Osaka Archives • TravelRight.Today https://www.travelright.today/tag/osaka/ Fri, 19 Jun 2020 11:57:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.travelright.today/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cropped-android-chrome-512x512-1-32x32.png Osaka Archives • TravelRight.Today https://www.travelright.today/tag/osaka/ 32 32 Fake food in Japan https://www.travelright.today/2020/06/08/fake-food-in-japan-sampuru/ Mon, 08 Jun 2020 12:11:38 +0000 http://www.travelright.today/?p=4467 TOKYO—Called sampuru, this fake food has been used outside restaurants to lure customers inside for more than 100 years. The practice pre-dates colour menus.

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]]> TOKYO—These sandwiches look good enough to eat. Revisiting photos from a trip to Japan in 2012, I came across images of plastic food, taken outside a few restaurants in Tokyo and Osaka. Called sampuru, this shiny fake food has been used by restaurants to lure customers for more than 100 years. The practice pre-dates colour commercial photography, so the original wax models were used long before colour menus were a thing. Many restaurants do both.

THINGS TO DO: IN KYOTO

Sampuru food models are now handmade from polyvinyl, the replicas being incredibly life-life—and perfect for tourists who can’t read the menus. Actual food is used, pressed into silicon to make the moulds. Though they have a “cheap” connotation, these dummies are expensive, like $85 for a rice ball. We’re looking at about $650 for big platter of sushi for four people. Guess they’re not changing the menu that often…

Keep an eye out: You can find sampuru in many restaurant supply stores and markets. Makes a great souvenir!

JAPAN.TRAVEL

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