Japan: Plastic fantastic! (food models ^^)

Yep, they really are everywhere in Japan. And they're really handy for customers - especially tourists with limited menu-reading ability!

Most restaurants (and some shops selling specialist foods) display vinyl/silicon models of the items they sell. They are called 'sampuru サンプル' from the English 'sample', and may be in the shop window, or in a nearby case. The replica dishes are extremely detailed, so you know exactly what you are going to get!

The models are made by specialists, who take casts from the actual restaurant dishes / ingredients and then paint them up from photographs of the original food. It really is an art form, and craftspeople have to consider the replica's 'appetisingness' at all times. A regular bowl of silicon noodles can cost the restaurant over £200 / ¥20,000. (An entire display case must be quite an investment!)

The Japanese trend for replica food in restaurants started as early as 1917, apparently, when they were made from wax. Today competitions are held for fake-food artists.

Food shop in Kyoto

Realistic! Click on pix to enlarge.

(The fruit depicted here are Umeboshi - salty pickled plums, which the Japanese eat with rice and also to aid digestion and health.)