- Hello. I'm Alvin.
Welcome back to Tasty's "Making It Big,"
the show where I make giant food
for my friends and coworkers.
Today, what I thought would be fun would be to make
a giant bento box with lots of fun things inside.
First, I'm gonna talk to my good friend, Rie McClenny,
to explain, what is a bento box, why is a bento box,
and how is a bento box?
Let's talk to Rie.
(upbeat music)
Hi, Rie.
- Hey, Alvin.
- What is a bento box, and what is the context behind bento?
- Bento is essentially a meal in a box.
You can bring it to school.
You can bring it to office for lunch.
- It's rice, and a couple of small things
that can last a while.
They won't spoil. They won't go bad.
- Exactly.
Bento is meant to be eaten cold,
so you want to season very well.
- And what kinds of foods are usually inside of bento?
- Rice. It's a must.
My favorite is tamagoyaki and fried chicken.
So in the first season, you made me a giant tamagoyaki.
It's a Japanese omelet.
It was my mom's favorite as well.
When my mom was little,
she requested tamagoyaki all the time.
Her schoolteacher saw that and she warned her,
if you only eat tamagoyaki every day,
you will turn into chicken. (chicken clucks)
And that made her very scared.
- That's kinda messed up.
That's like when my mom told me
if you eat a watermelon seed, it'll grow into a watermelon,
so you make sure you take out all the seeds.
That's not true at all.
What the heck, mom?
- That's not true.
- One thing that I've seen in a couple of bento pictures
is hot dogs that are cut in a way
where they almost look like little octopuses.
- People who make bento try to make it look very cute
or try to make it look like a character.
- So I think I have all the information that I need.
Thank you for teaching us about the world of bento.
- I'm excited for you.
- I'm scared. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
I have my work cut out for me.
So I've invited my friend Inga,
also a fellow Buzzfeed producer.
We both make videos for About To Eat.
Go check out the channel.
There's a lot of fun stuff that we're making
and going to make.
So welcome back, Inga.
- Thanks for having me, Alvin.
- Yeah.
Inga, I've heard that you've also made bento boxes
and videos about bento boxes before.
Can you tell me about that?
- I have.
So, okay, The last time I made one on a video
was like three years ago, the ridiculously cute bento box.
- You will be the expert.
I will be moral support.
- Nah, you'll do it with me. We'll do it together.
- All right. We'll do it together.
So to start, I'm gonna be making the rolled egg omelet
that Rie mentioned, and Inga is gonna be making-
- I'll make an army of octo-weenies,
octo-sausages, little octopi.
Wow. They look like fingers.
Half it like this.
It's not obvious right now.
It's gonna be obvious once it hits the water.
We're gonna cook them alive, I mean boil them.
- Oh my... (Inga laughs)
While Inga is slowly assembling her army of octo-weenies,
I'm going to be destroying an army of eggs
for the tamagoyaki.
(upbeat music)
- [Inga] Your army of eggs versus my army of sausages.
- Why did this turn into a competition?
This is a collaborative team effort.
- Look at this.
Fanning out the legs. Oh yeah.
- Don't say that. - Okay.
Oh, that sounded weird. Does that sound weird?
Well, okay. Well.
(upbeat music)
- Inga, I have one egg left.
And do you remember what we did in the ramen episode?
- [Inga] Eggie?
- Eggie.
- [Inga] I feel like we should have Eggie reborn.
- Reincarnated.
Inga seems to be a little slow today, so while...
(Inga gasps)
I'm gonna get so much flack for that later.
Tamagoyaki is usually seasoned with a couple of things.
(Alvin burps)
Wow, I just burped.
Ooh, sorry you had to hear that.
So soy sauce, some instant dashi powder,
a good amount of sugar, which might sound weird,
but it's actually delicious.
Salt.
A little bit of water. Bloop.
Now, because I am too lazy to whisk eggs,
we use an immersion blender
and viciously turn them into one big egg.
(blender whirring)
Damn. He is pissed.
- Alvin, why don't I have an immersion blender shortcut?
You should've hand-whisked it. (laughs)
- Well, you know.
Let's just say I chose to do the eggs for a reason.
- Ah! I knew it.
- [Alvin] Looks like they're ready for war.
(Inga vocalizes)
(Alvin beat-boxes)
Yeah.
I have two Silpat mats with nonstick spray.
Borrowing another technique from the 100 egg omelet video,
I'm gonna bake these in sheets.
In you go. Ooh.
Look at that.
And I'm gonna slowly transfer these into the oven
while Inca toils away on her weenie army.
(upbeat music)
Another bento box item that I'm really excited about
is the fried chicken, which is karaage.
So instead of having little small chunks of fried chicken,
we're at "Making It Big,"
so we're gonna use the whole chicken thigh.
