Posts Tagged: sushi

All Posts / Culture / Food — No Comments
10
Sep 10

Perusing the Japanese Menu with Fake Food

Today we’re not going to discuss Japanese food–at least not the type of food you can eat. Instead, we’re going to examine the fake Japanese food you’ll find adorning many restaurant windows in Japan. If you live near a Japantown or a Japanese marketplace with a food court or even some Japanese restaurants in the West, you may still see some examples of these fake food displays outside of the Japan.

Japanese restaurants often (but not always) make room for display windows featuring plastic incarnations of most of their dishes. These display cases can take up as much as half of the restaurant’s facade in a food court or even line the entire length of a larger restaurant in a mall. (For example, take a look at this video.) The actual-size replicas of the restaurant’s main dishes include replicas of all of the sides served with the food and even similar (or the same) bowls and plates. Along with the food item is usually a placard indicating the name of the dish, the price and the dish number so that you can order by number instead of item. (Although can still name the item if you wish.)

The fake food is usually so lifelike that you can see glaze where there’s supposed to be glaze or swear you’re staring at broth in a noodle dish. The food doesn’t lie lifelessly on the dish; rather, it’s arranged as if it were the food you’d be ordering, complete with noodles crossing every which way and overlapping main courses. Of course, much of the fake food is displayed vertically so that you can get a good look; this means that you won’t be confusing the food for real food, despite how real it looks!

Most fake food displays are custom-made for the individual restaurant. In fact, there are prominent companies in Japan that specialize in producing these individualized creations, such as Iwasaki Be-I, Japan’s largest fake food manufacturer. Much of the manufacturing process is kept secret, although it’s widely known that plastic is the most often-used material in the creations. Japanese restaurants can spend the equivalent of hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have these fake foods made for their menus.

Have you ever seen the fake food in Japanese restaurant windows? Do you think that the fake food can help you make a better choice when deciding what to order?

All Posts / News — No Comments
23
Apr 10

Japanese Whaling Meat Finds Its Way to the US

A controversial subject for decades has been Japan’s decision to engage in annual whale hunts for what it deems a scientific program, a study to determine the status of population and species that the Japanese government insists does not significantly alter the whale population. Japan has come under fire from organizations such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund because they believe the “scientific study” is a cover—or otherwise not a legitimate enough excuse—to justify commercial whaling, as whale meat is a delicacy dish in Japan and is legally sold in fish markets as a result of these scientific expeditions. Japan’s retort has always been that the whaling is scientifically necessary and that other nations put an unjust importance on saving whales (yet accept eating other kinds of seafood) when not all species of whales are endangered.

Nevertheless, Japan is supposed to keep its whale meat sold domestically, as it is illegal to export the meat to other countries. However, recently Japan Today reported that illegal whale meat from Japan has been found in sushi restaurants in South Korea and the U.S. Interestingly, scientists could prove the meat came from Japan due to DNA testing on the sashimi meat that matches the DNA of meat sold legally in 2007 on the Japanese market; in other words, this meat was not just from the same species of whale, it was from the exact same whale.

The restaurant in the U.S. (The Hump, formerly in Santa Monica, California) was forced to close in response to the study and is facing criminal charges. The study, overseen by the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, was a private study performed by opponents of whale hunting, but their discovery of illegally exported whale meat may influence the International Whaling Commission’s consideration of making commercial whaling legal (with restrictions), which has long been an aim of Japan. Opponents of legalizing commercial whaling fear that the whale population will suffer greatly and that illegal activity will continue. However, proponents believe that commercializing and regulating the activity will help decrease the illegal trade.

Do you believe Japan should stop whaling? Do you believe in Japan’s reasoning that it’s for scientific study, particularly when whale meat is such a delicacy? Do you think that making commercial whaling legal with restrictions will help quell illegal activity or make the problem worse?