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Jan 12 2005 3 Comments

Fake food

Many restaurants in Japan have plastic food displayed outside, showing off the (supposedly) fabulous dishes available inside. And whilst in some ways it’s a slightly odd practice, I won’t knock it, as if a menu turns out to be incomprehensible, there remains the last resort of escorting the waiter/waitress outside and pointing at the desired dish.

Now don’t laugh. I’ve done it. And on more than one occasion too. Although as you can imagine, it’s a tad embarrassing.

What I didn’t realize though, was that apart from being a gaijin safety net, these plastic foodstuffs are part of a multi-million yen industry. Apparently it all started 80 years ago in Gifu Prefecture, and current fake food masters get plenty of orders (and money) for their hand-crafted delights.

These artisans can conjure up lettuce with just a bit of green-coloured wax softened in hot water. And with some cheese and tomato coloured paste on a plastic pizza base, topped with a bit of airbrushing magic, they can produce a mouth-watering pizza.

Or alternatively, instead of going through all that trouble, a few pieces of garishly red plastic can simply be slapped on a plate and passed off as beef.

plastic japanese food

Although it has to be said that the lettuce underneath is a nice touch.

Categorized: Culture, Food and Drink

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Toni says

    1/14/2005 at 7:28 am

    I’ve always been a fan of the plastic food displays, for exactly the reason you pointed out. Yes I too, have dragged the poor waitress/waiter outside and pointed at the food. In some places though, the menus have pictures so I just point at the picture and say, “Kore”. Eventually when I learned to read more food kanji, I was sometimes able to actually describe what I wanted.

    Reply
  2. shohei says

    1/16/2005 at 1:50 am

    I don’t feel anything strange about these display dishes because I grew up with them and took them as granted. So I was surprised to know these display is peculiar to Japan…

    Reply
  3. eze says

    3/22/2005 at 9:27 am

    you should try my local restaurant ….the food actually tastes like display food lol

    Reply

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