which relates to cute animal featured in the recipe.
If you are looking for projects to do with younger children, this might be an acceptable book for you. If you seek to emulate the Japanese style of cute food decoration, or have an artist's taste, I am sure you can find better guides.
I bought this book because I wanted to find a bento book that focused on American ingredients so that I could make healthy lunches for my daughter. Though the book is cute and has some neat ideas about how to display food, many of the recipes are faulty. For instance, the Piggie Bread shouldn't be made with just wheat flour. The bread will have a grainier texture, won't rise properly, and will feel heavy and dull in your mouth. If you're going to go through the trouble of making bread, you want it to be flaky and tender. And I would never put peppercorns on my daughter's food hoping that she wouldn't eat them! She should have used diced raisins or currants.
There are a lot of mistakes like this throughout the book that suggests the author does not have a strong culinary background. Also, I felt that there wasn't much of a focus on the "bento" part of the book. The few lunch items included, though pictured in a bento box, were not placed in there as if all you needed to do was slap on the lid and send them off to school. They were either popping out all over the place (see: Politician Frog Pita) or they didn't represent a full, nutritious meal (see: Woodland Caprese).
And to make matters worse, most of the recipes didn't sound tasty. I understand her focus on healthy alternatives to typical foods, but no kid is going to eat buckwheat pancakes that are gray and flat!
I thought that maybe it would be a cute book for my daughter to read (since there is an adorable storyline that goes along with the recipes), but then the introduction started talking about "condoms" and "Waking Lovers Crepes", which makes it completely inappropriate.
All and all, I am extremely disappointed with this book and suggest to anyone that is looking for a good bento book to look elsewhere.
You can tell just from the preview images that this is not a professional cookbook. The photos are poorly done, and would not make an actual bento you could take anywhere. That being said, if you just want some ideas for making your food looking cuter AT HOME, then it is all right (though to be honest, a real bento book can be used for this purpose too). Well, also if you can get over the bad photography/editing :( I really like food photos though
If you want to make real bentos, run away. Very fast. There are many, many other, much more researched, edited, and educated bento enthusiasts who have put out much better books for the same price point. Virtually all the "bentos" in this cookbook are just regular foods put into a bento box as a prop. Not only would it become a mess to bring to work or school, some of the food is not even transportable. Not a well-thought out book at all
