食品サンプル (shokuhin sanpuru) Food Sample

A mouse cover

日本の文化 (nihon no bunka) Japanese Culture 8

食品サンプル (shokuhin sampuru)  Food Sample

 Sample food was originally made as a way of attracting customers who could see it in a glass case outside of restaurants and imagine what they wanted to eat. In the Taisho Period, some one hundred years ago, the sample food was made of wax but these days the ingredients are plastic and silicone.

They look like real!!

Samples of a crepe

 It is helpful and indispensable not only for foreigners but also for Japanese people especially when we cannot decide what kind of food we want to eat in a restaurant area where there are a variety of Japanese food restaurants such as Washoku-ya, Udon-ya, Soba-ya, Tonkatsu-ya, Ramen-ya in addition to multinational food restaurants. It's very nice that you can easily draw a picture in your mind of your food and the amount you want and then decide a meal before you get in and hear "Irasshaimase" from a restaurant worker.
                                                                                                                           
 You can buy mini versions of sample food on key chains and phone straps for souvenirs.