For the marinade, I have soy sauce, some garlic, ginger...
oh, it smells so good...
sake, one egg, sugar.
Just gonna mix this all up.
- Whoa! All right, this is a little hot.
But look at that.
Ooh, it's coming together.
- Inga, do you like karaage?
- [Inga] What?
- What are you doing back there?
- Grabbing some of my special tools.
- Ooh.
The marinade is looking pretty good.
And I think what makes the signature coating
is potato starch.
I love frying with potato starch.
It just has this really nice, crisp, rugged texture.
(upbeat music)
I have really hot oil here. I have the chicken.
There's only one thing left to do.
Ooh. All right.
Oh, it's getting hot.
Ooh, look at this color.
It's getting so beautiful.
Dude, look at this fried chicken.
- [Inga] Ooh, boy. That does look good.
- All right.
First batch is ready to come out, I think.
Look at that.
I'm actually going to double-fry these,
because these thighs are big and as they rest,
they're also really juicy.
So some of the juices start to come out.
I think double frying helps get rid of that water
and makes it extra crispy.
- All righty. They've been in here for a while.
Look at this. Look at it.
- [Alvin] Ooh.
- A beauty.
Well, I'm gonna keep cooking these, but-
- [Alvin] Keep cooking these butts?
- No.
I have to keep cooking these.
What?
All right, Eggie, Eggie.
Eggie reborn.
I'm gonna put on the fancy eyes.
Remember the ones from my video?
- [Alvin] Yes. Those look really good.
- [Inga] Ooh!
You know, I'm on a big show,
making some really tiny stuff right now, Alvin.
Can you see? Can you see it?
Can you see the eyes?
Ready? (laughs)
Angry octo-weenie.
Our two different kinds today.
Wow.
- [Alvin] The premium on the right.
- Hey, don't hate.
This is how I feel when I wake up.
- [Alvin] Yeah, me too.
- And then me after makeup. (laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Vegetables are very important for bento boxes,
so I think you're gonna handle the more delicate work
'cause you are more artistic-
- Or maybe you just don't want to do the work.
- And that's actually the reason why
I really don't want to handle vegetables.
So I'm gonna roll my egg omelet now.
You go ahead and you do you.
- We're not gonna cook the tomatoes,
but I'm just going to blanch the carrots,
and I'll slice them up,
so then it'll also make it easier for me to cut them.
Ooh!
- Is everything okay over there?
- You know, they're just a little raw, but-
- Those are massive carrots.
- I know. They're huge!
I haven't cooked with carrots this big in a long time.
- I'm just trying to loosen up the egg
from its little mat over here.
This is a time-tested technique.
Roll. This little break is fine.
Keep it nice and tight.
Now, this is going to go over here.
Ooh. A little snack.
Ooh, that's good.
- [Inga] I'm hungry.
- I'll give you a snack.
- Mmm! - Hmm?
- It's really sweet. I like it.
- [Alvin] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- [Inga] Sweet and savory.
- Mm-hmm.
- [Inga] I'm gonna stamp these out.
I'm going to go with this big cookie cutter.
Ooh. It looks like a heart.
Nice.
- Oh, okay. Here we go.
Keep the wrap nice and tight.
That's the most important thing.
Oh, shh.
Look at that.
Let's roll it up. Roll it up.
It's a big egg baby.
- Big boy. Yeah.
- Like Eggie, Eggie XL.
(Inga laughs)
- Broccoli's good, looking greener than ever.
I have Eggie here.
Beautiful baby-smooth skin. We love it.
I'm going to give him a face.
I have a bear stamp out here.
I'm gonna use it to give me a smile, so...
(stamp crunching)
- [Alvin] That sounded nice.
- [Inga] Okay.
- [Alvin] Oh, I love that.
- [Inga] Wait, cheeks.
Oh, yay.
It looks so cute on camera. Oh my God.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, so one of the most important things about bentos
is rice.
- Yes.
(screen beeps)
- We are gonna make rice bears.
(bear roars)
This is three entire bags.
I don't know what that means, but-
- [Inga] Entire bags?
- It's a lot of rice.
- So one big head and then two ears.
- [Alvin] That sounds like a plan.
- [Inga] Gosh, it's like building a snowball.
- Oh yeah.
Don't throw it at me.
- This is not sticking together
as much as I was hoping it would.
Eh.
- Oh, smart.
- No, I don't know what I'm doing.
Don't say...
don't call me smart.
I don't know what I'm going.
Squish it! Squish it.
- Compress.
(grunts) I hope this works.
- [Inga] Um.
- Yeah, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to,
but, you know, it's okay.
(hands pounding)
- What are you doing?
(hands pounding)
(Inga laughs)
Is that what you do?
- Help!
You know, honestly?
