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Bento dreams and stranger things
Naturally, after posting the ekiben bento manga scans last night, I dreamed of bento. My brain also pulled in elements of congoing, school anxiety dreams, and a 4-H competition* I was in back in 5th grade. It started when I was in some sort of class for cooking and for a final exam I had to construct a bento balanced between the four food groups. I'd managed to miss the deadline for turning it in, so in the hopes that I'd get at least a C for doing it, I was struggling to make a totally awesome bento to turn in a day late. The bit where it had to be nutritionally balanced was from the 4-H cooking competition I entered back in the day.
And then the dream moved on to some sort of convention I was selling art at, and my table was one of only, like, three in an enormous hall, and there was another one run by a couple of Indian guys - which continued the theme of the bento, since it involved curry - and I'd packed a bento to eat. Which was, of course, the bento from the class above.
I'm trying to remember exactly what was in it, but it's all fading now. It was in a container that was mre like a rounded pot than a box - sort of like this Hanshin Tigers Win bento from the ekiben photo pool on FLickr, only the pot wasn't a baseball. :)
It was layered vertically, and I'm not sure how the layers were kept from seeping into each other. The bottom layer had rice in one half and a curry in the other half. Then there was another layer, possibly entirely rice with some sort of flavor in it, and then a third layer of possibly another variety of curry, with a cup containing a small salad nestled into it.
Aaaaaaaand now I'm getting hungry.
* 4-H, for those who don't know, is a youth organization vaguely like the Girl and Boy Scouts that's sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is supposed to foster various good characteristics in young people by having them do various vaguely-agriculturally-related things. Other 4-H clubs got to do nifty things like skeet shooting, riding, raising rabbits and so on. Mine? Did cooking. Blah. I mean, I like cooking, but I could do that an my own. That year was the end of my career in the 4-H. Wikipedia page.
And then the dream moved on to some sort of convention I was selling art at, and my table was one of only, like, three in an enormous hall, and there was another one run by a couple of Indian guys - which continued the theme of the bento, since it involved curry - and I'd packed a bento to eat. Which was, of course, the bento from the class above.
I'm trying to remember exactly what was in it, but it's all fading now. It was in a container that was mre like a rounded pot than a box - sort of like this Hanshin Tigers Win bento from the ekiben photo pool on FLickr, only the pot wasn't a baseball. :)
It was layered vertically, and I'm not sure how the layers were kept from seeping into each other. The bottom layer had rice in one half and a curry in the other half. Then there was another layer, possibly entirely rice with some sort of flavor in it, and then a third layer of possibly another variety of curry, with a cup containing a small salad nestled into it.
Aaaaaaaand now I'm getting hungry.
* 4-H, for those who don't know, is a youth organization vaguely like the Girl and Boy Scouts that's sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that is supposed to foster various good characteristics in young people by having them do various vaguely-agriculturally-related things. Other 4-H clubs got to do nifty things like skeet shooting, riding, raising rabbits and so on. Mine? Did cooking. Blah. I mean, I like cooking, but I could do that an my own. That year was the end of my career in the 4-H. Wikipedia page.
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My Girl Scout career? I managed to get my horse-riding badge by going to camp, but the badge I most remember getting was Etiquette. We spent a lot of time on that. (I wanted Photography.)
So I may not be able to light a fire or ride a horse particularly well, or whittle or do much of anything that the fun badges involved, but BY GOD I CAN SET A FORMAL TABLE.
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4H was very good for me, because at the time I was terribly socially awkward at school. Since 4H was more about what you did than a populrity thing, I fit in a lot better. And by comparison to the truly weird kids (homeschooled, commune dwelling, end-of-days Christians), I seemed remarkably normal.
*I was the worst Plant ID-er ever. My top score, after 3 years of doing the project, was 36/400. I just didn't understand what I was supposed to be doing, but I liked being on a team.
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We thought of 4H for the Young Lady - the Mr. had participated in it while growing up in Annapolis, and he did nifty things like Electronics. From our point of view, the important things were that it was co-ed and the kids don't have uniforms. But we never went through with it, so her childhood has been untainted by juvenile group service organizations ... .
In Girl Scouts myself, I had every single arty-craftsy badge available, from Painter to Toymaker, plus the outdoorsy and domestic ones that I was forced to earn, like Camping and Homemaker. The outdoorsy ones have been useful in dealing with overly-realistic RPG gamesmasters, at least!
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I went to 4-H summer camp and was lucky to stay in a cabin and not the covered wagons they had other groups stay in. There were some neat things we got to do, it was my first time I learned how to make friendship bracelets and sand painting. I'll never forget the crush I had on the one male counselor who allowed us to dance with him the night they had I think it was the last week of camp party. It was also the place that made me like lasagna since I didn't like it before. I only did 4-H that yr.