Have you ever heard about "food samples"? Last time I wrote about menus in Japan, so this time I'd like to introduce you to food samples.
In Japan, some restaurants show display plastic replicas of their dishes in their windows. When I was a kid, it was quite common in most restaurants. Before entering the restaurant, we used to look at the samples and decide what to eat.
Now, the time have changed, but we can still find them at restaurants that serve traditional Japanese food like udon, soba and sushi.
Since I took some photos of these food samples, I'd like to share them with you.
I like them because it's easy for us to understand than just reading menus. Even though they don't smell like real food, they clearly show the portion size and what ingredients are included.
The pictures below are from a different restaurant. I think the samples do a great job of representing the dishes. If the samples are well-made, they can even make customers feel hungry. I believe that's one reason the food sample industry has continued to thrive.
These days, food samples have become popular souvenirs among foreign tourists.
For example, you can check out some incredibly realistic samples here: https://www.ganso-sample.com/en/
The last picture shows the real dishes I ordered. I was happy to see that they looked exactly like the food samples and I felt very satisfied with my meal!
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They do make me feel very hungry. It does seem like a good way of drawing in customers.
I agree with you!
Recently in the UK there was a museum/art exhibition of Japanese food samples. We usually just use laminated photos and you would normally only see them in a "greasy spoon".
@t4up3 Thank you for the comment. The art exhibition sounds very interesting! I'd love to ask it to my British friend too. Thank you for sharing. By the way, what's the meaning of "greasy spoon"?
A greasy spoon is a cheap cafe. In the UK this means the kind of place that serves a "full English breakfast" all day long. In Japanese terms, kissaten or the small places you find near train stations (only a lot less healthy).
@t4up3 Thank you so much for educating me! I'd love to use the term sometime when I visit the UK again!
@t4up3 When I chatted with my British friend last night, I asked him about "greasy spoon". Thank you for telling me the word. I learned a lot about it. I can imagine the Japanese version, probably, 場末の喫茶店or場末の食堂。Now, I'm curious if my American friend knows about the term. I'll ask him about this too.