- [Alvin] Oh, yeah?
- [Inga] Not bad!
- No. What the heck?
- [Inga] What?
- [Alvin] That's not a bear. That is Mickey Mouse.
- Excuse me? That is a bear.
- I just want to make sure
that you're happy with what you're putting out.
That's all.
(dramatic music)
- I just destroyed it.
No, you!
Why is the camera getting a closeup of this?
Oh, my arms are burning.
Looks a little bit like a Joker bear right now.
- Joker bear?
- [Inga] That's too big of a smile.
- Oh my God.
I'm going to make a small face on a big bear.
I don't know how this is gonna look, but...
Let's get the ears. (laughs)
I love it.
Oh my God. Wait, I love this.
- I can't. I can't.
All right.
Well, we have created too much trust.
(upbeat music)
- Our wonderful art team in LA made a giant bento box.
So now, it's time to assemble.
- How are we gonna do this, Alvin?
- We can take turns 'cause this is a very big box.
Would you like to put in the weenies and the chicken?
- Sure.
- [Alvin] All right. All you.
- Oh. Right now?
Well, thanks for having me here again.
Welcome to my show "Making It Big."
(upbeat music)
(logo beeps)
Oh!
- [Alvin] Careful.
You worked hard on those.
- [Inga] Okay. Well I'll just put weenies in now, like this.
As you can see,
some of these little octo-weenies have very cute mouths,
a little O-shaped mouth and a little leaf hat.
It looks like a Pokemon, almost.
Thank you to the culinary team, honestly.
They added some spice.
This is a lot of babies right here.
- [Alvin] Babies? I thought they were in the army.
- [Inga] I mean, it's an army of babies.
- [Alvin] Ooh. Oh.
- I'm not even halfway there yet.
- [Alvin] A'ight. Oh no.
- Oh no. He just flopped.
- I don't know what's happening.
I just heard heavy breathing.
- I'm trying to pick it up.
Okay, this is gonna be a pile of chicken.
Who doesn't like that, right?
Oh. Oh, it looks so good.
- I'm gonna do the egg now.
All right. Let's do big slices.
- [Inga] That's very satisfying.
- Right? - Mm-hmm.
- Oop. It's gonna get a little messy.
This placement is a little...
it's a little finicky.
I think that's why they don't make tamagoyaki this big.
- [Inga] Yeah.
- I think that's the best I'm gonna be able to get it.
I think it tastes good. It's just a very tender.
- Hey. They don't look bad.
- [Alvin] Thanks.
- Alvin's worried for no reason.
All right.
I have been given this spatula.
Look. Here's the deal.
This is a big, big guy, and gosh, Alvin,
I really hope I can do this.
- [Alvin] Me too.
- Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
I can't lift it.
Okay. All right, I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna holy shh...
This is a kid show.
Holy moly cruelly moley's moleys.
All right.
Hey, no. I think I got it.
- [Alvin] Yeah?
- [Inga] He's at home!
- [Alvin] Okay. My turn?
- I did it.
- [Alvin] Oh boy.
- Let me tell you. It's not easy.
- [Alvin] I'm gonna put the ears on later.
Oh.
- [Inga] Oh, he's sturdy.
- [Alvin] He is a thick, sturdy bear.
(Inga laughs)
- The arm's shaking.
- [Alvin] I'm shaking.
How are the ears gonna fit?
All right.
- [Inga] Yeah. There you go.
There you go.
- [Alvin] Let's get one of your ears on, little buddy.
Oh, that's a little high. That's fine.
- There you go! - Yeah.
- All right.
Some tomatoes at the bottom.
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
- [Alvin] Ooh. Wow. (triumphant music)
We did it.
Wow, I'm so glad you came to me.
I don't think I could have envisioned a better box.
- [Inga] I know. I'm pretty proud of us.
- It is probably 50 pounds?
- [Inga] We done did good.
Yay!
(upbeat music)
- [Alvin] Inga, would you like a plate?
- Yes, please.
That's a huge plate.
- This is the only plate we have.
- [Inga] Oh.
- This is the "Making It Big" plate.
- But of course.
Oh no. No.
Cheers!
- It tastes like a hot dog.
- Tastes like a hot dog.
Oh. Oh my god.
It's so tender.
- Yeah.
- And that potato starch, oh my god.
- Woo!
- We did it, Alvin. - We did it.
Good job.
- [Inga] This looks so good.
Truly, I'm so happy.
- This looks way better than what I had imagined,
and I knew it was gonna look good cause you were here.
So I'm glad we are very hungry, and we like what we made.
- Exactly. We just made like 50 bento boxes.
No big deal.
- 100%. Yeah.
So if you'll excuse us, we're gonna take some time alone.
- Bye. - Bye.
(upbeat music)