Most of us have probably spotted, at least in some Asian restaurants, plastic food. Rather than posting photos of dishes, they create a plastic models of the food being offered. This has become especially popular in Japan as foreign foods - those without Japanese names and impossible to translate like enchilada or lasagne - are offered more widely.
The Republic recently ran a story on this topic, pointing out that while these creations have become popular especially with tourists visiting Japan who can see what they're ordering, the increased accuracy can be offputting. Some these are becoming so life-like they're revealing details in the food that maybe you don't want to see.
The question that occurred to us - should these models be imported to non-Asian cuisine? After all, the need to translate foreign terms is worldwide. And while the models can be quite expensive - at $100 - apparently they can also be rented, which certainly makes changing a menu easier. So we thought we'd ask - would you be receptive to substituting written menus with plastic models? After all, some menus these days are so over the top with describing the dish in suffocating detail, maybe this could be a cure for the hyperbole?
1 comment
FuzzyChef
Historically, using wax models of dishes started in Tokyo in the 50's, when the city was flooded with Americans and Chinese ex-pats; it wasn't that the food was foreign, the diners were.