Food! Glorious Food!

I always thought that Indian cuisine topped the charts when it came to variety. But looks like Japanese food rules. I still have not tasted it but I certainly have seen most of it :)

Most restaurants here display their entire menu in glass cases outside.
This is to attract customers and whet appetites.

Its a common sight to see scores of hungry people drooling over the displays.

The Japanese have an amazing aesthetic sense and this extends to their food as well. Their food platter is a visual delight!

The food is so beautifully presented that it makes even a hardcore eggetarian like me think twice about my food preferences.

I have somehow managed to resist the urge to grab stuff from the showcase and gulum (eat) it :) And boy am I glad!

Cos instead of going "Ummmmmmmmmmmm" I would go "Haaaak Thuuuuu"!!
Yeah.. because I would be chewing some non biodegradable @#$% (read high quality plastic!).

Surpsrised! So was I when I figured out that the visual delight was actually gastronomical deceit :)
Some program on discovery enlightened me. Looks like the Japanese have perfected the art of making food replicas.

A restaurant wishing to have a model of one of its dishes first prepares that dish for the replica food company, which takes photographs and makes sketches of each item's placement on the plate. The sketches are then whisked to the factory where the actual food is dipped in silicon. When the silicon dries, the food is popped free, leaving exact-size molds for hamburger patties, deep-fried prawns, spring rolls or whatever the dish requires. Replica artists then prepare sauces and garnishes flawlessly matched with the photographs.

Cool huh? All this does not come cheap. Each piece of the silicon food can cost upto 90$, and an entire menu display a couple thousand dollars. Each of these displays can actually be considered a work or art.

So Dessert anyone ;)

These are real..I guess :)