"panda" news and stories

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

LuckySundae has created a pair of ultra-kawaii (cute) pandas, sitting snug in a green plastic bento container amidst sliced hot dog flowers, a bit of tomato and edamame salad, and roast potatoes. The pandas themselves are simple rice balls with nori faces.

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For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento, courtesy of Bhikku, breaks the long-held taboo on panda-eating. The smiley rice panda has nori (seaweed) details and wears what appears to be a carrot flower collar (any Japanese speakers wanna help me out?). He's surrounded by various yummy noshes - mini-sausages, a cutlet of some type, rolled omelet, a maraschino cherry and an unidentified pink object with a nori face.

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It looks like meat ice cream isn't the only tasty treat that zoo animals are getting this summer. The giant panda Xin Xin, who resides at the Wild Animal Rescue and Breeding Center in Xi'an, China, celebrated his first birthday this month with apples, watermelon and - of course - birthday cake. We have no doubt that the cake was made with panda-friendly ingredients, but it actually looks pretty good. And Xin Xin is certainly enjoying it.

He's not the only panda to get served birthday cake, though. Click past the jump for some more pictures of pandas with their cakes.

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