I have never eaten bacon in my life, nor have I ever felt inclined to. Not when my friends and I went on holiday together and the aroma of bacon strips wafted from the breakfast buffet. Not when a Michelin-star chef prepared a special meal for me that he insisted would taste so much better with bacon.
Not when my colleagues declared that bacon was unequivocally the best among meats. The only time that I was slightly tempted—but never gave into it—was when I saw Howl cooking bacon strips with eggs over Calcifer, the fire demon from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). The visual appeal of food in Studio Ghibli movies has long been a topic of discussion among fans of Hayao Miyazaki.
Whether it’s onigiri in Spirited Away (2001) or ramen in Ponyo (2008), there’s something irresistibly hyperrealistic—and simultaneously fantastical—about Ghibli food that makes you want to reach out and grab the plate off the screen with both hands. Chef Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar, who helms Bento Bento in Bengaluru and is also the co-founder of Edible Archives in Goa, understands this sentiment. In fact, she understands it so well, she’s treating fans to a two-day pop-up serving recreations of Ghibli dishes at Bento Bento.
Of course, this has to mean that Dastidar herself is a Ghibli devotee. (She is). The chef’s gateway to Miyazaki’s world was My Neighbour Totoro (1988)—a film that caused something to “happen to me and want to watch more”.
She was a student in Delhi back then and asked her friends from the Japanese Studies Department to lend her DVDs of Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and Ponyo. She has been in thrall to Miyazaki’s magic ever since. So when Dastidar’s PR consultant and friend suggested doing a Studio Ghibli pop-up, she jumped at the idea.
“I was excited but also scared,” she confides. “Studio Ghibli’s food is the romanticised representation of comfort food for people in Japan. In India, the representation of Japanese food is sushi, sashimi and ramen.
” Would Indians associate daily foods like the pancakes and sausages seen in Kiki’s Delivery Service or the tomato stew with cheesy bread that appears in Tales from Earthsea (2006) with Japan? That was not Dastidar’s only apprehension either. “Since I’m an obsessive Studio Ghibli fan and know almost all their movies by heart, coming up with ideas for the menu was easy. The curation was the difficult part—how to decide what to keep and what not to?” The answer was in being ingredient-driven , as the chef is with all her work.
If it was not possible to source an ingredient in the form that the dish demanded, she discarded it. “But that doesn’t mean everything had to be imported from Japan,” she clarifies. “My favourite surprise discovery occurred while searching for azuki beans.
I happened to be in Arunachal Pradesh at the time and discovered these creamy red beans that are closer cousins to the azuki than any other bean I’ve seen anywhere.” Doing this pop-up is perhaps also a full-circle moment for Dastidar, who lived and worked in Japan for a few years before returning to India. And it’s her memories of eating comfort food that she drew from while conceptualising this menu: a bowl of ramen after work, her landlady’s homemade miso soup, rice, fish and pickled bhindi.
“Nothing fancy, but very, very good. I meditated on these experiences to create a menu of simple, unpretentious food.” Accordingly, Bento Bento’s weekend pop-up menu includes bacon and eggs ( Howl’s Moving Castle), pancakes, bacon, sausage and tomato ( Kiki’s Delivery Service ), ramen (Ponyo) , onigiri (Spirited Away) , Satsuki’s Bento Box (My Neighbour Totoro —also Dastidar’s favourite Ghibli food scene), mackerel fry (From Up on Poppy Hill) , spaghetti (The Castle of Cagliostro) , tomato stew with cheesy bread (Tales from Earthsea) , rich double chocolate cake ( Kiki’s Delivery Service ) and anman ( Spirited Away ).
That’s quite the menu for a two-day pop-up, yet Dastidar wishes she could she could do more, cook more. “In Princess Mononoke, there’s a scene where a monk serves Ashitaka rice porridge seasoned with miso. I feel this dish often goes unnoticed.
Even when Ghibli fans talk about Ghibli food, it’s rarely mentioned. It’s such a simple and comforting dish, believed to have healing qualities, that I think deserves more appreciation.” Appreciation that Dastidar could definitely help garner if she turned this weekend pop-up into, say, a full-time Ghibli-themed restaurant .
Is that on the cards at all? “I’m doing this pop-up purely as a fan,” laughs the affable chef. “I know how Studio Ghibli fans crave the food they see in anime. I just wanted to create a collective fan moment.
As a fan, I would love to open a Ghibli-themed restaurant but I don’t think it would be feasible anytime soon.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Miyazaki, who keeps coming out of retirement to make one last film, it’s never say never. The Studio Ghibli Food Series will pop up at Bento Bento in Bengaluru on the weekend of August 10th and 11th from 11:30am to 3:30pm and 6:30pm to 10:30pm Also read: All the Studio Ghibli films ranked from worst to best 11 essential Studio Ghibli movies to watch on Netflix Celebrating our enduring fascination with the Ghibli Museum on its 20 th anniversary.
